Retirement Planning

The power of compounding: Use this knowledge to plot your road map to wealth.

An alarming number of Americans aren’t saving for retirement. They may have “predicted the rain,” but for whatever reason they haven’t gotten around to “building the ark.”

If you’re planning for retirement, it won’t take long before you come across the 4% safe withdrawal rate which goes something like this:

If you’ve got $200,000 in retirement savings, and a sense of adventure, here are 10 safe and affordable countries from south of the U.S. border where you can comfortably kick back and enjoy your golden years.

There is an obscure, almost hidden problem in the financial system: public employee pension funds across America are suffering extensive market losses and putting the retirements of the workers they are supposed to protect at high risk.

When the government goes further into debt the biggest problem isn’t that it places a burden on future generations, since the debt will never be repaid anyway. The biggest problem is the immediate dampening effect it has on economic progress.

This post looks at the 4% rule to understand why it works so well in retirement, what could possibly be a stumbling block and how to overcome such a situation should it arise.

If you’re within a decade of retirement, it may be time to think hard about how much stock exposure is enough. The answer might be less than you think for a portfolio in distribution phase.

How does your savings account stack up to the average American’s? How about the top 1 percent’s?

According to a recent Vanguard study, the right financial advisor can add up to 3.75% of value to your portfolio but, with 310,000 investment advisors in the United States, how do you find one that is independent and that will serve your interests?