Talking Retirement

How Much do You Need to Retire? It Depends on Who You Ask.

In Sunday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, there was an interesting piece (click here to read the article) that talked about a variety of financial experts’ opinions on how much you need to retire. The figures range from 65% of your current income to, shockingly, 105%. I think the truth is that no two people are identical, so what you need can be vastly different from what your neighbor needs. One idea discussed in the article is that we adapt to changing times. Just as parenting has evolved over the past few decades to changing situations in society, when our idea of retirement and the reality of really retiring collide, we’ll adjust to the new situation. Three cheers for human adaptability!

The Reinvention of Retirement

Market Place, the Public Radio Internation program, is one of my favorite radio programs. This week there has been a great series on the reinvention of retirement. Topics include the changing ways to save for it and the new ways people live it. Highly recommended.

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Attention Midwesterners, You Can Get Your Free Annual Credit Report Now

We talked about this earlier this year. Everyone in the nation is eligible for a free credit report every year. As the program rolled out, it was spread out to different regions over time. Since March 1, 2005, people living in the Midwest are eligible for their free report.

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NBC: They’re Singing our Song

This week, NBC News and all its associated news organizations like MSNBC are doing a roundup on retirement. Tonight’s story on the NBC Nightly News was good, if a little thin on information (they hit on the same theme we talked about here yesterday, saving for retirement and how much do you really need). They have a nice web piece that goes with it that’s definitely worth checking out, a retirement planner calculator.
Posted by John | Filed under: Living Money | perma link | | Talk Back (0)

Talking About Saving

There are two sides to the current debate on Social Security (actually, there are more than just two sides). One camp says there is no crisis. On the opposite end, there are the doomsayers.

Regardless where you fall, I’ve felt for a long time there is a big hole in planning for retirement and that’s simply saving money for it. In today’s New York Times, there’s an article entitled Savings: Lots of Talk, but Few Dollars. Here’s an excerpt:

[A] big concern is that millions of aging baby boomers may not have stashed away enough for their retirements. Only about half of all workers participate in a pension plan with their current employer, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. Less than one-quarter of workers are covered by a traditional defined-benefit retirement plan. And savings through individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans have been meager: in 2001, the average worker in the 55-to-64 age group had a balance of only $42,000.

Are you participating in your company’s savings plan? Are you maxing it out? Do you save on top of that? Reading this article might not give you the exact answer for what you should do, but it will probably give you some motivation to figure it out.

Click here to read the full article >>

Seven Reasons Why Bush Has an Uphill Battle in SS Reform

Ron Elving, who has a Watching Washington column over at NPR.org, has a nice, condensed article on why the president has a tough chance in making the same headway he made in the recent election in his push for Social Security reform. Here are his seven reasons, but you’ll need to read the article to get the full scope.

1. The subject has changed.
2. There’s no villain to bash.
3. A good straw man is hard to find.
4. The playing field has gotten bigger.
5. The timing is awful.
6. There’s no sex appeal.
7. There’s too much math.

Intrigued? Read the full article here >>

Raise Retirement Age to 68?

Here’s one approach to curing what ails Social Security: Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) proposes raising the age that retirees can receive full Social Security benefits from 67 to 68. Read about it in this article from the New York Post.

Is a New Retirement Age Needed?

Is 65 still the “right” age to retire? Today, people often live 20 years after retirement. Does that mean that what we’ve always thought of as the age to retire is outdated? Listen to Slate’s Will Saletan (via NPR) discuss whether it’s really the right retirement age for a population that’s living longer.

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Less Than a Quarter of Economists Think Social Security Reform Will Happen

I just ran across this story over at Money Magazine’s site. It’s another survey (it must be a good day for them, I posted about another just a few minutes ago). They’ve asked members of National Association for Business Economics (37 of them according to the article) and they seem to think the partial privitization of Social Security won’t happen. Posted by John | Filed under: News Social Security | perma link | | Talk Back (0)

AARP’s Social Security Blog

The AARP is unapologetically against the Bush administration’s Social Security reform initiative. You can read their Social Security blog at their site.