SECURE 2.0: Changes Going Into Effect in 2024 Passed in 2019, the SECURE Act was the most substantial retirement legislation in over a decade. It contained important changes designed to help investors save more and be better prepared for the future. To build on the popular aspects of the SECURE Act, Congress, late last year, passed SECURE 2.0. Although the new laws will impact all savers in some ways, navigating all of the...

Social Security, the program you may have spent a lifetime paying into, is designed to offer stability, supplemental income, and other valuable benefits that can play a role in your overall financial strategy after you retire. We’ve pulled together answers to 10 questions our clients ask most frequently regarding Social Security. If you are nearing retirement, this Q&A is designed to help you better understand what to expect from Social Security. 1....

A retiree owned too much company stock “Retirement looked pretty good until GE shares collapsed.” (Wall Street Journal, 4/22/2018) Additional Reading: We Only Get to Experience One Version of Reality (The Reformed Broker, 4/23/2018) An early retiree misses their old working life What if I’m wrong about everything? (Thriftygal, 4/18/2018) “What if happiness is more about roots and people and relationships and productivity and less about freedom and flexibility?” When life happens ...

How do you save for “retirement” if you don’t participate in a 401(k) plan? Katie Lobosco with CNN Money writes “The good news is that there are other accounts you can open yourself that offer similar benefits. For some self-employed people, the benefits can be even better than a traditional 401(k) plan's.” Roth IRA’s are great for kids with earned income Kimberly Lankford with Kiplinger’s Personal Finance notes “Contributing to a...

Whether you’ve been working hard, hardly working, or enjoying a balance of both this summer, I’ll bet the past few months have flown by fast. They have for me, anyway, as I’ve enjoyed some (too brief!) time with my college boys, helped my husband Dave ramp up his new business, co-managed SAGEbroadview, and – of course – kept reading every day. So here it is, almost September, and already time to...

As I covered in my last post, not every early retirement fits the stereotypical mold of becoming a multimillionaire by age 30, cashing in one’s chips and heading off to paradise. Sometimes, early retirement finds you instead of the other way around. Such was the case for Jack Pasanen,  when he retired to help care for an ailing family member. Healthcare concerns struck even closer to home for our clients Tom and...

At least in its idealized version, early retirement may be among the most popular retirement models around. Who hasn’t fantasized about being the next lucky rat to exit the race? Maybe head to a Panamanian paradise, like one intrepid couple did in this US News and World Report piece. That said, real-life early retirement isn’t for everyone. As we covered in our segment on the road less retired, some people love...

  What’s the difference between a re-career versus mini-retirement versus semi-retirement? Admittedly, there’s a lot of overlap, and which path you’re on isn’t always clear except in hindsight. Re-careering, as the name implies, means retiring from one career to take up another, as Greselda Powell did in this post. Mini-retirement is more about taking a break from working, and returning to your career approximately where you left off – like Pat O’Konis...

In my last post, I shared Greselda Powell’s transition from high-tech engineer to artisan cheese expert. Greselda’s re-career seems to be working well for her, but it’s not for everyone. For some, a mini-retirement might be preferred, in which you take a break, but resume the same or similar career when you return from your “sabbatical.” In his excellent overview of retirement, Michael Kitces describes mini-retirement like this: “In this approach to ‘retirement’,...

As we’ve described in our past couple of Retirement Summary posts, remaining fully employed well into your twilight years may appeal to you – or not. Either way, life doesn’t always go as planned. You may experience a life-altering event. Or you may just change your mind. When that happens, whether it’s driven by a financial or personal agenda – or both – re-careering may be preferred over retiring. This is...