Bank On Yourself Round-Up for week of June 23, 2011

Here are short summaries of three of the most interesting and thought-provoking items that have crossed my desk this week.  Enjoy!

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What would it be like to retire on $260 a month?

Have you ever thought about what kind of lifestyle you would have if your retirement plan only threw off $260 a month?

It’s a question a lot of Americans are going to have to start asking themselves.

A shocking article appeared this week on SmartMoney.com 1 revealing how much money the typical person approaching retirement actually has saved in their 401(k) and/or IRA.  And it’s not a pretty picture…

What would it be like to retire on $260 a month?

A typical pre-retiree taking withdrawals the way most people actually do would only be able to take $260 a month.

Oh, yeah – the article didn’t even mention you gotta pay the taxes you deferred all those years on that money!

How much do you think is going to be left for food, housing, utilities, car expenses, medical expenses not covered by Medicare, etc.? You’ll be lucky if you can scrape by at all, let alone enjoy even the smallest of life’s luxuries.

Of course, maybe you’ll have Social Security and Medicare to rely on.  Or maybe not…
[Read more…] “Bank On Yourself Round-Up for week of June 23, 2011”

Bank On Yourself Round-Up for Week of June 3, 2011

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Here are summaries of four of the most interesting and thought-provoking items that have crossed my desk this week…

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Forbes Magazine Shocker:  Why your 401(k) isn’t what it’s cracked up to be!

A stunning article appeared in this week’s Forbes.1 Here are a few of the revelations you absolutely must know about, if you participate in a 401(k):

  • 71% of 401(k) investors believe – wrongly – they pay nothing to participate in their plan, according to a recent survey
  • On average, participants in small plans (which includes 90% of all employees) pay 1.9% in fees annually!
  • Even paying fees of just 1.5% could wipe out one-third of your nest-egg
  • In spite of all the noise about “fixing” the 401(k) through new disclosure rules that will be going into effect, they “could cause some 401(k) services to get even more costly.”

 

Why you need an 8-10% annual return just to break even in your 401(k)…

It’s all documented in this 401(k) exposé I co-wrote with Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Dean Rotbart. You owe it to yourself to have the facts!

[Read more…] “Bank On Yourself Round-Up for Week of June 3, 2011”