According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, only 33 percent of Americans feel confident about retiring comfortably. Many individuals and families struggle to secure their financial future, making it essential to be aware of the pitfalls and mistakes that can derail your retirement plans. My story began when I was 25, fresh out of college,…

Professional organizers might define household clutter as a pile of unmade decisions. Money clutter is much the same. Those credit cards you no longer use but haven’t closed? That’s money clutter. So is the retirement account you left behind three jobs ago and the financial paperwork you keep but no longer need. Money clutter also…

A New York City subway operator, a school teacher, and other public workers have filed a lawsuit against the city’s pension fund managers, charging that they have misused city pension money to pursue a political agenda and harmed public workers who depend on that money to fund their retirement. Filed in New York courts on…

I did everything backward when I started freelancing. I was fresh out of journalism school. Instead of getting an entry-level job at a newspaper or magazine, I immediately started looking for online gigs. My then-husband and I were up to our eyeballs in student loan debt. He still had years of schooling ahead of him….

As a business owner, you have an assortment of retirement options. These range from the straightforward, think an Individual or Simple 401 (k), to the more complex, such as a Money Purchase Plan or Profit Sharing. However, for many, the creme de la creme is a Roth IRA. Why? Because not only is able to set…

As you get closer to the age when you need to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from your retirement accounts, you are likely wondering about the best way to do it. There are several ways, but any of them depend on your circumstances. When you get closer to the RMD age of 72, you will…

Retirement can be a dream for one and a nightmare for another. People treat retirement differently, depending on their requirements and circumstances. While some feel retirement is the time to pack up bags and travel or commit to hobbies they have long paused for, others feel retirement is not the right option. There may be…

Tax time will soon be here. The good news is that there still is time to reduce your taxes this year. Making changes now can help you get more tax deductions on your upcoming 1040 taxes. Getting the biggest IRS refund means you need to have a lot of receipts for any tax deductions you…

The type of retirement fund you have can seriously affect the amount of money your beneficiaries will receive. With certain types, they could lose a lot of money to taxes because of laws about 401(k)s and other plans. Some simple changes to the type of your retirement account can enable your heirs to avoid a…

For the self-employed, retirement planning can be a bit more complicated than for the rest of the population. They don’t have the benefit of an employer-sponsored plan and an HR department where they’ll find counseling and advice on planning for their retirement years. However, that doesn’t mean the self-employed can’t have a comfortable retirement or that…