Financial Planning

Course corrections — whether you’re flying to the moon or sailing across an ocean or just shopping for groceries — are a necessary part of life.

Consider, for instance, the historic Apollo 11 flight plan in which there are 13 references to the term “course correction.” Without those and other course corrections, it’s unlikely the astronauts would have reached their goals of walking on the moon and then returning safely to Earth.

Read the entire article: When should you make ‘course corrections’ to your retirement plan?

Congratulations! At your 60th birthday, you’ve actually entered your seventh decade of living. We hope that you have given some thought to your retirement by now and made significant plans toward meeting your retirement goals. If so, age 60 is a good milestone to trigger a review of your retirement plans. (If not, start planning immediately, because you are rapidly running out of time.)

Now is the perfect time to think about your post-career life and take some meaningful actions. Here are six steps at 60 that can guide you toward a happy retirement.

1. Review/Create Your Retirement Plans – What does retirement mean to you? Whether it’s relaxation, travel, a second career, or some other pursuit, outline what you plan to do in retirement now that the end of your career is in sight. You need to firm up your plans in order to perform the next steps

Read the entire article: 6 Things To Do 6 Years Before Retiring

Retirement planning is hard enough, but disinformation will get you sidetracked from your goal. You’ll need to know what’s not true before you start planning. There is a lot of fake news in the retirement saving world. The truth is, President Trump, Wall Street and GOP allies are making retirement planning more difficult. They are torching investor protection rules found in the Dodd-Frank Act and cutting state offerings for small business retirement plans. And that’s just what’s been happening in the firs

Read the entire article: 4 Retirement Myths That You Need To Know

I may be in the minority, but I think that considering a reverse mortgage can, in certain instances, be a viable financial planning alternative scenario. -Jeff

It’s a problem — home-owning seniors retiring with reduced income but healthy levels of consumer and mortgage debt — that seems to contain its own solution.The solution: consider the house as an asset like the others and use it as a way of managing your financial affairs, a move that could make for a more carefree retirement.

Read the entire article: Making the case for the reverse mortgage as a retirement planning option | Financial Post

Three-quarters of plan sponsors say they will put an investment manager under review based on underperformance over one or three years, MFS finds.

Read the entire article: Retirement Plan Sponsors Have ‘Succumbed to Short-Term Pressures’: MFS

Good article and something that reiterates the point that ‘rules of thumb’ are just not appropriate for everyone. -Jeff

The 80% rule is one of the classic rules of thumb for retirement advice. Financial planners often advise that in order to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement, you should aim to replace 80% of your working income from your retirement resources such as Social Security, investment dividends, and IRA withdrawals.

From that point, you gauge the total amount of money that you need based on when you plan to retire, in other words, how many years you are likely to need income?

Read the entire article: How Much Income Will You Need For Retirement? | KOB.com

When you’ve finally arrived at the stoop of retirement, your next steps are often some of the trickiest. So much time and effort goes into reaching this milestone that what you do next is often ignored. Not intentionally, it just happens.

While the day-to-day of the next stage of your life may be unknown, what not to do is actually quite clear: Don’t invest too conservatively, don’t overspend and don’t neglect your health. Seems like common sense,

Read the entire article: 3 mistakes to avoid in your first 3 years of retirement – MarketWatch

There are several ways you can try to locate lost retirement money.

Using an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan can be a great way to save for retirement. The downside of 401(k)s, though, is that they are tied to a specific employer. As a result, when you switch jobs, your 401(k) money won’t automatically switch with you. Rather, in many cases, it will stay in your account. Below, we’ll run through

Read the entire article: How to Find Previous 401(k) Accounts — The Motley Fool