The Complete Retirement Planner Blog

Who needs a financial planning tool? If you're reading this, you do, and you're not alone. The majority of households don't have a comprehensive financial plan (they should), primarily because they don't have a planning tool capable of helping them to create one. This means that they are relying on guesses, assumptions, and/or generic benchmarks and rules of thumb for their financial planning. That's not good. Would every household benefit from having a financial plan? Absolutely. There is no better way to understand what you can, should, and should not do to achieve financial security, and to be as prepared...

For 401k and IRA accounts, the current annual contribution limit is $23,500 and $7,000 respectively. If you are age 50 or older, you also have the option to make "catch-up" contributions of an additional $7,500 to a 401k (for a total of $31,000), and an additional $1,000 to an IRA (for a total of $8,000). In addition, the 401k contribution limit for those between the ages of 60 and 63 increases another $3,750, ($34,750 total). Many people will be fortunate just to save the initial contribution amounts, but the question is, if you have the financial ability to also make...

In The Complete Retirement Planner, you have always been able to enter separate balances for Non-Retirement Cash and Invested savings (with separate interest/return rates for each). For 2025, we split the Invested savings into two categories: Short-Term and Long-Term Invested savings. The Short-Term savings category works the same as the original Invested savings, with expected investment return %'s being entered for both before and after retirement time frames to help account for any investment changes after retirement (less risk?). The annual interest/returns for cash and short-term invested savings are still taxed annually. The new Long-Term Invested savings works a little differently....

Are you one of the roughly 80% of households (per a Fidelity study) that doesn't have a written financial plan? Maybe you think that you don't need one. Maybe you have a DIY spreadsheet/back-of-the-napkin plan that you think is sufficient. Or, maybe you trust generic advice and benchmarks to guide you. If that's the case, with respect, I propose that you are doing yourself a disservice.  Regardless of your net worth or stage of life, having a comprehensive financial plan is a crucial step in assessing your current and future financial health and it provides a roadmap to becoming financially secure....

Retirement planning can certainly be overwhelming. With daily articles offering suggestions about how much to save, how much to withdraw annually from retirement accounts, how to choose when to claim Social Security, diversifying investments, if you should pay off a mortgage before retiring, etc., it can be tough to know where to start. Since you are reading this, you're headed in the right direction. However, while gathering information is important, the real goal is to take concrete steps towards being financially well prepared. You can delay retirement itself, delay claiming Social Security, and delay re-balancing your portfolio, but don't delay the...