The Complete Retirement Planner Blog

There are countless articles written every day offering insights and advice about financial/retirement planning. With so much information available you would think that anyone interested in reading those articles could easily become an expert (near expert?) on the subject. The problem - and I'm sorry to say this - is that many of the people writing those articles are hardly well informed on the subject. Many have no financial credentials and are just piecing together random quotes from their sources and presenting generalizations and half-truths as "rules" and best practices to follow. They may have good intentions, but it makes...

A financial retirement plan covers a lot of ground, and the more variables that are included the more reliable the plan will be. But you can't forget that what you are ultimately doing is trying to forecast the future, which we all know is an exercise in frustration. That doesn't mean that it isn't worthwhile - it's important to to be as prepared as possible so that you can take steps to protect yourself - you just need to keep in mind that things will likely not turn out as you expect. As the saying goes, "Hope for the best,...

When planning for retirement, the first question on everyone's mind is, "How much money will be needed to fund a comfortable retirement?". That makes sense, but how you arrive at that number is far more important than the number itself. With all of the  moving parts of a financial plan, most involving forecasts of what is likely to occur in the future, being realistic and conservative with your expectations will ultimately determine how reliable your results will be. In addition, financial calculators that ask only 5-6 questions, or "planners" on financial sites that ask a few additional questions, will in...

If you’ve ever spoken with a financial adviser about retirement, they probably suggested running a Monte Carlo simulation program to help determine how financially prepared you are. These programs randomly combine historical outcomes (annual market returns for the most part) with personal financial data to arrive at a probability of success (i.e. that you won’t run out of money in retirement). Telling clients that the program runs thousands of scenarios to arrive at this information sounds like it is a very thorough, and, therefore, accurate, process. But there are a few problems. To begin with, not all of these programs...

Whether you are working on a financial plan, or actually getting close to retiring, one of the biggest retirement decisions you will have to make is when you will start to claim Social Security benefits. There are more considerations than you may be aware of, especially if you are married, and choosing the best strategy will require some careful thought. In some cases, it may even be advantageous to use some of your retirement savings to help pay expenses (if needed) for a year or two in order to delay claiming until you will be able to receive your full...