Helpful Articles
Planning, Pre Retirement
Saving is a Virtue. Most of us are saving far too little. This article considers some of the history behind savings rates and the reasons why we must now save more.
Pre Retirement Planning—At Various Stages. This article suggests very important things to do when 15, 10 and 5 years from retirement. It's got somewhat different points than similar articles on this subject and should be a must-read for Boomers. It's good advice to send to those you know in one of these stages.
Working in Retirement: How much can you spend from your working wages? This article presents some practical considerations
Are you prepared to retire—health wise? Here’s some good advice that will save you lots of money in retirement and greatly enhance your retirement lifestyle.
Advice to My Grandchildren. This paper describes financial and social attributes that I've learned are important for a successful life. You might consider something similar for your children or grandchildren.
Don't forget the ladies. Most people preparing for retirement wait too long to think about survivor's benefits. There are many women well into their eighties or nineties who can testify that their lifestyle changed abruptly after their husband's death because of financial difficulties that might have been avoided or abated.
Are your retirement savings on track? Here is a simple calculation where you multiply one number on a chart times your current wage to get rough estimate if you have saved enough to date for retirement--as well as see what you might do to improve your prospects!
Baby Boomer's One-Page Planner. Many people don't want to use a computer or download a program to do retirement planning. This step-by-step planner will give you better answers than most of the retirement planners on the Web. All you need is a pencil and the one-page planner plus your current saving balance, last Social Security forecast and a few financial pieces of information if applicable. Try it out.
Ten Steps To A Better Financial Future. Make a financial plan, use automatic payroll deductions to save, stick with a sound allocation plan, pay attention to financial costs, learn from your own and other’s mistakes, keep emergency reserves, consider downsizing home, get some financial education, get professional help when needed, and prepare your family for your death.
How Much Income Will I Need in Retirement? This article exposes the fallacy of developing a retirement plan based on using 70% to 80% of your working income. If you are over 40 years old and not yet retired, you can get a much better estimate of your retirement needs.
Selecting a Program for Retirement Planning (PDF File)*. Watch out for
Financial Dynamics Improves Lifelong Planning (PDF File)*. This technical article describes the
background used for a presentation to the National Association of Personal
Financial Advisors in the October 24, 2003 regional conference in
Provident Living. This article points toward the urgency to do some financial planning to avoid a destitute and dreary retirement. It's aimed at the baby boomers' problems but other generations will be affected as well.
Mad as H,E, doubleQ! (PDF File) *. Reader’s Digest, as well as financial sources that should know better, advocate planning methods that knowingly give optimistic retirement projections thereby misleading people into thinking their savings are sufficient. The article explains some of the main fallacies.
Saving for Retirement (PDF File)*. Here is a simple method for a person to estimate how much to save for retirement. It’s only a rough estimate, but it has more realism than many of the commercial programs touted by the financial industry. It’s not a good idea to spend very little time in planning for retirement which could well be about one-third of your life, but if you are so inclined take a look at this.
Do-It-Yourself Retirement Spreadsheets (PDF File). Almost everyone who knows how to make a spreadsheet tries to do self-planning for retirement. If you are one of these, the article will help you do a better job and give you better perspective with some common-sense.
Retirement Planning: Morticians vs. Obstetricians. This article will help give you some perspective that’s between the view of pessimists (Morticians) and optimists (Obstetricians).
The Biggest Retirement Planning Myth. Almost all planning methods include some very unrealistic and hidden assumptions. This article shows the huge effect that these things have on retirement forecasts. Unlike most articles on this site, this article is for professionals or those who understand financial planning equations.