Plan Sponsors Ask…
Q. We’d like to bolster our 401(k) plan participation and contribution numbers. What are some of the reasons people don’t participate or don’t contribute enough?
A. That has been the subject of recent research by the Pew Charitable Trusts. They looked at employer and employee perspectives on saving, and made some interesting findings. Read More »
Feeling Squeezed? Here’s Help to Catch Up on Retirement Savings
If you’re part of GenX, and feeling the pinch of being part of the Sandwich Generation, too, you may be falling behind in your retirement savings…but these tips can help you retire successfully.
Many members of Generation X, who are now in their 40s and 50s, were hit harder by the Great Recession and are still catching up financially.
This so-called Sandwich Generation also faces challenges in getting ahead financially while caring for their parents and children.
It’s not too late for Gen Xers to make up for lost time when it comes to their retirement savings, experts say. But many will need to undergo a reality check in order to make real progress.
Click here for more.
Married Women Make This Mistake with their Social Security; Are You?
A big gender gap exists in Social Security wealth because of married women’s retirement decisions, a National Bureau of Economic Research study found.
“Women tend to marry older men and to retire around the same time as their husbands even though they also live longer, on average, than men and may have had shorter careers because of childbearing.
By retiring early, the paper says, women often forego both substantial future earnings and significant amounts of prospective Social Security benefits that they would have received if they had worked longer.”
Click here to read the full article from Michael Fischer.
We’re Going to Tell You the Top 6 Things No One Tells You About Retirement
According to The Motley Fool‘s Chuck Saletta, “To make your retirement years truly golden, understand what may be coming your way. Many of us look forward to retirement as the reward for a lifetime of hard work. While the post-work years can truly be golden for those who plan for them, many retirees are caught off guard by the facts of their new life.”
Click here to read about six important issues you should know about before you leave the working world for good.
How Important Are Retirement Savings? very, verrrry, VERY!!
How important is saving for retirement? The Social Security Administration’s new study makes the answer pretty clear: very.
The biennial “Income of the Aged” report released this spring examines the retirement income of more than 34 million households, married and single, to produce a financial snapshot of those 65 and older in 2014, the most recent available data.
Savers have nearly doubled the annual income in retirement than nonsavers.
When a household is reduced to one person, income may decrease dramatically.
Income often decreases as a household ages.
Click here to read more about why savings now matter, especially for women.
You Can’t Afford to “Wing It” When It Comes to Retirement!
Having a written plan makes it more likely you will stick to your plan.
You’ve heard this before: Failing to plan is planning to fail. This couldn’t be more true than when it comes to retirement. According to a recent survey conducted by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies (TCRS), more than one-third (37 percent) of workers don’t have any strategy for their retirement. These people are truly winging it…leaving their futures to chance.
The study also found that almost half (47 percent) of all workers have a strategy, but it’s not written down. Such a plan is better than nothing, but most likely it’ll be incomplete.
Fewer than one in five workers (16 percent) have a written plan, which is ideal. Research in behavioral economics shows that having a written strategy increases a person’s commitment to carrying out the plan.
So what should go into a successful retirement strategy? Read more, and check out additional links, from MoneyWatch’s Steve Vernon.
