What is going on with Americans?  Seriously I ask this question, as I read an article about a survey done about American’s views on retirement.  43% of Americans have less than $10k saved for retirement.  While 54% have less than $25k saved for retirement.  This seems totally surreal to me.  I mean wow.
Financial planners say [...]

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Is it time to convert old IRAs, 401ks, etc to a Roth IRA?  2010 is the only year where there is no income limit on converting your old accounts into a Roth IRA.
Let’s start with what’s a Roth IRA?  It’s a retirement account which any individual with earned income can open.  For couples, even if [...]

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Last month MP Dunleavy wrote an interesting article called “How $10 could save your retirement.”  Every dollar you save now will be worth $16 in 36 years, the approximate time you may be retiring.  So every dollar spent could be worth a lot!  According to the investment rule of 72 and assuming a high 8% [...]

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A question people always ask is, should I stop retirement contributions when I am getting out of debt?   And the general answer is usually split down the middle.  You have people who say yes, and those who say no.
Here’s my take to that statement.  You always have to save for retirement.  You have to get [...]

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So why do pensions fail?  Have you ever actually seen an example of what happens with a pension?  How it works?  How it is funded?  Why it is unsustainable?  Have you ever seen someone’s pension statement?  Why can’t the system work?
I’m going to explain exactly why a pension fails.  I have had the opportunity to [...]

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Time Magazine had an article called “it’s time to retire the 401k“.  The article says the “401k is a lousy idea, financial flop, and a rotten repository for our retirement reserves.”   From the end of 2007 to March 2009, the balances in 401ks had dropped 31%.  Oh boy!
But here’s a statement in the article that [...]

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On a message board I read, someone decided to post a question, asking how will the Federal Government fix Social Security and Medicare?  He suggested that the Federal Government will come in and take everyone’s 401k.  This was something he’d read in a book by Larry Burkett. Basically a huge SCARE tactic.
First, NO WAY, NO [...]

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My cousin is just starting out his first job.  Advice from his parents, friends, and family?  Start saving for retirement.  But no one is giving him any help other than invest now, the market is low.
So should he do a Roth IRA or 401k?  Well a Roth IRA is great if you qualify for it. [...]

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An interested blog post from US News was published called “Should saving for retirement be required?”  It asks the question whether to institute an automatic Individual Retirement Account (IRA).  Currenly only about 50% of the population has a retirement account.  This is referred as a universal IRA, but individuals are allowed to opt out.  Some [...]

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30 years ago pretty much everyone retired with a pension.  It didn’t matter if they were a private business or a government worker.  Everyone had something.  Sure, the government or civil servants had more, but they earned less.  This new recession we’re in has caused a new problem.  These past 30 years private companies have [...]

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