Answer: If you’re asking this question, you probably have a 401(k) or other retirement plan through a former employer. The short answer is yes–most retirement plans allow you to roll your plan funds over into an IRA after you’ve left your employer’s service. However, there is more than one way to do a rollover, and
Answer: You’ll get a bigger check every month. However, how much bigger depends upon what year you reach full retirement age, and how long you postpone collecting benefits. If you were born in 1943 or later, you’ll receive 2/3 of 1% for each month that you delay collecting retirement benefits (8 percent more per year),
Social Security Retirement Benefits Social Security was originally intended to provide older Americans with continuing income after retirement. Today, though the scope of Social Security has been widened to include survivor’s, disability, and other benefits, retirement benefits are still the cornerstone of the program. How do you qualify for retirement benefits? When you work and
By investing for retirement through your employer-sponsored plan, you are helping to manage a critically important financial risk: the chance that you will outlive your money. But choosing to participate is just one step in your financial risk management strategy. You also need to manage risk within your account to help it stay on track. Following
Your employer-sponsored 401(k) plan may allow pre-tax, Roth, and non-Roth after-tax contributions. How do you know which one might be appropriate for your needs? Start by understanding the features of each. Pre-tax: For those who want lower taxes now With pre-tax contributions, the money is deducted from your paycheck before taxes, which helps reduce your
Taxes can take a big bite out of your total investment returns, so it’s encouraging to know that your employer-sponsored retirement savings plan may offer a variety of tax benefits. Depending on the type of plan your employer offers, you may be able to benefit from current tax savings; tax deferral on any investment returns
Planning your retirement income is like putting together a puzzle with many different pieces. One of the first steps in the process is to identify all potential income sources and estimate how much you can expect each one to provide. Social Security According to the Social Security Administration (SSA), more than 8 of 10 people
When it comes to planning for your retirement income, it’s easy to overlook some of the common factors that can affect how much you’ll have available to spend. If you don’t consider how your retirement income can be impacted by investment risk, inflation risk, catastrophic illness or long-term care, and taxes, you may not be
When investing for retirement, you’re likely to hear a lot of well-meaning guidance from family, friends, and others offering advice–even the media. As you weigh the potential benefits of any commonly cited investment rules, consider that most are designed for the average situation, which means they may be wrong as often as they’re right. Although
