FOURTH QUARTER, 2015

Avoid this common retirement planning mistake
    by Steve Vernon, FSA
 
What do you dream about doing in your retirement? For many people, the most commonly reported dreams about how you'll spend your newfound freedom won't take up even half of the time you'll have available. Focusing on your retirement fantasies and overlooking your ordinary, day-to-day life in retirement is a common mistake for near-retirees.

What will you really do with the rest of your life? Read this post to get insights about planning a fulfilling retirement for all aspects of your life.
 
Please keep reading for this issue's helpful articles and stories.
 
Tougher rules for Social Security claiming strategies
 
Two popular Social Security claiming strategies were severely limited in November when President Obama signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 into law. Among its many provisions, the new law phases out what's known as "restricted application" and limits "file and suspend," two strategies that workers, married couples, and divorced individuals have used in the past to boost their payouts.

If you're approaching retirement and had planned on using one of these income-boosting options, you'll have to revisit your strategies for developing retirement income. Read here for more details.

Coping without a COLA to sweeten Social Security                          
 
The current lack of inflation in the U.S. economy has many impacts -- for better and worse. One of the latter will definitely hit America's seniors, whose Social Security income will remain stagnant in 2016 due to the lack of a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) next year. Read here to learn about strategies that can help retirees cope in 2016.
  
When to start Social Security? This tool can tell you           
 
If you're approaching retirement, maximizing your Social Security benefits should be a critical goal for you because that money will most likely provide a significant chunk of your retirement income. And one of the primary factors that determines how much you'll get each month is the age at which you start collecting those benefits.

Now, a new tool from financial advisory firm Financial Engines offers an easy-to-use online planner for analyzing the best time to start your Social Security benefits, as well as for your spouse if you're married. This post provides details.

Target date funds: Warnings for near-retirees             
 
This summer's stock market volatility was a vivid reminder of the danger of remaining fully invested in target date funds (TDFs) right up to your retirement date. If you're set to retire at a time when the market tanks significantly, you might have to delay your retirement, or you might be forced to reduce your standard of living during retirement. Many older workers learned this lesson the hard way in the 2008-2009 stock market crash. Learn how you might protect yourself as you approach your retirement date.

Parents are missing a golden opportunity to save                      
 
It would seem likely that parents whose children are grown and are no longer dependents would be able to start boosting their savings. But that's not the way it seems to be going. And as a result, those parents won't likely be able to maintain their standard of living in retirement when they're no longer working. That's the sobering conclusion of a recent report from the Boston College Center for Retirement Research. If you're a parent of college-age children, read here for some ideas to boost your savings after your children are no longer dependent on you.
 
Here's another post that shares ideas for parents who are facing tough choices between paying for children's college expenses and saving for retirement.
 
If you're wondering how long you'll live, try this   
 
How long will you live? If you knew for sure, it would be a lot easier to plan how long your retirement savings need to last. Knowing how many years you have left means you could more easily determine how fast you could draw down your retirement savings, select appropriate investment strategies, and decide whether it's a good idea to delay Social Security or buy an annuity. Read here to learn about a cool tool that gives you valuable insights on this important issue.

Is more money the key to a happy retirement?
 
With so many people approaching their retirement years with meager retirement savings, it might be more realistic to aim for being happy instead of aiming to fully retire and not work at all. To help you get there, it's important to think about how much money you really need to be happy. This post can help you find the answers that make sense for you.
 
What if you just can't afford to fully retire?


It's no secret that millions of baby boomers are approaching their retirement years with inadequate savings and no pension. This means retirement in the traditional sense of "not working" while maintaining your standard of living just isn't a possibility for many boomers.

Should you just hunker down, keep your nose to the grindstone, and accept your fate? Maybe not. And you might find inspiration in a new book by Bernie Roth, one of the founders of Stanford University's prestigious design school. Roth shares a simple yet powerful method that can help you break through the obstacles keeping you from achieving important life goals. Read here to learn more.

Learn from retirees' satisfactions -- and regrets 
 
If you're looking for insights into effective retirement decisions, one of the best things you can do is ask current retirees what actions they took that they're most happy about -- and what they regret the most. Having "been there, done that," they should have a lot of credibility, and their answers can give you compelling real-life examples of the consequences of good and bad decisions. Read here to learn from recent retirees' life experiences.
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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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 Money for Life

    

Turn Your IRA and 401(k) Into a Lifetime Retirement Paycheck

 

My latest book answers two of the most important financial questions you'll ever face:

 

How much money do you need to retire?

 

How can you generate reliable income from your retirement savings that lasts for the rest of your life, no matter how long you live and no matter what happens in the economy?

 

Addressing these questions is one of the most critical challenges facing the retirement industry today. 

 

Money for Life is an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand book that outlines specific action steps and includes illustrations and graphs to reinforce the main points. It describes in simple terms the three methods you can use to generate a "retirement paycheck" from your retirement savings. It explains the pros and cons of these methods, as well as their many varieties and permutations. One critical element is the amount of the retirement paycheck you'll be able to generate, which can vary widely depending on the method you choose to generate retirement income.

 

This new book is available in both print and e-book format.  It complements my other published works on retirement planning -- my book, Recession-Proof Your Retirement Years; my DVD, The Quest for Long Life, Health and Prosperity; and my retirement planning website, Money for Life.

 

Please see my website for details on all of my books and DVDs.
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Welcome to

 Our Newsletter!
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.

 
Hour Glass & Money

 
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 is a Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on  Longevity, 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 [email protected]

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