Dreamstime Text size Editor’s note: Barron’s Retirement readers have sent along many questions about their savings, investments, and strategies over the past few months as everything from the record-b...
Tag: Retirement planning
Here are the odds you’ll outlive your money
What year was the worst possible time in U.S. history to retire, from an investment point of view? To put this question another way: What year’s U.S. retirees had the greatest difficulty sustaining th...
Opinion: ‘Easter Bunny cartoon cash’ — how Bill Maher called the Bitcoin crash
Young people were already feeling depressed about their future retirement prospects, according to polls. Still more following the collapse of all their cryptocurrency bets, one suspects. More than $1 ...
Opinion: Warren Buffett’s advice for a volatile market: patience pays
Certainly you’ve been watching the stock market over the past few days. It would be hard not to. Even the most hands-off investor has likely noticed the scare headlines popping up on the evening news,...
Older Investors Have a Lot of Money in Stocks. How to Check if It’s Too Much.
A suddenly sliding stock market is sending a wake-up call to older Americans that maybe they shouldn’t invest like they used to. Many are likely to ignore that call. Thanks to a long bull market that ...
Opinion: Retirees in the U.S. do not live on ‘fixed incomes’
As inflation has gained traction in the last year, commentators constantly remark about how it is particularly hard on retirees who live on a “fixed income.” Please stop. Retirees do not live on fixe...
‘Waiting for the perfect moment may not be the best strategy’: 3 things Americans can do right now as stock markets plunge
Americans woke up Monday morning to a stock market in sharp decline. In many ways, it was a replay of what investors have seen in recent weeks. Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.57%...
The 4% Rule Might Not Work, This Retirement Expert Says. Here’s His Strategy for a Downturn.
Economist Wade Pfau has been thinking about retirement since he was in 20s. But not just his own retirement. Pfau started studying Social Security for his dissertation while getting his Ph.D. at Prin...
We’re in our 60s, my husband plans to work until he ‘drops dead’ and our medical bills are overwhelming – how can we retire like this?
My husband works for the county making approximately $55,000 a year but before that was in retail with earnings of only about $36,000. In 1996, our daughter was diagnosed with a life threatening incur...
The Huge Tax Bills That Came Out of Nowhere at Vanguard
It’s easy for a small investor to make big mistakes. It would be even easier for giant investment firms to help prevent them—but, sadly, the asset-management industry seems to have other priorities. J...
Opinion: ‘Better than a 401(k)’? Scammer blew through more than $5 million of investors’ money earmarked for retirement
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Marco “Sully” Perez of Midland, Texas, used to tell his clients that his investment scheme was better than a 401(k). Now the U.S. District Court in...
The No. 1 thing that can improve the retirement security of older workers
Ready for today’s retirement investing pop quiz? What’s the single most consequential thing you can do to improve your chances of not running out of money in retirement? I’ll try answering this questi...
I retired at 50, went back to work at 53, then had a major medical issue that left me unemployed – ‘There’s no such thing as a safe amount of money’ for retirement
I had always said I was going to retire when I was 50. I had worked and saved since I was 16. Retiring without Medicare and Social Security is a scary thing. I wound up retiring then going back to wor...
‘She has no life insurance, savings or money’: My brother died, leaving his wife with $20,000 in debt. How can I help her?
Dear Quentin, My sister’s husband died last week. They had both lived with us for the previous nine years before moving into an independent living facility. They were there for two and a half months b...
Here Are 3 Things 401(k) Millionaires Should Consider Before Retiring Early
Martinmark/Dreamstime Text size For the record number of 401(k) millionaires minted during the pandemic, retirement may be tempting but the market volatility late last year offers a lesson: Paper weal...
I’m 68, my husband is terminally ill, and his $3 million estate will go to his son. I want to spend the rest of my days traveling – will I have enough money?
Please help me. I am a 68-year-old woman married 17 years to the love of my life. Our finances have always been separate, and I signed a prenuptial acknowledging that his son will inherit his estate h...
Three signs you’re ready to retire
Many people don’t have much choice about when they retire. Illness, job loss or caretaking responsibilities push them out of the labor force, ready or not. But some people have the opposite problem: T...
4 simple things to do with your money now, so you start 2022 off right
Getty Images Need a kick-start to your financial New Year’s resolutions? There’s no need to make it complicated, says Ashley Feinstein Gerstley, author of the upcoming personal finance guide book “Fin...
How to help your parents organize their finances
Like many baby boomers, my wife and I have watched our parents go from total independence to assisted living to death. We’ve been thankful that, at key moments, they made the difficult decisions thems...
Weekend reads: Your money and how to invest in 2022
Happy New Year! As 2021 ends, we once again hope for the new year will bring a pandemic recovery. Here are some looks ahead at what may affect financial markets, companies and even you in 2022. Turn a...
Weekend reads: Robinhood’s bad news — and a bit of good news
It’s been a year since Robinhood Markets Inc. HOOD, +9.65% briefly suspended “buy” orders for GameStop Corp. GME, +4.69%, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. AMC, +3.72% and other meme stocks. The brokera...