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How to Cut Retirement Fund Expenses
Tweet Share on Facebook January 29, 2010 Comment (1)Cutting the management and investment fees charged by your retirement funds can add a lot of money to your nest egg without sacrificing any of your investment goals. This work will take you an hour or two at most and could add thousands of dollars to your retirement savings. Seem like a good investment?
You may have an active 401(k) retirement plan with an employer. Or perhaps you've rolled over such a plan into an IRA or other self-directed retirement account. The odds are good that most, if not all, of your investments are in mutual funds. A few years ago, a survey of 401(k) account holders found that most people thought they paid no fees at all on their mutual fund holdings. But there are fees—lots of them—and they can be steep. But they are largely invisible to investors. The recipients of your retirement fund fees may be the firm that administers your plan, the mutual fund companies with whom you've invested your retirement assets, or the brokerage company that administers your IRA and other self-directed accounts.
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Home Repair Tips for Winter Damages
Tweet Share on Facebook January 27, 2010 Comment (3)With winter storms regularly sweeping the country and unusually cold temperatures in warm-weather areas such as Florida, the threat of serious water damage has become all too real for many homeowners. Here is some expert advice on dealing with these headaches. It is provided by home-repair specialists who are highly regarded by users of Angie's List, the fee-based online community that shares consumer evaluations of local contractors and service providers.
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Unhappiness, Yes; Defeatism, No
Tweet Share on Facebook January 25, 2010 Comment (2)Is health reform on life support? Did Massachusetts really speak for the rest of the country? Hey, I don't know. I don't think other people do, either. But it is clear that whatever you call the 2,000-page healthcare legislative leviathan, it's not going anywhere for a while. It's also clear that the nation is filled with a lot of unhappy people, and that trust is about as hard to find today as a job.
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4 Essential Steps to Financial Reality
Tweet Share on Facebook January 22, 2010 Comment (3)Before getting too far into the new year, it's important to develop a realistic record of where you ended 2009 and how your financial situation changed during the year. You'd think everyone would already know where they stand, but such financial self-awareness is the exception. And obtaining it does take time and effort. But doing an annual report on your finances can provide an invaluable record that only you can assemble. Done properly, it should illuminate your future, paving the way to important financial decisions and helping you make smarter choices.
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Target Date Funds Up 27 Percent for Year
Tweet Share on Facebook January 21, 2010 CommentTarget date funds posted their third straight quarterly gain in last year's fourth quarter, a 4 percent increase that trailed a 6 percent rise in the S&P 500 index of widely held stocks. For the entire year, target date funds were up 27.1 percent, according to a report from Ibbotson Associates, a unit of Morningstar. The past three quarters follow six straight quarterly losses during the stock market's extended decline. Measured from the market's peak in October 2007, Ibbotson said, the average target date fund lost 7 percent a year, compared with an 11 percent drop in the S&P 500.
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End-of-Life Medical Spending Not So Wasteful
Tweet Share on Facebook January 20, 2010 Comment (6)Imagine two deer trying to escape a searing forest fire. One deer is old and hobbled; the other young and fit. Which one tries harder? Of course, they both try as hard as they can. Would anyone expect the older deer to give up the fight for life because of his age?
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8 Possible Social Security Benefit Changes
Tweet Share on Facebook January 18, 2010 Comment (34)Social Security is moving toward its day of reckoning. And while the national upheaval might not be the train wreck that health reform has become, it will be a big, big deal. The last time major changes were made to the program was 1983. Efforts then to put Social Security on a sound long-term footing included higher tax rates for payments into the system, raising retirement ages, and treating some Social Security payments as taxable income.
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Best Consumer Stocks for a Recovering Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2010 Comment (4)Consumer spending has driven the U.S. economy for generations. It rose above 80 percent of U.S. output during the Great Depression as private investment and much of international trade dried up. It trended down a bit during the 1930s as the economy slowly recovered and then fell sharply during World War II as the nation imposed consumer rationing and switched its attention to making goods for the war effort. In 1944, consumer spending was only 49 percent of the gross domestic product.
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No wonder, then, that people went on a major spending spree after the war. There was a lot of catching up to do. With a dip during the Korean War, consumer spending during the 1950s was in the low 60s as a percentage of the economy. It pretty much stayed there through the 1970s, rose into the middle 60s in the 1980s, and settled at about 67 percent during the last years of the 20th century. Consumers went on a major binge in the first decade of the 21st century. Fueled largely by debt, consumer spending rose to 70 percent of GDP and has edged even higher during the recession.
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Now is the Time for Senior Housing Decision
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2010 Comment (1)If you've been thinking about making a move into retirement housing, now is a great time to get serious about the decision. Whether you want to live independently in a retirement community, need an assisted living facility, or want more extensive support in a nursing home, it's a buyer's market today. The recession has forced even high-end communities to offer wide-ranging discounts and inducements to attract residents. At the same time, this softness won't last forever. And when conditions improve, the pent-up consumer demand will reveal serious shortages of high-quality senior housing.
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Fact and Fiction Blur in 401(k) Fund Story
Tweet Share on Facebook January 11, 2010 Comment (4)It is an out-of-body experience to hear the retirement fund industry talk about how well it has performed during the past two years. But that was the party line at a recent panel session in Washington. It was held to discuss recent research into public attitudes toward retirement accounts and the performance of the accounts themselves. The Investment Company Institute, the primary trade group for mutual funds, surveyed 3,000 people. It found overwhelming support for 401(k) plans and strong consumer opposition to government efforts that would curb the plans.
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The Best Life
Philip Moeller, contributing editor for U.S. News Money, writes about achieving success and happiness in older age. He also is a research fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.
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