“Americans flunk retirement quiz.” That was a headline in the December 3, 2014 edition of USA Today. In a recent survey conducted by the American College of Financial Services, 80% of surveyed Americans age 60 to 75 with at least $100,000 in household assets received a failing grade when given a basic retirement-income literacy test. Continue reading “How to Pass the Retirement Income Literacy Test”
Real estate can be a great asset for retirement planning. Last week, I explored a couple of ways you can supplement your retirement income using real estate, namely by owning rental property or investing in REITs. This week, I’d like to take a look at a few other ways you can use real estate to supplement your income by tapping into the equity you may have in the home you are living in right now. Continue reading “Using Real Estate to Supplement Your Retirement Income (Part II)”
A couple of weeks ago, my colleague Linda Robertson wrote a blog post about annuities, in which she described how happy her father was about a variable annuity that she sold him when she was a financial advisor. That may sound a bit puzzling since variable annuities have gotten a lot of bad press due to their high fees. But for those fees, you’re basically buying some form of insurance, which is why they’re sold by insurance companies. Here are some situations in which an annuity might actually make sense for you depending on what you’re looking to insure: Continue reading “Are Annuities a Good Deal or a Rip-Off?”
