What If You Can’t Afford To Retire?

““Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses.”” – Cato the Elder (2nd centuryB.C.)

Aging baby boomers are starting to realize that there is very little chance most of them will be able to retire at 55 or 65 and live off their savings. That’s because most of those closing in on retirement don’t have enough saved. A recent survey conducted by The Insured Retirement Institute found the following:

* Only 60 percent of baby boomers report having any retirement savings
* 36 percent said they plan to retire at 70 or later
* 27 percent are confident they will have enough for retirement

The survey found that 27 percent of baby boomers are confident they will have enough money to last through their retirement, down from 33 percent a year ago and 37 percent in 2011. Only 6 in 10 boomers report having any retirement savings, down from roughly 8 in 10 in previous surveys.

Of those who were willing to answer, about 40% have an investable net worth of less than $50,000, 60% less than $100,000, and 80% less than $250,000.

If you figure on making 6% on your money, this means fewer that one out of five Americans who are nearing retirement age have the wherewithal to enjoy a passive retirement income of more than $15,000.

How well can you live on $15,000 a year?

And it’s only getting worse. During the Great Recession, government numbers showed that Americans were in a net spending rather than saving mode. Fortunately, that has turned around but the vast majority of Americans are not rich enough to retire and they are getting less rich every year.

I'’ve made the argument that retirement,– the idea of not working, of living off passive income – was a short-lived phenomenon in this country. It was sold to us by the government and by the banking and the insurance industries, yet it only worked (and only partially) for one complete generation:– the parents of the baby boomers, who benefited from the appreciation of their homes.

Other than that, most Americans have worked most of their lives,– just as most Europeans, most Asians, and most Africans have done since recorded history.

Still, it’'s a great fantasy and one you should not give up on entirely.

If you work hard and invest your savings, you can still retire comfortably. But you’'ll have to do those things over a long period of time,– which you may not have. (Or you’'ll have to get lucky, which you shouldn'’t count on.)

But even if you are able to stop working and live off your savings, retirement may turn out to be less than the wonderful experience you’ve imagined. A former colleague of mine retired with a personal net worth in excess of $20 million about five years ago. Since that time, he has done everything you can do in retirement:– traveled the world, spent time with his family, played a lot of golf, etc. But the other day, he pulled me aside and said, “Ray, let’s do something together. I’ve got to get my blood moving again.”

He wasn’t talking about golf. And he’s not alone. The golf courses of America are full of lonely retirees fantasizing about the good old days when they were involved in something meaningful.

And they are right. There is nothing more rewarding than working on something you think is important. And there’'s nothing less satisfying than whiling away your time with distractions, waiting for your body to shut down.

Someone smart once told me that they should invent a new period of life for Americans today. After the working years, there should be something called the Semi-Retirement or Post-Daily Grind or the Golden Working Years, during which you get to (a) do something you really enjoy doing, (b) do it as many hours as you wish, and (c) get paid good money for doing it.

In the Internet age, I believe this is going to be possible for many of us,– and it will definitely be possible for you if you start planning on it now. It doesn’t matter if you are 55 or 35, there is a way to shift the course of what you are doing now toward some rewarding activity that meets all your needs:– intellectual, physical, emotional, and financial.

The trick is to do work that you love. And it may be that the work you are doing now isn’t lovable. A  Rutgers University study found that 70% of those asked would be OK with working into their “retirement years” if they could find some part-time work they could do outside of their current employment.

Work that’s enjoyable (probably something different from what you are doing now) and work that can be done part-time (20-30 hours a week). Does 't that sound like good “unretirement” work to you?

Let’s add two more qualifications:

* The work should be in a desirable location.

* It should enable you to associate with agreeable people.

That meets my three standards –to enjoy what you do, where you do it, and with whom you do it.  

If you can find work that meets those requirements and pays you a reasonable financial reward, you will probably be very happy to forget about retirement altogether,– at least for a while.

In future messages we will talk about how to go about finding such work. Right now, I'’d like you to think about it. What would you do if you could do anything? Where would you do it? What kind of working relationships would suit you best?

It may be that you will decide to become a free-lance copywriter. Or maybe you will work as an Internet artist, or a cyberspace interior decorator. Your love of horticulture may be transformed into a part-time source of income for you. Anything is possible.$

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3 Easy Ways to Save More for Retirement

Investing for retirement is difficult…

Keeping a constant eye on the markets, studying economics, staying on top of every trend without a misstep… that’s time-consuming and confusing.

Worse, the 401(k) system is broken: Lack of guidance, poor websites, and limited investment options make most individuals’ first foray into investing confusing.

But you can’t hide from it. No one is going to rescue your retirement for you.

The good news is it doesn’t have to be so tough. As you’ll see below, there are just three keys to understanding 401(k)s. Learn these and you will truly change the quality of life in your retirement…

Let’s get started…

There are only three things you need to think about to earn an extra six figures in your retirement plan…

1. Asset Allocation
2. Low Fees
3. Index Funds

Let’s quickly cover asset allocation…

Asset allocation means how you divvy up your capital among several categories of assets. By taking a broad view of the possible asset classes to hold, you can meet your retirement goals. Changes in the market get smoothed out by the diversified nature of the portfolio… leaving you to sleep well at night.

The key is doing it from the start and sticking to it.

First, you set aside some cash for emergencies… Then, start with a simple allocation: Decide between stocks and bonds. If you have a longer-term view and a high tolerance for risk, you might make your allocation 80% stocks and 20% bonds. If you are closer to retirement and don’t like volatile returns, you could do 70% bonds and 30% stocks.

Most of us fall somewhere in between those extremes. When starting off, I suggest using an “in the middle of the fairway” asset-allocation plan: 60% stocks and 40% bonds. It ensures you harness the proven wealth-building power of stocks… while also using the conservative, income-producing power of bonds.

The point is to combine assets, like stocks and bonds, that are not perfectly correlated (meaning their price movements are not closely related to each other). Blending them in a portfolio smoothes out your total returns.

As you get closer to retirement, you can adjust your allocation to match your risk tolerance. For example, you can use the “60/40” asset allocation while you are in your 40s, 50s, and 60s… and then start increasing your allocation more to bonds when you reach your 70s.

Once you are comfortable with that basic stock-bond allocation, you can start to get more complex, dividing your categories among, say, domestic and international stocks. Or you can divide your bond allocation among corporate, federal, and municipal bonds. You can also add a small allocation to precious metals, or what I call “chaos hedges.”

That’s Step 1. With allocation, we’ve protected your portfolio from deep swings and ensured you’ll have money until the end. Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of fixing your 401(k)…

Hidden fees pervade the financial industry…

The fees on fund investments are even worse. The fees always look small to the untrained eye. A mutual fund can easily charge 2%-3% of assets without looking too expensive.

When the percentages are that small, it can seem like it’s not worth your time to fret over fees. But that’s completely wrong.

Remember, these aren’t one-time fees. It’s a 2% hit every year. Over time, that 2% adds up substantially. And it’s particularly egregious considering you can find funds with fees as low as 1%, or even 0.25%.

Even more troubling, each year you pay a fee, you lose decades of compounding that would grow on top of that money.

The results add up…

Consider an investor who saves $5,000 a year, earns 8% in returns on investments, and pays a 2% annual fee. Over 40 years, he amasses $786,000.

If he cut that fee to 1%, he would finish with $1,045,000.

Think of how hard you work to save $5,000 every year for 40 years. It’s not easy. No matter how much you earn, life gets expensive. Over all that time, you set aside $200,000.

But here’s the catch, you can earn an additional $259,000… by just spending five minutes controlling the fees on your funds.

That’s easy money.

And you can do even better than that. You should be able to get your fees to less than 1% if your plan has reasonable options.

Skeptics might wonder… When we switch to cheaper funds, aren’t we going to get worse performance? Don’t bargain prices mean bad funds?

Nope. The truth is the exact opposite…

The cheapest funds in the game are index funds.

Index funds don’t have a Wall Street trader behind them, trying to outcompete everyone else and beat the market. (The majority of the smart guys fail.) Rather, index funds follow simple rules designed to help them track the overall performance of a particular asset class, like U.S. stocks or Treasury bonds.

Most “actively managed” funds (those with a manager trying to pick the best stocks) underperform the market year after year. In fact, 96% of actively managed mutual funds fail to beat the market over a sustained period.

That means you don’t have a 50-50 chance of picking a “good” fund or a “bad” fund… It hardly even matters which one you pick. The vast majority are bad and won’t beat the market.

On the other hand, index funds don’t need to pay superstar managers or an army of analysts. Ironically, they keep costs extremely low and provide better performance.

Investors are finally catching on. The index fund industry is growing. According to the Investment Company Institute Fact Book, the percentage of stock assets held in index funds has grown from only 9.4% in 2000 to 20.2% in 2014. Over the last seven years, more than $1 trillion have flowed into index funds. Vanguard’s Bond Index Fund recently surpassed PIMCO’s Total Return Fund as the largest bond fund in the world.

It’s likely your plan offers a few mutual funds that track an index.

By following these three simple steps, you can fix your 401(k) and boost your lifetime returns by hundreds of thousands of dollars… in just a few minutes.

So take the time to review your retirement plan today… It will be the easiest money you make in your entire life.

Here’s to our health, wealth, and a great retirement.

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10 Ways to Improve Your Finances in One Day

LITTLE FIXES, BIG RESULTS

Starting on the path to financial health can be overwhelming. But as you start paying attention to your money management techniques, you’ll notice that it’s not the big things as much as it is your small, daily decisions that truly impact your finances — for better or worse. In just an hour or two, you can complete a small task to make a big improvement in your financial situation.

1. DO WHAT YOU’VE BEEN DREADING

Often emotions win out in the struggle to wisely manage money, and negative feelings like shame or fear can make it seem easier to just avoid the financial tasks hanging over your head. Don’t give in to these emotions. Be proactive — the only thing that will actually make financial problems better is facing and fixing them.

If you have a financial task that you’ve been dreading and avoiding, like calling a collections agency that you owe or setting up a payment plan for back taxes, now’s the time to take care of it. Doing so will give you peace of mind and relief. But most importantly, it will give you the chance to directly address and handle any issues before they end up costing you even more money and stress.

2. SET UP AUTOMATIC SAVINGS TRANSFERS

If you set savings goals but can’t ever seem to stick to them, setting up automatic transfers to your savings account makes it easy and simple to stay on course. Figure out your savings purpose and goal — maybe you’re hoping to buy a car in a few months or want to step up your retirement contributions. Once you have a dollar amount for your total savings goal, calculate how much you’ll need to save each paycheck to reach it. Then use your bank’s online tools to set up a recurring transfer that moves money into your savings account as soon as you get paid.

3. PURGE RECURRING EXPENSES

If you’re paying for subscriptions to magazines you never read or pay more for your cable bill than you do for car insurance, it’s time to purge your recurring expenses. Spend about an hour reviewing recent expenses, keeping an eye out for monthly charges like cable bills and subscription fees as well as services you could do yourself, like housecleaning. Look for services you don’t use much or could live without and cancel them.

For services you need, contact your service provider ask if there are any current offers, promotions or discounts that you could take advantage of to secure a lower rate. Or, you could try and get an upgrade at the same price you’re currently paying. If you can’t get a deal from your current service provider, shop the competition to see if other companies are willing to offer a discount to give you a reason to switch over. The best part about cutting or lowering monthly expenses is that it’s a one-time effort that will help you save money long term.

4. CONTEST A FEE

If you’ve been slapped with a bank fee or other fee you don’t think is justified, speak up. Call your service provider and politely ask that the fee be waived. If it was charged in error, ask the company to correct the error — you might even be given a small discount as a consolation.

If the fee was legitimately levied, you can still request that the service provider waive the fee or lower it. If the fee is from your bank, for instance, maybe a bill payment went out a day before your paycheck was deposited resulting in an overdraft. Make sure to mention how excellent of a customer you usually are and how important this request is to you. Chances are good that retaining your business is worth waiving a $30 fee to your service provider.

6. MAKE AN EXTRA DEBT PAYMENT

If you’re in debt, whether you owe a high credit card balance, student loans, car loan or mortgage, making an extra payment will help you get a guaranteed return today. To make an extra payment, figure out how much extra you can afford, whether it’s $50, $100 or $500. Every bit can help you get ahead of interest and chip away at the principal of your loan or credit balance, which is the actual money you owe that is accruing interest.

Some personal finance experts recommend targeting your debt with the highest interest rate first, which would typically be a credit card balance. Submit the extra payment as you normally would through your bank’s online bill pay or you lender’s account management system. Next, start planning how you’ll make your next extra payment and get closer to owing zero.

7. GO ON A 24-HOUR SPENDING FAST

If you don’t think you have the extra funds to cover an additional loan payment or to save more money, try going on a 24-hour spending fast, making it your goal not to buy anything or spend any money that day. It might take some planning to arrange your day so you won’t need to spend money. Pack a lunch with what’s in your fridge, ask a coworker for a ride to work or stick with free water at the after-work happy hour.

Refraining from spending can make you aware of the triggers that prompt you to pull out your wallet, like driving past a coffee shop or getting invited out for lunch. By not spending, you can get a clearer picture of which expenses you truly need and which ones are simply bad habits you have formed.

8. CHECK YOUR CREDIT REPORT

You’re entitled to get a free copy of your credit reports once a year. If it’s been 12 months or more since you last reviewed your credit report, visit AnnualCreditReport.com to request free copies of your credit reports. All you have to do is fill out a short form, and once your information is verified, you’ll get access to an online copy of your report that you can also download and print out.

Review your reports to assess your payment history and look for errors. Credit report mistakes are actually fairly common; a Federal Trade Commission study found that one in four consumers have identified errors on their credit reports. Review all the credit accounts, loans and personal information listed in the credit report to ensure they are all your own because sometimes people find that their information has been confused with someone who has a similar name.

In addition, check for any negative marks like a late or missed payment that seems inaccurate. You can dispute any possible errors with the credit bureau and the lender that reported the information to the credit bureau, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

9. SET A MONEY GOAL AND MAKE A PLAN

Some money goals involve doing some homework and require more than a day to achieve, but you need to get started. Use today to put your plan into action and get informed so that you are a step closer to accomplishing your financial goals. When you aren’t sure where to start, begin by researching your financial goal and obstacles you might encounter. With a simple search engine query, you can find articles and tools that can help you understand how to accomplish your goal.

For something like buying a home, for example, there could be several steps you need to take, such as improving your credit score, saving a down payment and maybe even trying to increase your salary so you will meet lenders’ income requirements. Once you have an overview of how to proceed, you can move on to the next step tomorrow.

10. FIND A BETTER INTEREST RATE

Whether it’s interest you’re earning or interest you’re paying, finding a more favorable rate will go a long way in moving your finances in the right direction. If it’s an interest rate on a loan or credit card, you can try simply asking for a lower rate. Credit card issuers will often lower your interest rate when asked.

For loans, many banks and credit unions will offer interest rate discounts if you set up direct payments or meet other requirements. Some lenders provide similar discounts to student loan borrowers.

You also want to make sure you’re getting a good rate on your deposits, like a savings account, money market account or even your checking account. By shopping around and comparing the annual percentage yields and dividends offered by different financial institutions, such as credit unions and online banks, you might find a better rate that will help your money grow faster.

Managing Post-Retirement Risks: The Stock Market

Stock market losses can seriously reduce retirement savings. But common stocks have substantially outperformed other investments over time, and thus are often recommended for retirees' long-term investments as part of a long-term investment mix.

Predictability

Individual stocks rise and fall based on the outlook for the stock market and the specific company. Individual stocks are more volatile than a diversified portfolio.


Stock index funds are diversified, but they still are exposed to the ups and downs of the stock market.


Managing the Risk

Stock market investors should diversify widely among investment classes and individual securities, and be prepared to absorb possible losses. Because it may take many years to recover losses, older employees and retirees should be especially careful to limit their stock market exposure.


A variety of polled investment "funds" exist, ranging from mutual funds and exchange-traded funds to managed accounts to hedge funds.


Hedge funds, which are private investment funds that participate in a range of assets and a variety of investment strategies, may offer some protection, but they can be complex and have high expense charges.


Stock funds offer opportunities to invest in both U.S. companies and international stocks.


Conclusion

Some financial products let an individual invest in stocks and guarantee against loss of principal. However, expenses on these products may be high, and the financial firm may limit losses by shifting most funds to bonds, thus reducing the stock exposure.


Younger workers can afford to take more risks because they have time to make up short-term losses and can postpone retirement. Older individuals might want to allocate a smaller proportion of assets to the stock market.


Target-date (or "life-cycle") funds gradually shift some of their assets out of stocks as the investor gets older. In target-date funds designed by different fund managers, the allocation to stocks at a given age varies. Proposed regulations would increase disclosure to consumers about target-date funds to bolster understanding of what these funds do and don't do.


When significant personal assets are in company stock, the risk of job loss is compounded by possible loss of savings if the company does poorly or goes out of business. Even if a company appears strong, it is safer to diversify those assets among other investments.$


www.RayBuckner.retirevillage.com

Managing Post-Retirement Risks: Interest Rates

Lower interest rates tend to reduce retirement income in several ways:

• Workers must save more to accumulate an adequate retirement fund.
• Retirees earn less spendable income on investments such as CDs and bonds; any income reinvested earns lower rates.
• Payout annuities yield less income when long-term interest rates are low at the time of purchase.

Predictability

Long-term and short-term interest rates can vary within a wide range. Underlying forces that drive interest rates include expected inflation, government actions and business conditions.




Managing The Risk

Income annuities provide retirees with a guaranteed fixed income, despite changes in the interest rate environment, but most do not adjust the income for inflation.


Prevailing interest rates will impact the amount of annuity payout the retiree can purchase from a given lump sum.


Investing in long-term bonds, mortgages or dividend-paying stocks also offers protection against lower interest rates, although the value of these investments will fluctuate. The risk is that rising interest rates will reduce the value of such assets available to meet unexpected needs.




Conclusion

Long-term interest rates often move up or down at about the same rate of inflation.


Higher real interest returns, above rates of inflation, usually make retirement more affordable. this occurs when retirees' assets include sizeable amounts of interest-paying bonds, CDs, etc.


However, some retirees have adjustable-rate mortgages or substantial consumer debt, so higher interest rates are an added burden. For such retirees, the higher interest rates that accompany increased inflation may reduce their spendable income just when it's most needed.


Low interest rates in some recent years make it clear that retirees relying on income from interest-bearing investments are subject to interest rate risk.$




www.RayBuckner.retirevillage.com

Fundamental Indexing: A Different Approach

Investors generally can divided into two camps: those who believe the market constantly misprices stocks, leaving opportunities for active traders to take advantage of; and those who accept the "efficient market theory" and believe that it is better to just hold index funds. But this "active versus passive" debate often leaves out a third viewpoint.

That view reflects the belief that while the market is not always perfectly efficient, it is difficult to consistently pick enough "winners" to overcome the management fees, trading expenses and income taxes associated with active stock trading.

Passive investors - meaning those who think that the market's pricing generally reflects the approximate current value of a company, given its future prospects - typically turn to index funds as the vehicle of choice. An index, like he S&P 500 or the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, represents that particular small or large part of the market: If the market goes up or down, the index will move in parallel, since it is invested in the same way the market itself is constructed. Index funds are less expensive to operate, as their managers do not have to work to continually beat the market.

That said, most indexes have some disadvantages. Traditional indexes are "market cap weighted" (number of shares outstanding times their stock price). The higher the relative market value of a company, the greater portion of the index it will represent. However, when securities become over- or under-valued, market cap-weighted indices must assign a greater relative share to overvalued stocks; as a result, the market-cap indices exaggerate the market movement. For example, if a tech stock is trading at an excessive price/earnings (PE) ratio, a market-cap index will hold a larger amount of this stock than a similarly-sized company trading at a reasonable PE ratio.

Fundamental indices represent a different approach. Company size is measured by four equally weighted factors: sales, cash flows, book value and dollar value of dividends paid. These four factors are used to generate a ranking of the stocks in the sector being tracked. Note that his method completely ignores stock price, so while the market may be overvaluing that tech company mentioned above, the mispricing has no impact on how the stock ranks in a fundamental index. The fundamental methodology does not completely avoid owning "overvalued" stocks; it just holds them based on a truer measure of their value, not their stock market value. There is a large overlap when comparing the two - the names are most often the same, but the ranking is different.

Not many advisors have made the switch to fundamental indices, and we're glad they haven't. It's one more way that we can create an advantage for our clients. As we continue to scan the horizon for "best practices," we'll bring you what we find, so that there will be more and more ways for you to benefit from working with Retire Village.$

www.RayBuckner.retirevillage.com

Do Your Advisors Have The Eye Of The Tiger?

"It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger"
Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. #1 Hit 1982

It's The Little Things That Can Get You
In the wild, being aware of the little things can make the difference between life and death, feast or famine. The predator has to use stealth, surprise, speed and quickness when pursuing its prey. One little sound or even approaching from the wrong wind direction can lead to failure and an empty stomach.

In life, it's also the little things that can trip us up and cause unintended consequences. A surgeon does a fantastic job performing a surgery. The surgery is successful. But what happens if someone in housekeeping didn't do their job, or someone in food service? They didn't handwash properly? The patient could end up with a MRSA infection. So that great surgery was severely compromised. Why? Because of the surgery, which was the big thing? Or what was the thing that got the patient? Yes, the little thing.

The "Little" Things in Personal Finance

Most people have good advisors, attorneys, accountants and brokers. These advisors do all of the big things. Unfortunately, they often overlook the little things. One such area is Powers of Attorney(POA). Of the thousands of POAs that we have looked at, although they were all perfectly legal, they were missing important things.

For example: The Social Security Administration, Veteran's Administration, and the IRS will not honor your POA unless it has specific language pertaining to those areas. Knowing what you know about the government, what's the likelihood that the language used by these entities are all the same? Exactly, none of them do! That's just one of nine things that we find that basic POAs are missing. Why is this important? Because you use POAs to withdraw money.

Banks and Brokerages

Even though a POA is completely legal, if it's missing these nine things, many banks and brokerages will turn them down. What's the advantage to a bank or brokerage for turning down a POA? They get to hold on to the funds longer and continue to make more money. They have no financial reason to honor it. It's actually negative financially for them to honor it. In fact, if they honor it and find out later that it wasn't the most current or correct POA, they could end up getting sued.

21-Point Checklist

If you're going on a long roadtrip, it's important to make sure that your vehicle is checked and ready. You take it to a mechanic, and they would perform a 10-or-12-Point Check. Similarly, you should have your personal financial situation checked out. There are actually 21 common "little" things that can bite you. And they can cause BIG problems. These 21 different things are important items that your bankers, brokers, attorneys and accountants miss.

Don't let the "little" things trip up you and your family. Make sure that the Eye of the Tiger is watching out for you!$

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