How much do I really need to save for retirement?

I always thought 10% of salary was the amount you need to save for retirement. I save more than that, but a retirement calculator told me I'm not saving enough. Am I on track or is retirement just an impossible dream --Jessica, Texas.

I wish I could give you a simple-but-accurate rule of thumb that could assure you're saving enough to stay on track toward a secure retirement. But I can't because there isn't one.

The 10%-of-salary figure you cite is often tossed around as a viable benchmark -- and it might be if you start saving that amount in your early 20s and stick to it faithfully over the next 40 or so years. But few of us actually adhere to that regimen. We get a late start or have years when we save less than 10% or we may even dip into our savings occasionally. To allow for more leeway in building a nest egg, many pros suggest a higher target of 15%, which is the figure cited in recent research by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Continue reading source article here.

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

A 3-step plan to getting the retirement income you need

My wife & I have substantial 401(k) balances & hope to retire in five years. But we're not sure about how to turn our savings into income. We're considering buying an annuity, but don't know whether that's a good move or whether we should be doing something else. What do you think? -Ken R.

I think that you and your wife need a retirement income plan, a detailed strategy for figuring out how much income you'll need to live the retirement lifestyle you envision and coming up with a realistic way to generate that income.

Continue reading source article here. 

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

Retirement advice from a Boomer to a Millennial

I'm in my early 60s and fortunately will be able to retire soon. But I work with a lot of young people who just don't get how important it is start planning early for retirement. They don't even seem to know where to start. I'd like to help them better prepare -- do you have any advice? --Jeff M.

I applaud you for wanting to help your colleagues in their 20s and early 30s, but let's not be too quick to assume they're clueless about retirement. The latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll did find that young workers are more concerned with immediate needs like paying off student debt and building an emergency fund than retirement. But a new T. Rowe Price study also reports that saving for retirement is important to Millennials and that they're actually doing a pretty good job of balancing current obligations with preparing for retirement.

Continue reading source article here. 

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

2 ways to get guaranteed retirement income

Ask advisers this question and the answer may depend on how the adviser makes his living. If he or she sells annuities, you'll probably hear how wonderful annuities are and why you should have one. If, on the other hand, the adviser charges a fee to invest retirees' savings for retirement income, you'll likely get an earful about annuities' shortcomings and reasons why keeping your savings in stocks, bonds and other investments is the better way to go.

Continue reading source article on CNN.com.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions 

Behind on retirement savings? Here are 3 ways to catch up

Generally, you should have six to nine times your salary tucked away in a 401(k) or other accounts by your mid-50s to early 60s to have a good shot at maintaining your standard of living in retirement. So you're definitely short of where you ought to be.

Continue reading the source article at CNN.com.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

Saved $1 million and living my dream retirement

Roy Nash long dreamed of retiring at the age of 55.

A self-taught investor, he diligently stashed all the savings he could in stocks and mutual funds. So by 2009, when he did turn 55, he says he had more than $800,000 saved -- enough to step away from his nearly three decade long career at a natural gas distributor in St. Louis.

Continue reading the source article at CNN.com. 

Damian Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

The proven way to retire rich

Last year, the National Bureau of Economic Research with professors from the University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University, and North Carolina State University, released a study entitled "Financial Knowledge and 401(k) Investment Performance."

In it the authors found that individuals who had the most financial knowledge -- as measured through five questions about personal finance principles -- had investment returns that were on average 1.3% higher annually -- 9.5% versus 8.2% -- than those who had the least financial knowledge.

Click here to read the source article at CNN.com. 

Damian Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions