Planning to Retire
-
Some Social Security Disability Claims Expedited
Continue reading… 8 CommentsWhen your Social Security statement arrives in the mail each year it tells you how much money you are eligible for if you become disabled. About 7,563,000 disabled workers received an average monthly benefit of $1,062 in May 2009.
-
New Oversight Proposed for Pension Insurance Agency
Continue reading… 1 CommentLegislation was introduced today to overhaul the government agency that insures private sector pensions and pays out benefits if the plan fails. The bill proposes new oversight of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) including expanding the board of directors and requiring regular meetings.
-
401(k) Matches Linked to Company Performance
Continue reading… 2 CommentsThe most common way that companies contribute to employee 401(k) accounts is to provide a fixed match. The typical match is 50 cents for each $1 the participant saves up to 6 percent of pay. But an employer is under no obligation to continue contributing the same amount or even to provide a 401(k) match at all.
-
The Baby Boomer Legacy
Continue reading… 10 CommentsThe baby boomer generation has left its imprint on every aspect of American culture. This large, but hardly cohesive, social group has presided over sweeping social changes, but also watched their own retirement prospects vanish just as they were about to claim them. So, what legacy will the baby boomers leave for future generations?
-
Would You Make Sacrifices to Retire Early?
Continue reading… 1 CommentRetiring in the near term might require a few sacrifices if you haven’t saved enough. Some people are willing to cut back on common expenses in order to be able to retire at a younger age. A recent survey found that many Americans are already spending less money by avoiding unnecessary purchases (64 percent), saving energy (57 percent), spending more time at home (57 percent), and cooking at home (51 percent). Only 6 percent of Americans say they would not sacrifice anything to save money.
-
Social Security Debit Card Gains Traction
Continue reading… 5 CommentsSocial Security recipients became eligible to get their monthly payments on a prepaid debit card last year. Over half a million Americans have now signed up for the Direct Express Debit MasterCard offered by Dallas-based Comerica Bank. The card is aimed at Social Security recipients without bank accounts who use often expensive check cashing services to process their Social Security payments.
-
Laid Off Baby Boomers Seek Entry-Level Jobs
Continue reading… 16 CommentsWhen you’re laid off at age 50 or older it can be tough to find a new job with the same level of seniority. Some out-of-work baby boomers are now applying for positions on a lower rung of the organizational ladder. The majority (63 percent) of workers age 55 and older who were laid off in the last 12 months say they have applied for jobs below the level at which they were previously employed, according to a recent online survey of 921 laid-off workers by Harris Interactive and CareerBuilder. About 44 percent of the baby boomers surveyed said employers told them they were overqualified for the desired position.
-
Study: Freeze the Pension Plan, Hurt Your Company’s Bottom Line
Continue reading… 1 CommentThe decline in companies offering traditional pensions to retirees hit a new milestone this year. Almost a third of Fortune 1000 companies have now frozen this often valuable retirement benefit. Some 190 companies on the 2009 Fortune 1000 list now have frozen their pension plan, up from 169 companies last year and just 45 companies in 2004. Generally, employees can keep what they have already earned, but won’t accrue additional retirement benefits in the plan. New hires are also generally prohibited from signing up.
-
Countries Where Seniors Are Most Likely to Work in Retirement
Continue reading… 0 CommentsDon’t want to work after age 65? I hope you live in Europe. Less than 10 percent of employees in European Union countries continue to work after age 65, according to a report released yesterday by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the U.S. Census Bureau. The proportion of people working after age 65 in the European Union ranged from just 2 percent of older men and 1 percent of women in France to 8 percent of men and 3 percent of women in Poland in 2006. Most older people in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are also able to retire by age 65. In Australia and Canada, just 12 percent of men work after age 65, as do 17 percent of New Zealand men. In the United States 20 percent of men and 12 percent of women age 65 and older go to work each day.
-
Almost Half of Workers Retire Earlier Than Planned
Continue reading… 4 CommentsMany baby boomers say they plan to work longer to allow investments time to grow and to tuck more money into retirement accounts. But almost half of current retirees didn’t retire at the age they originally intended to. Some 47 percent of retirees left the workforce earlier than planned, according to a recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates.
-
The End of Do-It-Yourself Retirement Accounts
Continue reading… 1 Comment401(k)s have long been thought of as do-it-yourself retirement accounts. Yet, employers have been playing a growing role in how much workers save and where they invest their 401(k) dollars. Many 401(k) plan sponsors now automatically enroll workers in 401(k)s unless they specifically out. A portion of each employee’s paycheck is put into an investment of the company’s choosing, typically a target-date or balanced fund. Plus, even if you have already picked funds you like, your company can shift your existing nest egg into a new default investment through a process called re-enrollment. Employees who don’t want their nest egg moved into new investments must specifically elect not to have the change made. Here’s a look at some of the ways employers are becoming increasingly involved in your retirement accounts.
-
Retirees Become More Conservative, Frugal
Continue reading… 4 CommentsBaby boomers still in the work force have some time left to boost their nest eggs. But people who retired before the recession began have less hope for recovering diminished retirement funds. Almost half of retirees (49 percent) are feeling less financially secure than when they first retired, according to a new survey. When these same 1,011 retirees ages 55 to 75 with $100,000 or more in household investable assets were interviewed in February 2008, 20 percent had less confidence in their financial prospects than they did when they first retired. Only one in four of these relatively affluent retirees are very confident they have saved enough for retirement, a 12 percentage point drop from last year.
-
Giving Financial Gifts to Grandchildren
Continue reading… 2 CommentsMost grandparents say they don’t plan to leave their children and grandchildren an inheritance, but would prefer to give smaller monetary gifts throughout their lifetime. Some 78 percent of grandparents regularly give small sums of money to their grandchildren, while only 22 percent plan to leave heirs a significant legacy, a new survey found.
-
A Quarter of Americans Still Work After Age 65
Continue reading… 1 CommentRetirement is a thing of the past for a quarter of Americans over age 65. Just over 25 percent of those between ages 65 and 74 were still working in 2008, according to the latest Census Bureau numbers. And amazingly 9 percent of Americans still go to work between ages 75 and 84. After age 85, the number still working trickles down to 3 percent or about 122,000 people who continue to hammer away at their keyboard or punch in with their time clock.
-
How Much Annual Income Do Retirees Have?
Continue reading… 10 CommentsMost retirees get income from several places. The biggest source of retirement money for most Americans is Social Security. The average Social Security recipient gets about $13,908 annually as of June 2009. But then there’s pension income, if you’re fortunate enough to get one, savings from retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and IRAs, and increasingly some form of part-time work. Less common sources of retirement income include rent, royalties, insurance products, home equity, and even an inheritance. Not everyone can or is disciplined enough to save regularly or lucky enough to inherit a nest egg. So, there is a wide diversity in retirement income. Here’s a look at the recently released Census Bureau numbers about how much money Americans age 65 and over earned annually in 2007.
-
How Safe is Your Social Security Number?
Continue reading… 6 CommentsA new study says that identity thieves may be able to use easily accessible information like your birthday and hometown listed in commercial databases, public voter registration lists, and even on social networking websites and blogs to predict your Social Security number. Two Carnegie Mellon University researchers found that an individual’s date and place of birth were sometimes sufficient to guess his or her Social Security number.
-
Older Worker Unemployment is Increasing Fast
Continue reading… 1 CommentThe unemployment rate for people age 55 and over rose from 6.7 percent in May to 7 percent in June. That’s still much lower than the 9.5 percent unemployment rate for the labor force as a whole. But unemployment among older workers grew faster in the past month than younger worker job loss. While unemployment among those under age 55 grew by just 1 percent between May and June, the number of age 55 and older unemployed grew by 4.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
-
Racial Disparities in Retirement Savings
Continue reading… 1 CommentAfrican-American and Hispanic workers are less likely to participate in their employer’s 401(k) and, when they do participate, save less for retirement than white and Asian employees, according to a new study released today. This results in a smaller nest egg for African-American and Hispanic retirement savers—even after controlling for age and income.
-
Suspending the 401(k) Match, Keeping a Pension
Continue reading… 4 CommentsWhen a company suspends its 401(k) match, it certainly hurts the retirement security of all employees. Approximately 4.4 million workers at 251 companies have lost company 401(k) contributions since the recession began. However, about half of the newly 401(k) matchless employees continue to receive another form of retirement benefits from their employer. Some 20 percent of the workers who no longer receive a 401(k) match continue to have access to a traditional pension plan and 30 percent are offered a cash-balance plan, according to a recent analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Another 16 percent of the employees without a 401(k) match work at firms with a frozen pension plan, but workers cannot accrue additional benefits and/or new employees are not allowed to join the plan. About 8 percent of the workers have an employer with both an open and a frozen traditional pension plan.
-
Paying for Health Care in Retirement
Continue reading… 3 CommentsBaby boomers who have lost their health insurance often struggle to find affordable coverage until Medicare kicks in at age 65. But even qualifying for government health insurance won’t completely quell your money worries. While Medicare is far more affordable that buying an individual health insurance policy, the program still has significant premiums and out of pocket costs for retirees.
