One of the biggest fears faced by millions of consumers today is running out of money during retirement.
The cost of living in Puerto Rico has risen dramatically over the years and, most recently, extraordinary expenditures related to Hurricanes Irma and María have contributed to making it harder for retirees.
In Safety-First Retirement Planning: An Integrated Approach for a Worry-Free Retirement, I explain how including annuities with lifetime income protections alongside other investments can lay the foundation for a more robust retirement income plan that is less vulnerable to market downturns and outliving savings.
Everyone is eager to plan for their retirement these days. It is very common to come across individuals in their early 20s speaking seriously about their retirement plans. No, they are not talking about retiring at 30; they are talking about their plans to retire at 60 - just like their parents did. The only difference: in the absence of a government pension, they are anxious about creating a nestegg to fund their retirement life.
If the very idea of financial planning makes you break out in hives, you’re not alone. A new study found that perceived financial well-being — feeling secure about not only the state of your current situation but how well you’ve planned for the future — holds the key to your overall well-being. Your financial security can affect you as strongly as job satisfaction, relationship stability, and physical health combined.
For most of your working life, it wasn’t exactly a pressing concern. You might have pondered it for a few minutes as you skimmed your company’s benefits handout, checking to see if your new glasses were covered or if you’ll be reimbursed for your gym membership. Retirement was more like a vague, distant concept rather than something that would actually happen one day.
Then, suddenly, you hit your late 50s or early 60s and you realize, almost without being aware of it, that you’ve begun paying closer attention to those commercials about annuities, reverse mortgages and Medicare Part B, and you’re no longer reflexively tossing those AARP mailings straight into the trash.
Big gains have padded accounts, but the downside risk is larger than ever.
Here’s the good news for many people in their 60s and 70s: The long bull market has fattened retirement portfolios. But after such a long rally, we’ll likely see slowing growth or even a sharp decline in the markets. That, combined with increasing life spans, puts recent retirees in “a really unique and dangerous place,” says David Blanchett, head of retirement research at Morningstar Investment Management.
This research explores the implications of early retirement on required savings levels and variables that can help predict when someone might retire earlier than expected.
Research suggests people tend to retire earlier than expected. Retiring early can have a significant (negative) impact on a retiree’s likelihood of achieving retirement success.
A nonlinear relation exists between actual and expected retirement age, where individuals targeting retirement before age 61 tend to retire later than expected, and those targeting retirement at an age after 61 generally retire approximately a half-year early for each additional year targeted past age 61.
Incorporating retirement age uncertainty into a financial plan can have a significant impact on required retirement savings levels.
Financial planners should consider modeling early retirement to prepare clients for the (likely) possibility that it may occur, especially for individuals targeting retirement past age 65.
Once considered a pipe dream for most, early retirement now seems to be a trend. The movement has a growing number of blogs devoted to it and a name that, while catchy, illustrates what happens when you come up with the acronym first: FIRE, or “financially independent retire early.”