Just a Little More
Does life get in the way of you saving more for your retirement? That’s the case for many workers. According to a recent survey,* cost-of-living and day-to-day expenses head the list of reasons why many don’t save (or save more) for retirement...

Compounding Contributions
Compounding helps grow your savings over time. Here’s how it works: When the money you contribute generates investment earnings, those earnings are added to your account and reinvested. So, you have the potential to earn a return on your contributions and your earnings...

Try Making Trade-offs
Finding an extra $25 a week may mean making a couple of trade-offs in your daily spending habits. It could be as easy as going out to dinner less often or switching to a more affordable cell phone provider. Track your current spending to identify areas where you can cut back. Then increase the amount you contribute to your plan...


A Spending Plan for Retirement
Congratulations, you're about to retire! So, how do you plan to spend your time? Traveling? Golfing? Visiting your relatives? However you want to enjoy your retirement, you need to think about how you're going to spend your money...

Don't Rush In
It's important not to be impulsive when you first retire. While you may feel you deserve an exotic vacation or a new car, immediately splurging might not be a smart move. You should determine how much retirement money you can afford to withdraw each year...

No False Assumptions
Make sure you carefully calculate how much you will really need to withdraw from your savings. If you just make some general assumptions, you could end up taking out more than you should and risk running out of retirement funds down the road. Also, don't assume you won't need retirement income for very long and, thus, that you might as well spend a lot of your money right off the bat.

It’s All About the Asset Allocation Mix
A delicious bowl of soup or yummy batch of cookies doesn't just happen. It takes the right mix of ingredients. Professional chefs and novice cooks all know that too much of this or too little of that can affect the whole dish. The same can be said about your retirement investments...

Your Original Recipe
When you initially set up your retirement account, you chose a certain mix of investments -- your original asset allocation.1 But because investment values are always changing, the way your account is allocated also changes. Over time, variations in the way your investments perform can cause your asset allocation to shift. The investments that have been outperforming the others will grow to represent a greater portion of your account...

Measures of Risk
Changes in your asset allocation affect the level of risk in your account. Take stocks, for example. Since they are inherently riskier than the other major asset classes, when the portion of stock investments in your account grows, so does your exposure to risk. Alternatively, if the portion of your retirement portfolio invested in stocks declines, the resulting asset allocation is more conservative than you originally planned...


Carrying a Mortgage Into Retirement: Should You or Shouldn’t You?
According to recent research, housing debt is a large component of debt for families age 55 plus. Among older homeowner households, the percentage of those with mortgage debt was 56% for the 55-64 age group and 38% for the 65-74 age group.1 Is it a good idea to have a mortgage obligation after you retire?

Consider Keeping Your Mortgage If . . .
You're carrying a lot of consumer debt. Why? When it comes to paying down debt, the general rule is to tackle the debt with the highest interest rate first. Since mortgage interest rates are usually lower than rates on consumer debt, you're probably better off putting your available cash toward your credit card balances than trying to pay off your mortgage...

Consider Prepaying Your Mortgage If . . .
It might be better to have your mortgage paid before you retire. Here are some circumstances that favor that option:
• Your retirement income will be limited and won't accommodate a mortgage payment.
• There's no prepayment penalty and you can save a significant amount of interest in the long run by paying off your mortgage early.

Get Ready To Test Your Retirement Planning Smarts
Retirement planning starts with your first contribution to a retirement account and continues throughout your working years. But how much do you really know about it? Find out by taking this quiz...

Example 1:
Shana and Doug both began working at Super Duper Company at age 25. As soon as she was eligible, Shana started contributing $200 a month ($2,400 a year) to the company's 401(k) plan. She continued contributing until her retirement at age 65. Doug waited until he was 40 to begin making contributions. Then he contributed $400 a month ($4,800 a year) -- twice as much as Shana -- until he reached age 65. Their investments earned a hypothetical average annual return of 7%, compounded monthly...

Who Had More Money at Retirement, Shana or Doug?
If you chose Doug, you're off the mark by approximately $202,000! Shana's much earlier start gave her two huge advantages: time and the power of compounding (earning income on your original investment and on the earnings it generates)...


Investing in Retirement: What’s Age Got To Do With It? Moving most of your retirement savings into conservative investments as you near retirement may not always be the best approach.

Dilemma:
You want to earn returns that will outpace inflation and provide you with enough income to live comfortably for as long as you're retired, but you don't want to risk losing your gains to a market slump. Does this sound familiar?

Risk Tolerance Doesn't Retire When You Do
The amount of risk you feel comfortable taking won't necessarily change just because you stop working. Unless you're concerned that your portfolio is exposed to too much risk, you may not want to make any major changes to your investment mix.

When Your Nest Empties
Having a child leave home permanently is a significant event. After you've packed away the memorabilia, sit down and revisit your finances. It may be a good time to make some other changes...

From Their Diapers ...
Raising a child is expensive. For a child born in 2015 (the latest figures available), a middleincome family can expect to spend about $233,610 for food, shelter, and other necessities associated with raising a child over the next 17 years...

... to Your Dreams
If you think it's a big change when the kids leave home, the next one -- retirement -- may be even bigger. Once you no longer have the expenses of raising a family, use the financial "windfall" to beef up your retirement savings. If you haven't been saving as much as you should, this is the time to catch up...


Steps to a Better Portfolio
Create a Strategy
Defining your goals and assessing your risk tolerance are the first steps in creating a workable investment strategy. Your plan should be one you can stick with, even during long periods of market turmoil...

Temper Your Portfolio's Volatility
Including some investments in your portfolio that aren't likely to have wild price swings can help keep its value on a more even keel during periods of higher market volatility. Curbing volatility can eliminate the tendency to make sell decisions based on emotion rather than reason during market downswings...

Be Realistic About Risk
All investments have risk -- from the risk that stocks will lose money to the risk that so-called "safe" investments won't keep pace with inflation. Maintaining a welldiversified portfolio can temper your risk exposure and help protect you from major losses.