Think all workers can participate in a retirement plan? Think again! According to a 2019 study by the Pension Rights Center* out of 139 million full and part-time workers, only 56% are participating in a work sponsored retirement plan. Only 12% of employers with less than 100 employees even offer a 401(k) plan**. As…
Have Suze Orman, Jim Kramer, or Dave Ramsay ever encouraged you to use the back door? No, not a sexy affair with a finance celebrity! I’m talking about a Backdoor Roth Contribution. First, some basics Roth IRAs allow you to contribute up to $6,000 per year ($7,000 if you are aged 50+) to an…
Am I worried about the upcoming election? Sure, who wouldn’t be? No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, you likely think your guy not winning spells the end of the country. That’s not my particular worry. The US has survived bad presidents before, and it will again. No, my concern is how…
Nothing makes me more stressed than listening to Alison Janey on those Kaiser Permanente commercials encouraging preventative care so that we all “Thrive.” She’s a highly paid actress. What about the rest of us who worry about our money lasting through retirement? First, a terminology lesson. Life Expectancy, a term that’s used a…
Annuities are a big business. In 2019 $57.8billion in annuities were sold according to the Insured Retirement Institute. What’s the appeal? First, let’s remember that there are many kinds of annuities: Fixed, variable, immediate, and deferred are the main categories. There are about 1,000 permutations under those categories. Second, I don’t sell any…
The financial services industry has for years been collectively handwringing about how to measure clients’ real feelings about stock market volatility. The problem starts with the language we use. It continues with the overconfidence of people when markets are good. When the stock market is climbing, everyone is an investing genius and has no…
Some people really want to retire. Umbrella drinks on the beach, unlimited time to knit, tee times during non-peak hours, and never skiing on a weekend again. Sounds great, right? Not for everyone. More and more, clients tell me they don’t really want to retire. After all, retirement is what old people do, and…
Clients sometimes ask me what they are not thinking about when it comes to retirement planning. Mostly, they’ve thought about a lot, but there are a few things that can surprise you. Unreimbursed medical expenses. Yes, retirees dread health care costs, but it seems like kind of an amorphous worry, not one that gets…
Over the past 15 months, I have been in a LOT of family therapy. And the one thing I have learned is that when a person is feeling strong emotions (fear, anger, insecurity), the rational part of their brain (the pre-frontal cortex) literally is not working. It physically gets no energy and just shuts off.…
So, you’ve seen all the newsletters advising you not to panic and sell as the stock market loses 20% in a week. You may even hear investment folks encouraging you to buy stocks if you have any cash. But, as you watch your accounts drop each day, you can’t help feeling like buying more and…
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