A new study suggests that investing your retirement money half in bonds and half in stocks will produce 5% annual returns like clockwork, despite bumps in the economy. But is this a smart strategy for everyone? No.
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Retirement
How to Fix Your 401(k) Plan
As the traditional pension disappears, the 401(k) plan is evolving into something that one day might actually be just as good. That’s saying a lot. The certainty of monthly income for life, which traditional pensions promise, is a high bar. Meanwhile, 401(k) plans have taken their licks.
What We Can Learn from a Legendary Fund Manager’s Retirement
In the end, Bill Miller was doing what he had always done. But it stopped working, and now the legendary mutual fund manager is retiring. His inglorious departure from Legg Mason Value Trust offers a telling lesson in the perils …
8 Money Habits That Separate Doers From Dreamers
When it comes to securing financial security, are you a doer or a dreamer? By definition, financial doers have a better shot at reaching their retirement goals. No real surprise, they also have a much better shot at raising …
Pension Backstop Posts Record Shortfall. Is a Bailout Next?
Put another nail in the coffin of private pensions. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government agency that insures corporate defined-benefit plans, has been running a record deficit. Now it’s sending up flares for either a taxpayer bailout or higher insurance premiums from the companies that still offer these plans. Good luck on …
Vast Majority of Middle Class Expects to Work Well Beyond Retirement Age
America’s middle class has had a rough go of things in recent years, and few in the middle anticipate life getting easier as they get older. In a new survey, three-quarters of American middle-class workers say they expect to keep working past the normal retirement age (65), and one-quarter think they’ll have to work at least until they’re 80.
Back to School? Why It Pays to Retire in a College Town
In a new survey, Coldwell Banker identifies the most and least affordable college town real estate markets. If you’re a retiree looking to downsize and stretch your nest egg, this is worth a look.
Hey, Education Secretary Duncan, Let’s Teach Kids About Money (Not Just Talk About It)
Speaking to a White House advisory group this week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan highlighted the need for schools to begin teaching students about personal finance as early as kindergarten. He’s dead on. But what’s he …
Talk About ‘Old Money’: Old Folks Got Richer, Young People Much Poorer Over the Years
We’ve all heard of how the rich have gotten richer over the past several decades—the “great divergence,” as it’s been called, in which a small portion of the population has garnered an increasingly outsized percentage of net …
Why So Many Unwisely Turn Down Free 401(k) Advice
Free advice on how to manage your 401(k) is widely available and routinely ignored. Here’s why you should give it a try.
It’s Back, not a Moment Too Soon: The 401(k) Match
When times got lean three years ago, a host of companies stopped matching employee 401(k) contributions and you had to wonder if the benefit would ever be restored. Temporary measures that pad the bottom line have a way of sticking around – like the toll on a bridge that has long since been paid for.
How to Retire in a Bear Market
A lot of folks in and near retirement are finding out the hard way what studies have long shown: Market declines are especially damaging in the years just before or after you quit work for good.