The Complete Retirement Planner Blog

The beginning of every year seems to be an especially popular time for articles about retirement planning, and the goals that you should set your sights on to be prepared. The problem is that all the "advice" that is being offered is exactly the same as what was being offered last year. And the year before, and all the years before that. The articles are just recycled and regurgitated. The same savings benchmarks by age (that most likely don't apply to you), the same withdrawal rate rule of thumb (mostly outdated or misleading), and the same assumption about replacing a...

When it comes time to assess your financial health, nothing is more important than seeing an itemized monthly budget in black and white - every single item that you spend money on - and what % of your income it represents. Seeing it all on one page makes it real, undeniable, and inescapable. You have to deal with it, and that's a good thing. You can't make intelligent decisions until you have the cold, hard facts in hand, and one of the most important budget items to examine is debt.Debt can be a serious threat to your financial security because...

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...

Required Minimum Distributions (RMD's) are often resented because they are seen as "forcing" you to sell securities from 401k/IRA savings and creating  unwanted tax liability on the distribution. Perhaps a little planning and a different perspective might help.It is true that starting at age 72 you are required to take a distribution from a Traditional 401k/IRA or from a Roth 401k (RMD's are not required for Roth IRA's). However, there are three things to keep in mind that may make this transaction more palatable:• You know in advance how much the distribution will be.• There is no requirement that any...

If you have given any thought to a savings goal for a comfortable retirement, you have also probably wondered how long it might take to reach that goal. That can depend on many factors but using the Rule of 72 is a quick and easy way to determine how long it may take for your savings to double using a specific rate of return, and then you can extrapolate from there. Contrary to what it may seem, the Rule of 72 has nothing to do with your age, or with Required Minimum Distributions (RMD's) that typically start at age 72....