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Retirement: You’ve Got This!
Not everyone is financially prepared for retirement. Earlier this year, the Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated almost 41 percent of American households will run short of money in retirement. That’s an improvement over 2014 when almost 43 percent of 35- to 64-year-olds were unprepared.1 Here is some good news: Many Americans are doing better financially in retirement than they expected.2 Each year, T. Rowe Price conducts a survey of Americans who participate in or are eligible to participate [...]
Holiday Greeting – Celebrate the New Year Your Way
If you’re not fond of New Year’s resolutions, then start or adopt new traditions that help get the year off to a positive start. Your new tradition should be something you can repeat each year with family and friends. Here are a few ideas: • Share love and appreciation. At dinner or brunch, share stories about your favorite events from the previous year. Each person can take a turn telling the others at the table [...]
Holiday Greeting – Wishing Joy and Laughter this Holiday Season
No matter what holiday you celebrate, we hope it’s filled with joy, laughter, and heartfelt happiness. That said, we know holiday cheer can be overwhelmed by the pursuit of perfection and opinions of relatives. Just in case your goodwill falters, we offer some wise, and not-so-wise, words to help restore your equilibrium and good humor. “A candle is a small thing. But one candle can light another. And, see how its own light increases, [...]
Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing
The gifts are bought (well almost!). The stockings are hung. The meal is planned except for that last little thing you need to pick up from the grocery store . . . The details of celebrating Christmas can become quite all-encompassing. But sometimes they can also steal our joy while we frantically run around hoping we didn't forget anything. Sometimes we can become so absorbed in our to-do lists that we forget the purpose [...]
What’s the Best Gift this Holiday Season?
You’ve probably never asked your adult children and younger relatives whether they have security software on their computers and devices. Why would you? They’re digital natives, born with keyboards under their fingertips. It may be time to ask. In an unexpected twist, the best gift for some younger Americans this holiday season may be data protection software or services. A 2019 You.gov poll reported 35 percent of Americans, ages 18 to 34, think their data and [...]
Holiday Greeting – What Are You Thankful For?
Thanksgiving is all about gratitude. In 1621, the Plymouth colonists shared an autumn feast with the Wampanoag Indians. They were celebrating survival and friendship. It’s also a poignant story.1 About one-half of the passengers who traveled to the new world for 66 days on the Mayflower died during that first unforgiving winter in the new land. It’s uncertain how many would have survived the year if Squanto, a Native American who had been kidnapped [...]
Talkin’ Turkey on Thanksgiving Day
Everyone is assembled and spirits are high. The delicious aroma from the oven beckons all to the table. Typical family jokes and memories can entertain for a while, along with platitudes over the wonderful meal, but being gathered together is also a golden opportunity to have meaningful conversations with family. The gift of presence. Sometimes it is hard to have everyone together to discuss important family plans. Thanksgiving often involves generations, too, which makes our [...]
Holiday Greeting – What Do You Know About Veterans Day?
After World War I, many nations celebrated the end of “The Great War” by establishing Armistice Day. Eventually, the holiday was broadened to celebrate those who served in all wars. In the United States after World War II and the Korean War, it was renamed Veterans Day.1 See what you know about this holiday and the people it honors by taking a brief quiz. 1. Approximately, how many veterans live in the United States? [...]
Does Your Company Offer a Retirement Plan?
One of the most discussed topics in the United States is retirement security. Few Americans have set aside enough savings to live comfortably throughout retirement. In fact, the most recent National Retirement Risk Index (NRRI)* found:1 “…half of today’s households will not have enough retirement income to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living, even if they work to age 65 and annuitize all their financial assets, including the receipts from a reverse mortgage on their [...]
Holiday Greeting – Save Money with a Green Halloween!
Americans expect to spend $8.8 billion on costumes, decorations, candy, and other Halloween purchases, according to the National Retail Federation.1 That’s enough money to purchase the New England Patriots ($3.8 billion), the Los Angeles Dodgers ($3.3 billion), the Hannah Montana franchise ($1 billion), Balmoral Castle in Scotland ($140 million), a private jet ($150 million), and still have a few hundred million left for incidentals.2, 3 If you’d like to save on this holiday so you [...]
Finding Restoration when Brokenness Breaks You Financially
You've planned your life carefully. Worked your whole life to make the second half of your life go well, with 401k and retirement plans in place. You've arrived at the golden years and anticipate peace as you age gracefully with your spouse. The only problem is, for over half of us, that reality was crushed with a divorce that was not expected. Divorce is a reality in a broken world but not something that any [...]
LifeStyle Newsletter – The Secret Life of Data
What data about you is most important? The data that identity thieves are after – social security, credit card, and bank account numbers – is important, as well as more basic data which is being collected by companies whose devices you use every day. Geoffrey Fowler of The Washington Post recently reported what happens on smartphones doesn’t stay on smartphones, despite advertisements suggesting otherwise. He wrote:1 “Even though the screen is off and I’m snoring, apps [...]
