Your Annual Financial To-Do List Things you can do before & for 2015. What financial, business or life priorities do you need to address for 2015? Now is a good time to think about the investing, saving or budgeting methods you could employ toward specific objectives. Some year-end financial moves may prove crucial to the pursuit of those goals as well. What can you do to lower your 2015 taxes? Before the year fades away, you have plenty of options. [...]
Accentuating the Positive Retiring? Saving for retirement? Here’s some good news. Are 90% of articles written about retirement pessimistic? Sometimes it seems that way. Repeatedly, we are reminded that most baby boomers haven’t saved enough for the future. There’s no denying this, but the media is giving short shrift to other, more positive developments that may be improving the economic and retirement outlook for many Americans. Here are a few worth noting. 401(k) savings have rebounded tremendously from Great Recession [...]
IRS Raises Retirement Plan Contribution Limits Roth & traditional IRAs won’t get 2015 COLAs, but other plans will. A little inflation means a little adjustment. As the Consumer Price Index is up 1.7% over the last 12 months, the federal government is giving Social Security benefits a 1.7% boost for 2015 and lifting annual contribution limits on key pension plans as well.1 401(k), 403(b), 457 & TSP annual contribution limits increase by $500. You will be able to defer up [...]
Couples Retiring on the Same Page Agreeing about what you want from retirement is crucial. What does a good retirement look like to you? Does it resemble the retirement that your spouse or partner has in mind? It is at least roughly similar? The Social Security Commission currently projects an average retirement of 19 years for a man and 21 years for a woman (assuming retirement at age 65). So sharing the same vision of retirement (or at least respecting [...]
Gauging Your Financial Well-Being Six signs that you are in good shape. How well off do you think you are financially? If your career or life takes an unexpected turn, would your finances hold up? What do you think will become of the money you’ve made and saved when you are gone? These are major questions, and most people can’t answer them as quickly as they would like. It might help to think about six factors in your financial life. [...]