How Financially Sound Is Your Pension?
From The Gold Standard To a Vague Memory The defined benefit pension plan was once the gold standard of retirement benefits. It was offered by the best employers, sought by virtually every employee, and the center of many difficult contract negotiations. “There once was a time when…you could expect to be rewarded for your loyalty and hard work with a gold watch and a steady stream of [...]
Prepared for Retirement Part 4 – A Different View of Retirement
Harkening back to the days of childhood (some 5 decades plus ago), there was a common theme among the families of our neighborhood. Our neighborhood was eclectic, including textile mill laborers, small business owners, school teachers and principals, salesmen in local stores, as well as managers and owners of textile mills. Parents ranged from high school dropouts to graduates of Duke University. However, there was a common [...]
Prepared for Retirement Part 3 – A Lesson in Construction Management
Constructing an income stream for retirement is not unlike constructing a residence or commercial structure. An architect and contractor must understand the challenges presented by the regional geology and specific soil composition around the building. Possession of this critical knowledge guides the decisions about materials used and changes that must be made in the construction process. One of the great risks that may undermine anyone’s retirement cash [...]
Prepared for Retirement Part 2 – Knowing the Goal
What is my goal in retirement planning? I have found many questions suggested about retirement planning. Where will you want to live in retirement (beach, where you call home now, the desert)? Do you intend to continue working? How much will your hobby activities cost each month? Will you be financially assisting children, grandchildren, or other family members? Do you, or your spouse, have health issues requiring [...]
Prepared for Retirement Part 1 – Seeing clearly
Removing the clouds that have us blind On June 7, Michael Fischer asked, “How Prepared for Retirement Are American Workers?”1 According to the 2017 Aegon Retirement Readiness Survey, the American public compares favorably among fifteen nations spanning Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Ranking second behind only India, U.S. workers exhibited, “a medium level of readiness.”2 Still, there were challenging statistics reported throughout the survey. While 89% [...]
Money & Ministry – A Challenging Combination
Concerning numbers for a majority of ministers I remember a conversation between a local church elder and a Bible College President some decades ago. The elder suggested to the President that the curriculum should include money management, because a sufficient number of those serving in ministry were showing either bad financial judgement or a lack of understanding the implications of growing debt. The President responded that he [...]
A lifetime income promise encourages more savings
What will spur people to increase their saving for retirement? There is a documented belief that individuals in the United States are failing to sufficiently save for retirement. Financial authors and planners continue searching for the emotional trigger that will spur people to save more. On May 4, Jamie Kalamarides of Prudential Retirement proposed that the possibility of a lifetime income will motivate people to save more [...]
Retirement Savings Crisis? Does It Matter?
You like to-may-toes and I like to-mah-toes… The Wall Street Journal recently published an article in which two experts examine the same data about retirement savings, coming to widely divergent opinions.1 Anne Tergesen interviewed Alicia Munnell, director of Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research, and Andrew Biggs, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Munnell believes that virtually one-half of today’s working households will find it impossible [...]
If Uncle Sam & Aunt IRS offered a retirement plan…
Hard Facts cannot be ignored. There are some difficult facts about retirement saving that must not be ignored. According to data from the “2017 Finances in Retirement Report” compiled by Merrill Lynch and Age Wave, 81% of Americans have no idea how much they will need in retirement. Those who have given thought to this believe that a minimum of 25% of disposable income should be. Unfortunately, [...]
Leaks sink boats and retirements!
It began with a ride to the office. This morning, the car dealer’s service department had an employee shuttle me to the office. They had to determine what went wrong with my air-conditioning at the time they repaired my windshield washers. The driver and I exchanged pleasantries about why we non-natives were living in the area. My new acquaintance was brought to town by one of the [...]
Why are we being told retirement is more expensive?
Why indeed? Just over one month ago, the Retirement Ahead blog addressed retirement as the most expensive purchase of a lifetime. Merrill Lynch has documented that retirement will require 9 times the cost of a four year college education and nearly 3 times more than the value of the average home.1 This funding gap is not new, and it has widened over many years. However a new, [...]
Draining the Social Security Swamp!
Some say the US Treasury will go bankrupt without changes. On the Christian Churches Pension Plan Facebook page, we recently shared advice from GuideStone Financial Services noting the risks ministers accept when they opt out of Social Security.1 One minister responded, “I opted out many years ago when the thinking was that Social Security would not be around anyway. I was advised by my CPA who specialized [...]