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How to Fix the 401(k) Plan
by Steve Vernon, FSA
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Despite their popularity, there's a significant problem with most 401(k) plans and other defined contribution retirement plans: You're on your own to figure out how to use your savings to generate retirement income that will last the rest of your life. Read here for an innovative idea that addresses this challenge.
Please keep reading below for this month's selection of helpful blog posts and articles on retirement.
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Retirement Income Drawdown: How to Fix a Serious Flaw With the "Four Percent Rule"
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The four percent rule is widely followed as a strategy for calculating amounts you can safely withdraw from your retirement savings while minimizing the odds of outliving your money. But there's a serious flaw with this rule that can result in you outliving your savings. Read here for two strategies that will help you avoid this problem.
Just a quick note: This is a multi-page blog post, so please be sure to click through to read all the pages.
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| Target Date Funds Help You Stay the Course and Invest Successfully |
Target date funds are a good way to help you stay invested in the market during downturns, and a recent study shows that participants who invested in these funds stayed the course during the 2008 - 2009 downturn. But don't blindly invest in just any target date fund - look under the hood! Read here for details on what to watch out for.
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How Have Target Date Funds Performed Lately?
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How have target date funds performed during the latest downturn? Read this recent post of mine to find out. |
| How to Protect Your Assets From Cognitive Decline | |
A growing body of research suggests that our ability to make sound financial decisions declines sharply with age. How can you make a plan to protect yourself -- or an aging parent? Read this excellent post from Mark Miller, publisher of the website RetirementRevised.
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| Bond Yields Approach Zero, But Risk Looms | |
A ten-year U.S. Treasury bond pays only 1.91 percent interest while a two-year bond pays a pathetic 0.16 percent. Predictions of a bond bubble have been wrong -- and costly. Though you should still be scared of a bond bubble, here's how to earn long-term rates with only short-term risk. Fellow CBS MoneyWatch blogger Allan Roth offers some helpful insights.
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| Avert Potential Disaster by Regularly Checking Beneficiary Designations |
Far too many financial disasters occur because people with retirement plans don't regularly check to see if their designations are up to date. Don't let this happen to you! Read this excellent reminder from fellow CBS MoneyWatch blogger Larry Swedroe.
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| Save or Spend? Cool Tool Calculates the Cost | |
Got a Starbucks habit? A very cool new tool can help you figure out just how much that habit costs you over time. Read here for some helpful advice that will show you how to save more money for retirement from fellow CBS MoneyWatch blogger Kathy Kristof.
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Could Being Healthy Actually Make Your Retirement Worse?
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I've long advocated that you should take care of your health as an important way to reduce your exposure to high bills for medical and long-term care expenses. But could this strategy backfire and actually cause you to spend more money during your retirement? One financial services firm suggests this might just be the case. Find out the details, and why this won't necessarily be bad for your retirement finances.
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| Why America Needs Social Security |
With the debt super committee reviewing all forms of federal government entitlements, it's good to keep in mind the basic reasons we need Social Security. Social Security is a collective good for our society; it shows that we value taking care of our senior citizens. Learn more here. |
| How to Live a Vital Retirement: Lessons from a Life Lived Well |
How much money do you really need in retirement? This recent post of mine offers inspiration and insights on how to live life to the fullest in your retirement years. |
| 5 Dumbest Statements in Investing |
Allan Roth of CBS MoneyWatch has been around the block a time or two, and over the years, he's heard some of the dumbest statements ever made about investing. They all have one thing in common -- two if you count that they're wrong: They were made by "experts" who sincerely believed the statements were correct. Here are some of his favorites, along with why you should never fall for them.
Just a quick note: This is a multi-page blog post. Please click through to read all the pages.
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Thanks for your interest, and stay tuned for future newsletters that explore how to best live the rest of your life. Best regards,
Steve Vernon
Rest-of-Life Communications
P.S. If you think this newsletter will help a friend, please pass it along.
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Recently Released
Money for Life
My free, online retirement planning guide
If you've been looking for a trusted, unbiased source of retirement guidance on a variety of retirement planning topics, look no further. This easy-to-use online guide contains the most helpful articles and videos from CBS MoneyWatch and a few other financial planning websites on such critical retirement topics as Social Security, generating retirement income from savings, investments, insurance, health, long-term care, longevity, and lifestyle issues.
I'm excited about this new guide because it offers another way for me to communicate with my readers. It combines the best features of a book - with subjects organized by topic - with the convenience of being online, providing content that's constantly being refreshed and updated. And the price is right - it's free!
This new website complements my other published works on retirement planning - my book, Recession-Proof Your Retirement Years and my DVD, The Quest for Long Life, Health and Prosperity. Please see my website for details on all of my books and DVDs.
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Welcome to
Our Newsletter!
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We fulfill a need for trusted, practical strategies that you can use to plan your rest-of-life (aka
retirement). We rely on the latest research and analyses, and we'll
keep it simple! And that's all we provide; we don't sell insurance, investments or health products, so we can "tell it like it is."
Here's an archive of past issues.
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Steve Vernon has spent 35 years as a consulting actuary, helping large employers design and manage their retirement programs. Now he's president of Rest-of-Life Communications, where he specializes in providing unbiased, trusted information about retirement. He also consults to Mercer's US Retirement, Risk and Finance business, and writes a regular column for CBS MoneyWatch titled Money for Life.
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For information on keynote addresses, workshops or presentations on retirement issues, visit Steve's website at www.restoflife.com, or email him at steve.vernon@restoflife.com
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If you want to learn more about a topic, or if you have any ideas or thoughts on the topics in this newsletter, please send Steve an email at:
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| © 2011 Steve Vernon/
Rest-of-Life Communications
All rights reserved.
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