71 percent of Americans aren’t saving enough for retirement

The trend is the same, but it seems the numbers are getting worse.

Seventy-one percent of Americans say they do not have enough retirement savings, according to a new national survey commissioned by Experian in collaboration with Get Rich Slowly (getrichslowly.org).

Especially worrisome: More than half of those surveyed, 54 percent, believe they will never pay off their debt fully.

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Damian J. Sylvia

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

Dealing With Retirement's Strange Sense of Humor

Retirement’s a funny thing… if you understand its weird sense of humor. People often enter retirement with one set of ideas and perceptions but they can quickly change when retirement pulls out many of its gags. For those who can catch on and learn to accept its ironic and sometimes cynical lessons, they transition with a smile and glass half full attitude. While those who miss the punch line can feel mocked, out-of-sorts, and even regret their decision to call it quits. Here’s a short list of cruel jokes that retirement may throw at you.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

Three Ways To Save A Lot More For Retirement

Unlike the great American gymnast Simone Biles, you don’t need to do flying somersaults to be good at retirement savings. There are already tools available for what you need to do.

As the U.S. economy continues to improve, retirement savers are pumping more money into their long-term savings. Some 21 percent of Americans surveyed, according to a recent bankrate.com report, say they are saving more for retirement—the highest level over the past five years.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement  Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

Retirement Or College Funding? What To Do Now

For millions of American families, one of the most vexing financial questions is: Should I save for retirement or fund college? Can we do both?

The question is not an easy one, because of course, you need to do both. Yet the right answer is often a simple one when you consider the financial liability of choosing one over the other.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions 

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

Top 7 hacks for saving more for retirement

Worrying about having enough retirement savings can keep you up at night. If you've barely put anything away, it's easy to panic or give up on saving altogether. But there's a third option: You can find ways to funnel a few extra bucks into your 401(k) account or your IRA. If you're ready to put more effort into saving, here are seven easy ways to fill your retirement accounts.

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Damian Sylvia 

Retirement Income Solutions 

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

Are Millennials Heading For A Retirement Crisis, Too?

We’ve heard over and over that many boomers will face a retirement crisis (if they haven’t already). But if you’re a boomer parent, you’re probably wondering: Will my kids’ generation, the Millennials, face one, too?

Of course, it’s way to early to say for sure either way. After all, these 83.1 million Americans are only 19 to 35. But based on the Wells Fargo Millennial Study released today and other data I’ve reviewed, I’d say that quite a few Millennials just may be heading towards a retirement crisis.

The good news: Unlike the boomers, Gen Y has enough time to reverse course.

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Damian Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

10 Tips to Live Rich While Saving for Retirement

Planning for your financial future while living a full and rich life is a juggling act. Between the financial demands of mortgage payments, kids' activity fees, the car payment and, of course, trying to save for retirement, sometimes the here and now can get lost.

The sad fact is that many people compromise things they truly value, like spending time with the people they care about, out of fear they will come up short one day, says Mark Ciucci, senior vice president of advice at United Capital, a financial advisory firm in Newport Beach, California.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

Millennials challenged by funding modern retirement

Today's 20-somethings face some challenging dilemmas when it comes to saving for retirement.

Not only must they fund their own retirements due to the near evaporation of company pensions, they also are saddled with more student-loan debt, stagnant wages and higher living expenses compared to a generation ago. And at the same time — in another departure from their parents' and grandparents' experience at the same age — they want to ... well, spend more time enjoying life.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

How To Not Run Out Of Money In Retirement

Investing for retirement doesn't have to be hard. You read up on how to put together a diverse mix of low-cost index funds, bonds, etc. Then keep setting aside all you can into that retirement account. Easy.

But when you actually retire and start spending that money, that's like going from playing checkers to playing chess. It can get a lot harder.

Here's the big pickle: You don't want to run out of money. But how can you know how much it's safe to spend when you might live for another five years — or 25 years?

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

The Future is Now: How Late Is Too Late to Start Saving for Retirement?

By now, you've probably read all of the articles that tell you the best time to start saving for retirement is, well, yesterday.

The earlier you start, the more time your investments have to grow.

Compound interest, it's said, is the eighth wonder of the world. Over time, you earn more from the interest on your investments than from the investment itself.

If you put $10,000 away when you are 22 years old, it will grow to be almost $100,000 by the time you are 70 years old, even if you never put another cent in, assuming a conservative 5 percent rate of return.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

Saving for Retirement? The Rulebook Is About to Change

New rules aimed at stockbrokers will have enormous impacts on the way Americans save for retirement.

The rules aren’t coming from the government’s financial regulatory apparatus but from the Labor Department. This week, it is expected to release final regulations that will require brokers getting paid to provide investment guidance on a retirement account to act solely in the best interest of the investor.

Brokers’ recommendations to this point have only had to be “suitable”—a less rigorous standard that critics say has encouraged some advisers to charge excessive fees, favor investments that offer hidden commissions and recommend securities that can be difficult for investors to sell.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road 

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

Getting Workers to Save More for Retirement

Saving for retirement should be simple arithmetic — the longer your money has to grow, the more money you should have when you stop working. But saving today for a distant tomorrow isn’t so simple, and has a great deal to do with how people think about money.

Sean Furlong, the director of finance and administration at Gilman School, a private secondary school in Baltimore, said he realized that while teaching a business class.

He was teaching students, he said, “but then I realized I wasn’t teaching my faculty and staff.”

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

Fewer of Us Save, More Are Confident of Retirement. Are We Crazy?

The retirement confidence of Americans has come a long way since the recession. The percentage of workers either very or somewhat confident that they will be able to afford a comfortable retirement now stands at 63 percent, up from 51 percent three years ago and 49 percent in 2011.

But it isn't because of a surge in the number of people who are saving, according to the 26th annual Retirement Confidence Survey released today by the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

3 steps to avoid running out of money in retirement

The majority of Americans don't think they are saving enough and are worried their savings won't last as long as they do.

Only 31 percent of workers who participate in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k), 403(b) or 457, are "extremely confident" or "very confident" that they will not outlive their money — and the rest aren't so sure, according to a new survey by BlackRock.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

How much retirement income do you really need?

The common wisdom about how much income Americans need in retirement may not be so wise, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The GAO, which reviewed 59 studies and reports on retirement income and interviewed retirement services firms and financial planners as part of the study, found that recommended target income replacement rates typically ranged from 70 to 85 percent of your pay just before retirement.

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Damian Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

 

How to Pay School Loans and Save for Retirement at the Same Time

The best time to start saving for retirement is as soon as possible. By saving in your early 20s, you give your nest egg extra time to grow, potentially shaving years off how long you need to work.

But before setting aside money for retirement, most feel the need to retire student loan debt. That’s easy to say but harder to do for millennials exiting college these days. Many are in the same boat as Nolan Grace, a 24-year-old who graduated from Purdue University with “very significant” loans. “It’s the biggest weight on my life right now,” he says.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755 

Here's how we can start saving more toward retirement right now

We're in the heart of America Saves Week, the time each year when the folks at America Saves conduct a survey of our progress when it comes to socking money away for rainy days and retirement. The group also encourages companies and individuals to assess their own efforts.

So, how are you feeling about your savings progress? If you're like 60 percent of the U.S. households surveyed, your answer is "meh."

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

How 1% of Pay Can Save Your Retirement

It works best when you start early.

One in four 401(k) savers increased their contributions last year. This additional saving will translate into hundreds or even thousands of extra dollars of monthly income in retirement, according to calculations from Fidelity Investments. All of which highlights the value of the automatic savings increases that are offered by many, but not most, retirement plans.

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Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

The real reason many millennials aren’t saving for retirement

Millennials are oft-maligned as a flighty, entitled generation saddled with debt and too obsessed with food and travel to worry about saving for retirement. But that doesn’t match the reality.

Young people are just as likely — or even more likely — than other generations to sock their money away. And new research points to one major reason more 20- and 30-somethings aren’t creating a nest egg, even if they might want to.

Continue reading source article here.

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755

 

How Working an Extra Year Improves Your Retirement Finances

Delaying retirement for one year can boost your monthly income.

Working for an additional year can have a significant impact on your retirement finances. A single extra year of work can boost your Social Security payments, give you more time to accumulate retirement savings and shorten the period of retirement you need to pay for. Here's a look at how delaying retirement for one year can improve your retirement budget.

Continue reading source article here.

Damian J. Sylvia

Retirement Income Solutions

220 Monmouth Road

Oakhurst, NJ 07755