Talking Retirement

Talking Retirement Comes to an End

Well, folks, this is it. Talking Retirement has been up and running for over 2 years but we’re moving on to other things. Bruce and I want to thank you for coming by to check on the site as we’ve been working on this project. We’ve both learned a lot about the retirement conundrum and I hope you’ve found out some useful information along the way with us. Best of luck!

We’ll leave the site up for a while, probably for at least for another month so check out previous posts now if you’re interested in them. 

People Still Aren’t Saving

Instead of me saying the saying the same thing, I’ll let the opening paragraph of Yes, Retirement Still Seems an Impossible Dream do it for me.

It’s time for another retirement study to make you feel anxious and afraid. These studies always come to one conclusion: No matter how much you are saving for retirement, it isn’t enough, and you should save much, much more. So you’d better stop spending money on anything related to your present life.

Read the article.

Busy week. No updates until the weekend.

Thanks for checking in here. It’s a busy week and there won’t be any updates until the weekend. Talk to you then.

Test Out Retirement and See How You Save

I just read an article that has an interesting suggestion in it called Test retirement: Cut expenses. I appreciate the thought of giving your spending habits a test drive by seeing how much money you’re able to not spend throughout a month. It sounds like a really good exercise.

A change in lifestyle can have a big effect on expenses - bigger than we realize. And this shows how difficult it is to plan for retirement.

The author, Jeff Brown, is using this test to see if he might be saving too much money for retirement, an idea I doubt is a big problem for most people. What happens if you end up with too much money for your retirement? You might want to celebrate—splurge a little. What do you do if you find out you haven’t saved enough? Splurging isn’t going to be an auction. Read the article here.

Another Study Finds Fear of Not Having Enough for Retirement

I feel like a broken record posting this but yet another study has found Americans are finding properly funding a comfortable retirement a pipe dream.

Nearly half of America’s middle-income earners – the backbone of the working nation – simply do not believe it is possible to bring up a family, pay the bills, live a little and save for retirement all at the same time.

Read the full article.

Okay, Maybe We’re Not Saving Enough After All

The basic arguement that the average American was saving too much was based around the fact that most financial services companies suggest that a person needs to be able to have 85% of their annual income available during retirement to maintain their standard of living but a group of economist suggested that we need only about 65%. But a new survery throws some cold water on the situation.

Americans on average were saving only enough to provide them with 58 percent of their preretirement income, counting personal savings, Social Security benefits and pension income.

Fidelity, one of the finanical services companies whose retirement calculators defaults to the 85% figure says the problem is actually even worse. One Fidelity rep says in regard to replacing 85% of a persons income, “Our sense is that is not nearly enough.” Read the story for more.

Marketing Trends Indicate More Power for You in the Workplace

Gail Sheehy warns that companies will need to shift their management models to retain their boomer employees, or risk a dangerous loss of institutional knowledge and sudden reduction in their work force.  She also encourages boomers to use this situation to create the work experience they desire.

“There is a hidden brain drain in the American work force,” she says.  “Corporate America is beginning to wake up to a seismic demographic change.  If it lets boomers retire early or drop off the radar, corporations won’t have the people power to remain competitive in a global marketplace.  The rate of growth in the U.S. work force will fall drastically over the next 20 years.  This change offers a golden opportunity for skilled boomers to reverse age bias and transform the corporate model to suit their needs to continue working for meaning & money.” (emphasis added)

There are 4 more trends in the story, but I’ll let you discover those for yourself. Read the entire article here.

Singing the Small Company Blues, When It Comes to Retirement Savings Options

I seem to be stuck in a weird middle ground between self employed and big company. The company I work for doesn’t offer any sort of retirement fund of any sort, but I also don’t seem to qualify for any of the self-employed options, since I am not self employed.

He or she asks the community, what shoud he/she do? Read the responses at MetaFilter.

GenX Retirement Tips: Skip that Expensive Cocktail

How many nights did you “go out” last month? It’s easy to spend between $50 and $100 per night at trendy restaurants, bars or clubs. By cutting out just two party nights per month, you can make progress toward funding an IRA. For those slow nights, read a book, rent movies or entertain friends at home.

Read the rest of the press release here.

Server Outage Over the Weekend

If you tried to visit Talking Retirement over the weekend, you probably didn’t find us. The computers that serve the site to the internet suffered a power outage. I’ve got a new entry waiting to be posted later today. Thanks.