Retirement Planning

If a change of scenery in your later years sounds appealing, the most important question to consider is, "Why?" It's easy to romanticize the benefits of living in a different city so, before you start packing boxes, here are four key questions that'll help make sure you're relocating for all the right reasons.

Should you save for retirement or pay off credit card debt? If you're carrying a card balance, you may be wrestling with whether to put all your resources into attacking the debt, or start building your retirement nest egg while you slowly pay off debt. To figure out which scenario is better in a given situation, we've done the math for you.

Transitioning to retired life on a fixed income will undoubtedly have a few bumps in the road. This is a brand-new chapter of life for you, and it's reasonable to expect some challenges ahead. The last thing you want to do, however, is compromise your nest egg with costly, easily avoidable mistakes. After all, you need that money to get you through the rest of your life. As such, consider these costly mistakes of the newly retired so you don't follow suit.

Millennials had one of the most optimistic upbringings in history, but it feels like they’re just being saddled with crisis after crisis. Here’s the latest one, from the World Economic Forum (WEF). The international body has published a white paper warning that global expectations need to change quickly, as the world is facing a massive retirement shortfall. By the organization’s calculations, they estimate that this potential crisis needs a whopping US$427.8 trillion dollars to correct. They might as well have said a bajillion dollars.

The goal is to have the right asset mix when your target-date fund hits its target but this leads to the big question: What do you do when your target-date fund finally does reach this endpoint?

All investors think they are better in their investing than the average investor and such overconfidence can get you into trouble with your finances. It can cause you to take risks you shouldn't, and to ignore information that disagrees with pre-existing biases. It's tough to combat, because most overconfident people are also convinced they are not overconfident!

Combining your passion for social and environmental causes with the need to build for your future could give new energy to your retirement planning regardless of your age.

Buying a new car doesn't make much sense when you look at it from a financial perspective. Frankly, you could come out $1 million dollars ahead driving used instead of buying new over a span of 40 years. Yes, over $1 million dollars!

There is a really big crisis coming. It isn’t just municipalities that are in trouble, but also most of the public and private pensions that still operate in the country today. It’s an unsolvable problem. It will happen, and it will devastate many Americans. It is just a function of time.

The prospect of working full-time one day and then heading into a complete retirement the next doesn't work for everyone. Instead, many chose what is known as a "phased" retirement. Here are four reasons why you might choose this nontraditional retirement path.