Rules (uh…suggestions) for Retirement
As the information for this post was being gathered and arranged, I noted several similar titles. “8 Rules to a Better Life.” “11 Healthy Rules to Live By.” “15 Rules for a Happier Life.” “16 Simple Rules for a Successful & Fulfilling Life.” Then, someone found a way to prevent anyone from “one upping them” by writing, “50 rules to LIVE by if you want a positive [...]
Have World Events Increased Your Retirement Worries? – Some Expenses Go Down in Retirement
Five short months ago, many began the new year thinking “2020 is going to be my year!” We began with such optimism. Now many of wonder, “When will sports return?”, “When will we be able to watch new TV programming that is NOT a news show?”, “When will the COVID-19 virus end?”, and maybe “Will I ever be able to buy toilet tissue and paper towels again?” [...]
Rollovers, Direct Rollovers, & Trustee Transfers – Oh my!
From the mailbag comes a question for the day. “I have a 403b account at the ministry where I work. I get a housing allowance. I know, when I retire, I can designate my withdrawals as Housing Allowance. If I move the money from the 403b envelope to an IRA can I still get a Housing Allowance?” The specific question raised is part of a more general [...]
“I can afford the payment” – A double edged sword
One of the great threats to financial freedom is debt. It handcuffs the young, increasing stresses that come naturally from beginning careers and building families. It burdens those in their greatest earning years, eliminating desirable options from life’s choices. It prevents seniors from pursuing the dreams and passions they envisioned over the years. One of the better questions we can learn to ask concerning major purchases is, [...]
The question is “How much income can your savings provide?” NOT “What is your account balance?”
May we begin with the admission that saving, investing, and planning for retirement is difficult? An overwhelming number of people stop planning for their senior years due to increasing weariness from peering through the fog of investment assumptions, account choices, and conflicting advisor recommendations! The result has been an increasing number who plan to never retire. Most continue to enjoy what they do, so why not focus [...]
Small steps today will create significant differences later in life!
How do you want to spend "the rest of your life"? Quite honestly, we can answer that for everyone. We all have things in life about which we are passionate, and we want to spend our lives on those things when it is time to change gears. No matter how old we are, no matter how much income we have earned, no matter what level of education we have [...]
Where Will Your Income Come From in Retirement?
Last week we focused upon the basic question anyone needs to ask about retirement. “What income will I need when I cannot, or will not, be involved in full time work?” Everyone will come to a point in time when the skills and abilities diminish to a point others may do our job better. No one escapes the aging process, and some will experience this earlier and [...]
What Income Will You Need & Have in Retirement?
Have You Calculated Your Retirement Need? A rule-of-thumb that many have used to plan for retirement is that an individual or family will need 70% of their pre-retirement income to sustain the quality of life in their retirement years. That was the conclusion of The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College as they sought a proper income replacement amount.1 Barry S. Warner, CEO of Informed Family [...]
If Your Goal Is Flexibility…You Need to be Unbending
Over the recent past, I have had the opportunity to have many conversations with a cross section of people about their individual financial situations. That is not unexpected when you are serving as the CEO/Administrator of a Pension Plan, served for more than a decade in the financial services industry, and in ministry. One of the primary questions asked is, “Am I (Will I be) in a [...]
Should Ministers Opt Out of Social Security? A Definitive Answer….maybe
How Did We Get to Where We Are? The relationship between Social Security and those serving in ministry has been a difficult and confusing one. Should ministers opt out of Social Security or not? Until 1951, those serving in nonprofit organizations were not allowed to participate in the government sponsored program. In that year things changed, and ministers were given the option of entering the Social Security [...]
The terms don’t matter. Answers matter!
Last week, we began by looking at a 2015 survey that analyzed the personal financial situations of more than 4,000 pastors across the USA. Grey Matter Research & Consulting concluded that an alarming number of pastoral families suffer financial stress.1 More recently, GuideStone Financial Resources released a report detailing four mistakes ministry families commonly make that sabotage their financial well being.2 Whether someone labels mistakes as sabotage [...]
The Christian Churches Pension Plan is Stewardship For Your Future
The NEED for Personal Stewardship In 2015, a survey was commissioned to study the personal and congregational financial situations of more than 4,000 pastors across the USA. The results were, in a word, alarming. Ninety-two percent identified a lack of retirement savings as a major personal concern. Thirty percent reported having absolutely no personal savings, either emergency or retirement. Seventy-six percent knew others who had left the [...]