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Most Baby Boomers Plan to Delay Retirement
Tweet Share on Facebook June 30, 2010 Comment (3)American workers are increasingly planning to delay retirement. Among employed adults ages 50 to 61, 60 percent say they may have to delay their retirement because of the recession, according to a Pew Research Center telephone survey of 2,967 adults released today. And 35 percent of those age 62 and older say they’ve already pushed back their retirement date.
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Companies Slow to Resume 401(k) Match
Tweet Share on Facebook June 30, 2010 CommentMany companies have reduced or suspended their 401(k) match since September 2008. Among the 18 percent of firms that slimmed their 401(k) match, slightly less than half (49 percent) have restored company contributions, according to a Towers Watson survey of 334 companies with 1,000 or more employees released today. Almost all of the companies, however, say they are considering reinstating all or a portion of employer contributions within the next 12 months.
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How Competitive is Your Medicare Advantage Plan?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 28, 2010 Comment (4)A small number of insurers account for a large share of Medicare Advantage enrollment, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation report. The average Medicare beneficiary has 33 Medicare Advantage plans to choose from in 2010. But in 14 states and Washington, D.C. a single firm enrolls more than half of all Medicare Advantage participants.
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12 Ways Retirees Spend Their Newfound Free Time
Tweet Share on Facebook June 25, 2010 CommentWhen you finally leave your job for good you have eight or more extra hours to do whatever you wish. Retirees generally spend their newfound free time sleeping a little later, working around the house, and watching a lot more TV than working Americans, according to data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The American Time Use Survey also found that seniors spend more time lingering over meals, reading, and shopping than their younger counterparts. Here is what retirees do all day.
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Employers Choose Safer Default 401(k) Investments
Tweet Share on Facebook June 24, 2010 CommentMore employers are opting for low risk default 401(k) investments, rather than funds with a mix of stocks, bonds, and cash, a new survey found. The proportion of private sector companies using balanced, target-date, or life cycle funds as the default 401(k) investment declined from 53 percent in 2008 to 40 in 2008, according to a Harris Interactive survey of 601 employers underwritten by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. Use of more conservative default investments including money market and stable value funds increased from 12 percent in 2008 to 33 percent in 2009. Small companies with fewer than 500 employees were particularly likely to have recently selected a more conservative default investment.
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10 Things Retirees are Doing Without
Tweet Share on Facebook June 23, 2010 Comment (20)Retirees have watched their nest eggs shrink over the past two years. Cutbacks in spending have been necessary and painful. Some 60 percent of retirees say they have reduced expenses since 2008, according to a recent Harris Interactive survey of 501 retirees underwritten by Principal Financial Group. The retirees largely say they are planning to stick with these frugal changes regardless of future economic conditions. Here’s a look at the things retirees are learning to live without.
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Using a HSA to Pay for Retirement Medical Costs
Tweet Share on Facebook June 22, 2010 Comment (4)Some individuals fund health savings accounts to cover medical expenses later on in retirement. Retirement savers can use these tax-exempt accounts to pay for future out-of-pocket health costs. If distributions are spent on qualified medical expenses no taxes will be due upon withdrawal.
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7 Ways to Protect Your Retirement Savings
Tweet Share on Facebook June 21, 2010 CommentBaby boomers are understandably concerned about preventing their retirement investments from losing money. A recent Financial Planning Association and MetLife online survey asked 1,068 financial advisers with baby boomer clients how investors approaching retirement can shield assets from future stock market slumps. Here is how the financial planners say baby boomers should protect their nest eggs.
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New Disclosures Proposed for Target-Date Funds
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2010 CommentFederal regulators proposed new target-date fund disclosures yesterday. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously to introduce rule amendments requiring that specific information be provided to target-date fund investors. Here’s a look at the proposed rules, which will be open for public comment for the next 60 days.
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The Missing Piece of Your 401(k) Pie
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2010 Comment (1)Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, had a pie delivered to each Senator on the Finance Committee yesterday. Each apple and blueberry pie had a piece missing. In its place was a note reading, “Wall Street’s cut of your 401(k) pie.”
