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I grouse about how my husband loses things, but he’s also a great finder. He uncovers his keys, his glasses, and his wallet nearly every week. Recently, though, he found a 25-year-old retirement account. It wouldn’t have changed our retirement, but any more money in the bank is nice as we check the last boxes for retirement. We began our final financial review with our online Social Security statements. We had checked them periodically, of course, but this time were a little more thoughtful. My husband remembered a small 401(k) his con...
My book club has been reading and nattering together for over 30 years, since most of us had kids in the same neighborhood grade school. A generation later, almost all of us still live in the same general area, but many of have downsized. Our needs have changed through responding to various life circumstances. A few of us are eying the leap to retirement communities. What considerations enter the decision to move from a long-term house? Your unique situation may offer compelling financial reasons to stay, to downsize, or to move into senior liv...
Annuities are popular among insurance salespeople but earn mixed reviews from consumers. They have a long-standing reputation for being costly and complex. In the past few years, financial watchdogs have proposed tighter fiduciary standards for annuities; some changes have emerged. Are these changes just window dressing or are annuities becoming a better value? Anyone planning their retirement should have a basic understanding of annuities. Like Social Security, you pay in money now for a guaranteed flow of funds later. In the case of Social...
I recall a joke from the last millennium where pranksters would call a senior on the phone, pretending to be from the phone company. “We’re working in your neighborhood and have some extra phone line. If you’ll yank hard on your phone cord you can have some extra line for free.” Supposedly the unsuspecting victim would yank on the cord and their line would go dead. Seniors can be the disproportionate butt of jokes. Some are funny and others are hurtful. Today’s scams are considerably more damaging than the jokes and pranks of old. Our best...
The uncertainty of the pandemic has brought to mind a name from my young adult years: Howard Ruff. Do you remember reading his 1978 sensation, “How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years”? It was a survival guide for personal and financial decisions. “How to Prosper…” advocated storing a year’s worth of food and water while eschewing stocks and bonds in favor of investments in precious commodities. My husband and I didn’t follow his advice to the letter, but the book greatly influenced our outlook as a young couple. Whenever we suffered roug...
You’ve planted a victory garden, cleaned the garage, and caught up with old (and older) friends. If you’re lucky, you’ve stayed healthy and are still employed (or retired). COVID-19 has affected each of us differently, but there’s no doubt it’s been a game changer for those of us at or near retirement. What effect might the pandemic have on your financial life? I like to believe every problem comes packaged with its own solutions. Maybe it’s not a welcome solution, and maybe it doesn’t present itself as quickly as we’d like, but patience an...
Part two of two Last month we discussed retirement planning for the decade before retirement. This month, we continue with planning for retirement and post-retirement. Retirement Many boomers experiment with a trial retirement before we pull the plug. Perhaps we take a short leave or work part-time. Most importantly, we test the type of lifestyle we plan for our post-retirement years. A trial retirement allows us to examine how our expenses will change and whether we’ll be able to fill our time in meaningful ways. It also increases the l...
Part one of two. Seniors are “investdemics” – it is a characteristic of our age group that we have tried to compile investment portfolios that (fingers crossed) will last us. Some want to leave a legacy to favored charities and descendants, and others want to spend their last dime on their dying day. How do we cope with investing for unknown futures? Goals of investing for seniors include: 1) Setting up our accounts so that we understand how to stay within our acceptable parameters of spending. 2) Keeping a buffer of cash, savings accou...
I almost trained as a scientist, but feared I wouldn’t be able to locate the sweet spot in how to spend my workday. I love the outdoors too much to spend days in a windowless lab, and I’m too wimpy to spend weeks on end camping in a rainy jungle, broiling desert, or roiling sea. I’m in luck nonetheless, because the era of citizen science is here. This is fortunate for those of us who have scientist-envy, and possibly for America’s pocketbook. Citizen science is scientific work undertaken by non-scientists, often in collaboration with scienti...
Editor's note: This story appears in the Senior Voice Health and Fitness section, Jan. 2020, however the text is incomplete, due to a layout error. We apologize for the error and here it is in its entirety. Tylenol with codeine makes my occasional migraines bearable. I use them sparingly, always cognizant of the dangers of opioids. More than that, I am beyond grateful that I don’t have to endure the chronic pain that can be a real problem for our age group. Which is worse, the pain or the cure? Opioids weren’t always reviled. The powerful cla...
I am so bummed. I’ve prided myself in how little we toss into the trash compared to our recycling bin, following the rules on the lid. We pack cloth grocery bags, reuse and recycle plastic bags, and often remember to bring our own reusable plastic containers for restaurant leftovers. Our pantry contains more glass than plastic food containers, and we use bar soap to spare the earth yet one more source of plastic. I figure it’s a win-win: I save money buying less packaging material, and the earth is saved a little plastic. My pride took a maj...
Psychology has found its way into finance, and it’s a good fit. Behavioral economists design systems that nudge people into making the right decisions. For instance, workers save significantly more when the default is paycheck deductions into their retirement account. This type of “opt-out” policy, versus an “opt-in” standard of having to choose to participate, has gained popularity with both employers and employees. Each of us approaches retirement in different circumstances. Some started retirement accounts with their first paycheck....
What’s not black and white, but green all over? Environmental, social, and governance investing, or ESG. ESG investors evaluate and invest based on corporate behavior as a predicator of future financial performance. After wading into ESG investing a couple of decades ago, I have found that “investing for good” has become a successful and rewarding strategy to prepare me for retirement. ESG investing, like any type of investing, is not black and white. All of us stress over saving and the safety of our savings. Wondering what our invested dolla...
What’s the point of progress? It’s to improve our quality of life. This is a push-me, pull-you process, balancing the frustration of the inevitable glitches of new technology as compared with the comfort of the familiar. Sometimes the time is ripe for a new way of looking at things, and other times we find there are excellent old-fashioned solutions to be revisited. This yin and yang of new and old progress applies to two intriguing ideas I came across recently in the parallel laboratories of the university and the household. In the past few...
