Madonna was the first to hit upon it, the peerless sage that she is. We live in a material world and our lives are consumed by material things. There are so many things beckoning for our attention today, like that jazzy new cell phone, a must-have car or those Oreo-slathered Pizzas that everyone loves for some obscure reason. But let’s face it; your worth isn’t what it used to be. Your stocks have taken a beating, your house’s value has eroded and that salary raise you were looking for might not be forthcoming. It’s time to tie in your purchases with your financial goals now. Crunch those retirement numbers pronto, for how else will you know that you’ve saved enough or are on the right track? There are several tools, some offline and some online, that will help you in this aim [...]

While there are many retirement planning options available in the market today, many people find it quite difficult to get started. More then selecting the investment product, they are confused on the amount to start with, and the amount they would require during retirement ages. Risk Exposure The type of product you would invest in depends on the amount of risk you would like to be exposed to. During retirement, we don’t really have many sources of income. Hence, if you lose money on a risky investment, you would be left with nothing. If you, however, have millions in you checking account, you don’t have to bother much about the risk factor, not even about retirement. So, the type of retirement investment portfolio you must design, should depend on you risk taking ability. Happy Life Most [...]

If you have more than $200 in your Thrift Savings Plan during retirement from the service, you can opt to keep the money in the account, or withdraw in full through monthly payment single withdrawal as a life annuity, if the amount equals to or exceeds $3,500 The choice of Thrift Savings Plan withdrawal depends on you. You can use any or all of the above options to get back your returns. For instance, say you have $6,000 in your account, you can either withdraw the amount in full, or have a monthly income, or have half amount as monthly income and half as annuity. If you intend to withdraw all the money from your TSP, you can do that effortlessly. You can also opt to transfer funds to your traditional IRA account, or any other eligible plan offered by employer. If you intent [...]

Did I just ask you to stop accumulating funds for retirement? Yes. Or maybe the precise sentence should be “Don’t accumulate funds for retirement at all.” I don’t blame you. The federal government and finance industry, consciously or unconsciously, have initiated and protracted the retirement con. They generated several retirement schemes like IRA’s and 410K account along with financial investment benefits like index funds and mutual funds, which induces every individual to save funds and lock it in safety (some unsafe) boxes and lug it out when you aren’t quite fit to enjoy the wealth you have created. The finance industry will, of course, promote saving for retirement. Till the time you are 60-65, they have generated fortune using your funds for several years. For them, [...]