The Complete Retirement Planner Blog
Retirement Savings Benchmarks - Even The Pros Don't Agree
The magic question when saving for retirement revolves around how much you will really need to save to have those savings last for at least 25 years (assuming that you retire at age 65). Of course, creating a comprehensive financial plan will help to answer this question with the most detail and reliabililty, but many people initially look for a quick guide to at least get the conversation started. On any given day there are countless articles focused on suggesting generic benchmarks for anyone and everyone to use as retirement savings goals, with 99% of that "information" simply being regurgitated...
Monte Carlo Simulations - Fool's Gold?
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 market outcomes for a variety of time periods (many even using the Great Depression, how helpful!) 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...
New Tax Deductions Effective This Year!
Each year, the Federal tax brackets and the Standard Deduction amount are usually adjusted for the following year. This typically happens later in the year, effective for the following year, and is announced by the I.R.S..This year, a new government bill was passed in July that will affect your 2025, current year, tax filing (and beyond)! There are still a few other updates expected in the Fall (Medicare costs, 401k/IRA contribution limits, etc.), but here is a brief re-cap of what has already changed: The I.R.S. Federal Standard Deduction amounts for each Filing Status have increased, effective for 2025: • $31,500 for Married...
8 Common Retirement Planning Oversights
Retirement planning, and financial planning in general, involves a lot of moving parts. You are already well-acquainted with many of them - income, expenses, and taxes are the most obvious - but once you start moving into the retirement phase, or at least planning for it, you have to be a bit more careful and diligent about what you think might happen going forward. When you are still working, if things don't go as planned, you have options: work longer, possibly get a promotion/raise or make bonuses to bring in more income, or even cut expenses and save more. Once...
Who Needs a Financial Planning Tool?
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...