I read all the time people asking on blogs, message boards, and even in real life, “Should I reduce my retirement contributions to pay off debt?”  I cannot emphasize what a HORRIBLE statement that is.
It’s funny that when getting out of debt, people view retirement as free money to be cut and used for debt repayment.  [...]

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A person wrote in to Walter Updegrave here, asking “I’ve been saving for retirement for over 10 years and at 34 have $160k saved, but I now have less than I did one year ago. Have I been a fool in my diligence?”
Walter’s response was no.  He says it’s better to have saved the $160k [...]

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Is it wise to retire in a down market?  Does it hurt your portfolio and make the risk too large to overcome if you are going to survive for 30 or 40 years?  T.Rowe Price writes up a nice article about what to do if you are thinking about retiring in a down market.
The article [...]

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This past year inflation has been eating at everyone’s salaries.  For people on a fixed income, retirees, this hit probably has been tougher than most.  On 7/1/2008 my mom was told that the union was refused when they asked for a cost of living raise.  Instead they will continue on the set raise of 2%/annually.
What [...]

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The newest retirement vehicle is a Roth 401k.  Like the Roth IRA, you contribute after tax dollars up to $15.5k/year into a retirement account and it comes out tax free when you retire.  Thus you are able to actually save more than in a regular 401k, depending on your tax bracket.  Not many companies offer [...]

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What’s the best way to take a pension?  The question was asked in Money Magazine.  Should you take a lump sum and manage it yourself or should you take a monthly payout for life?
An interesting question and one which many boomers getting ready to retire I’m sure are wondering.  A lot depends on your health, [...]

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This is an amusing article by the New York Times.  It suggests that there are 8 reasons that Generation Xers and younger will not be inheriting as much money as previous generations.  And those who did expect to inherit might be sorely disappointed.
First the article suggests that people are living longer.  Thus their retirement savings [...]

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What is going onnow in the US?  Haven’t we learned anything from the housing boom and crash?  That our homes are not ATMs?  That we can’t keep cashing out equity to pay for our lifestyles?
Apparently not.  Here the New York Times presents an article where people are now able to get a Visa Debit Card [...]

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Money Magazine wrote an article called America’s Debt Crush here, with 9 couples and their problems with debt and what they are doing to get out. 
I can definitely relate to the first couple Brittany Bellessa!  It’s wondering if we made a mistake in buying a home and wondering if we shouldn’t have rented instead?  The [...]

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So what happened this month?  Things were not good for our networth that’s for sure.  We kept our cash steady mostly because we still owe another $3k for DH’s next summer course paid for yesterday.  But we unfortunately lose $5k of 5% of our retirement portfolio.  Not a huge deal when you look long term, [...]

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