Saving and Investing

Retirement is something we should all be planning for. If we live long enough, we’ll all get to the point where we’ll be ready to stop working and start settling into a more relaxed life. However these days, it’s becoming more and more difficult to depend on pensions and Social Security to help you sustain… Read More

As a general rule, savers should not touch the money that they put away in 401k or IRA accounts for retirement. Not only is there a penalty for withdrawing funds early, but anything taken out of those accounts will mean less money available when you need it to finance your retirement. But sometimes people run… Read More

There has been much written about the fact that the majority of Americans are not saving nearly enough to finance their retirements. On average, the typical working family headed by someone 55-64 years of age has only about $104,000 saved. More than half of all families will run out of money at some point during… Read More

In his State of the Union speech last Tuesday, President Obama proposed tax breaks for college saving accounts known as 529 plans. A week later, that major policy proposal is dead, dropped by the administration in the face of opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike, as well as state treasurers, financial firms, educational institutions and… Read More

Investing should be a no brainer for Americans of any age. It is the best way to grow your wealth over the course of your lifetime. But the combination of a recent market collapse and a lack of knowledge, especially among the youngest professionals, have led to a much lower percentage of people who invest… Read More

Young people today are coming of age in a difficult environment. Those in their 20s graduated from college and joined a working world that was still struggling to recover from one of the worst financial breakdowns of all time. And it can be hard for many just to find solid work in the field of… Read More

New investors are confronted with a lot of different tips and theories and strategies for choosing the right investments. One oft-heard suggestion is to invest in dividend paying stocks, stocks of publicly traded companies that return some of their profits to shareholders in the form of dividends. And the reasoning behind this strategy is deeper… Read More

Bankrate.com, a personal finance website, recently surveyed over one thousand adults across a variety of ages and found some disturbing information. Over a third of them, fully 36%, had nothing saved for retirement. That’s bad enough, but when you break it down into the different age groups, it gets worse. 14% of people 65 and… Read More

Want to retire early? A recent article published by USA Today may have the secrets that can help you get there. But the secret isn’t really a secret. First, you need to calculate exactly how much money you will need in retirement, factoring in the added time you will have when you do retire early. Then,… Read More

Would you retire early if you could? Most people would say yes. And Joe Udo, writing for Yahoo Finance, cites five ways you can tell if you are ready to retire early. It starts with calculating your retirement cashflow. You will still need a steady stream of money coming in to support yourself during your… Read More