The 8 Steps To A Successful Early Retirement

How would you like to retire early? Maybe 62 is a good age or maybe you’d like to retire at 60 or even 55.

But unless you’ve won the lottery, have a government pension or are the favorite niece or nephew of a rich uncle, you may find it difficult to achieve your goal. If can still be done, though. You have two options: cut your expenses or increase your retirement savings. Better yet, do both.

More specifically, you should be able to take that job and shove it at an age earlier than 65 if you do the following:

Continue reading article here. 

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

How Your Retirement Account Balance Compares to Your Peers

Your age often dictates your retirement saving priorities. In your 20s and 30s, you need to get some money into a retirement account so that it can start growing on your behalf. Once you have accumulated a significant nest egg, it becomes increasingly important to protect what you've got. And after you retire, you need to sensibly draw down your assets so that your nest egg lasts the rest of your life. Here are some strategies to give your retirement finances a boost at each stage of your life.

Continue reading source article here.

Damian Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

Pay Off All my Debt With My Retirement Money?

Dear Liz, My wife and I no longer work. She is 57 and I am 55. We have retirement income of about $90,000 in military and Department of Defense pensions. We have several Roth IRAs and some mutual funds. I have a 403(b) with $75,000. Is it wise to tap retirement accounts to clear off a credit card and pay my car off early to get out of debt? I owe $17,000 on it at 4.2% interest. -- Jeff

Dear Jeff, It rarely makes sense to prematurely tap a retirement account to pay off debt. It usually is much better to use savings or cash in nonretirement assets.

Withdrawals from your 403(b) retirement plan would trigger income taxes that would eat up at least a quarter of what you pulled out. While you wouldn't be subject to the 10% federal penalty because you are 55 and separated from your employer, you'd still wind up paying income taxes equal to your federal and state tax brackets. If you were in the 25% federal bracket, for example, a $20,000 withdrawal would trigger at least $5,000 in income tax (plus whatever your state charges).

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Damian Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

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

Stop your grown kids from ruining your retirement

If you are in your 50s or 60s and are still caring for your kids financially, you really need to start caring for yourself—or you may never be able to afford to retire.

A recent study found more than half of parents who are supporting adult children are "extremely concerned" about saving enough for retirement.

Continue reading source article here.

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ

07755 

When Should You Take Social Security Retirement Benefits?

For a lot of folks, the title question is a no-brainer: take the money and run. Why, you’ve been paying into this system all your life, so you should begin taking it back out as soon as you can, right?

Well, maybe.

Continue reading source article at Forbes.com.

Damian J. Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07719

 

5 Ways Retirement Will Pleasantly Surprise You

Most worker bees who are grinding away at a day job will tell you they can't wait to retire. However, those who have saved enough money to retire sometimes don't quit right away, even if they don't like going to work. Many savers develop a bit of anxiety about hanging up their work hat and choose to suffer the obvious because they are afraid of the unknown. Fortunately, there are many wonderful aspects of retirement, so the unknown isn't always all bad. For the workaholics among us, here are some reasons to plunge into retirement.

Continue reading source article at www.USnews.com.

Damian J. Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

You should break these six retirement rules. Here's why.

Are there right and wrong ways to retire? While that's a relative question, there are retirement rules that are in your best interest to follow — and those you might want to break. Consider these six retirement rules you might be better off ignoring.

1. Depending on a Pension or Social Security

Counting on a pension or Social Security to help you ride out your retirement years? That's probably not the best strategy to have, considering that very few companies still offer pensions (though you'd know if yours does) and Social Security is still in crisis (so much so that it might be bankrupt and not even exist by the time you retire). That's not to mention that inflation is likely to outpace your per-month payouts in the off chance that you do receive these income sources.

Continue reading source article at CSmonitor.com.

Damian J. Sylvia
Managing Partner
Retirement Income Solutions

Study: Day-to-Day Financial Concerns Trump Retirement

How are you doing, financially? Are you satisfied with the state of your finances?

Think about your answer to that question and what drove it. If you are like most people, you were probably thinking about your day-to-day financial health -- your ability to pay your bills and buy the occasional movie ticket or latte.

Continue reading source article at DailyFinance.com.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

Many Americans have no retirement savings: Fed survey

Many Americans are not financially prepared for retirement, with almost a third of working adults without savings or a pension, according to a Federal Reserve survey published on Wednesday.

The Fed's 2014 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking found that about 38 percent of the more than 5,800 respondents have either no intention to retire or plan to keep working for as long as possible.

Continue reading the source article at Reuters.com.

Damian Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

Worried About Outliving Retirement Funds? Consider This

If you're worried about outliving your retirement savings, you're not alone. Research shows it's a top concern for many Americans.

In a recent survey, financial advisors noted that health-care costs, market fluctuations and potential lifestyle expenses caused clients the most stress about running out of money. To alleviate those fears, many financial advisors suggest annuities as a way to ensure that clients have a stable stream of income during retirement.

Continue reading the source article at NBCnews.com

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

These 4 Rules of Thumb Can Screw Up Your Retirement

Rules of thumb are often partly true—but the part that's wrong can wreck your portfolio. Here's what you need to know.

Retirement planning can get complicated, so we often fall back on rules of thumb, or “heuristics” as economists call them. That approach may work sometimes—and is certainly better than doing nothing—but it can be dangerous too. Here’s what you need to know about four largely-but-not-completely true tenets of retirement planning.

Continue reading source article at Time.com. 

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

Powell: 8 biggest misconceptions about retirement

Perception might be reality. But that's not necessarily the case for pre-retirees. For Americans on retirement's doorstep, misconceptions are reality.

Yes, many Americans retire thinking and imagining this or that lifestyle, and the reality that awaits them is entirely different, say experts.

So, what are the biggest misconceptions people have about retirement and, more importantly, what can you do to avoid or deal with unrealistic images of your golden years?

Continue reading article at USAtoday.com.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

Retirement: The payoffs of an active lifestyle

Some people are planning ahead for their physical fitness in retirement just like they plan for their financial fitness, says one of the country's top national diet and exercise experts. And that's as it should be, he says.

If you start a few years before retirement, says James Hill, executive director of the the University of Colorado Anschutz Health and Wellness Center in Aurora, Colo., you'll be ready to go when you do retire; most people can make a lot of progress toward getting in better shape in a matter of a few months.

Continue reading article on USAToday.com

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions, LLC

Generations Confess Retirement Fears

A common stereotype about baby boomers and retirement might need some tweaking. This is the commonly held view that the “me” generation puts a very high priority on being able to retire whenever they want. Some are said to make it their highest financial priority. It is said that a lot of retirement planning for this generation spins around that goal.

But new Harris Poll sponsored by the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) found that it is Generation X, not the boomers, who are most concerned about not being able to retire when they want. The December survey sampled the views of more than 2,000 adults.

Continue reading article here.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

 

The Best Places to Work in Retirement

Just over a quarter (26.2 percent) of people age 60 and older remain employed. But in some cities, nearly a third of the population continues to work during the traditional retirement years, according to 2012 Census Bureau data. Here are the places those age 60 and older are the most likely to be employed.

Continue reading source article at USnews.com.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

The Secrets to Making a $1 Million Retirement Stash Last

More and more Americans are on target to save seven figures. The next challenge is managing that money once you reach retirement.

More than three decades after the creation of the 401(k), this workplace plan has become the No. 1 way for Americans to save for retirement. And save they have. The average plan balance has hit a record high, and the number of million-dollar-plus 401(k)s has more than doubled since 2012.

Continue reading source article at Time Magazine.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

Why post-retirement planning is harder than ever

You have heard the exhortations to save, save, save. Perhaps you have even managed to sock away a decent retirement nest egg. If so, good for you.

But do you have a plan for how to draw down that money?

For millions of Americans, the answer is no. While 401(k) plans usually offer a defined array of investment choices, online tools and other guidance, there is no such system in place for when workers retire.

Continue reading the source article at cnbc.com. 

Damian J. Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions

The Great Illusion of Retirement Savings

The nation is facing a looming retirement income crisis. Average retirees today are not well off. Tomorrow's average senior is likely to be in worse shape.

Instead of addressing this looming crisis, too many of the nation's policymakers and elites propose to make it worse. They tell the American people that Social Security's earned benefits must be cut, despite their modest size. They tell public-sector workers that their pensions are unaffordable, despite the fact that workers have already earned those benefits, indeed foregoing current compensation in the process.

Continue reading the source article at HuffingtonPost.com.

Damian J. Sylvia

Managing Partner
Retirement Income Solutions

The Best Way To Invest For Retirement

Turn on CNBC for two minutes and it’s easy to believe you need to stop everything and invest in the hot stocks the “experts” are recommending and get out — NOW! — of the ones they’re bearish about.

Chris Minnucci, author of the ironically titled The Death of Buy and Hold: How Not to Outlive Your Money — Investing for, and in, Retirement, says do so at your own peril.

Continue reading source article at Forbes.com.

Damian Sylvia

Managing Partner

Retirement Income Solutions