Personal Finance Blog for Retirement and Investment Advice

Are “Termites” Destroying Your Financial Foundation?

August 24th, 2022 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

Chomp… Chomp… Chomp…

That’s the sound of termites destroying your financial foundation.

But most people aren’t aware it’s happening. And it’s claiming more victims than you might think.

Of course, you’re aware of how inflation is eating away at the value of your dollars. You feel it at the grocery store, the gas station, when you pay rent, and just about everywhere you look.

But, if, like many Americans, you own a term insurance policy, personally or through your workplace, it might not even be worth the paper it’s printed on when you need it.

Inflation has been running at a 40-year high, currently around 9% per year. But let’s say the Federal Reserve gets it right and brings inflation down to 4% annually in the next few years.

Imagine that you have a $500,000 20-year term policy. In the event of your death, the benefit your loved ones would receive will lose up to 56% of its purchasing power.

Shaky Economy Stressing You Out? Here’s What to Do…

July 8th, 2022 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

Feeling like a deer in the headlights right now? You’re not alone! Soaring inflation, stock market crashing, a pandemic that just won’t go away – and the only light at the end of the tunnel looks like the oncoming train of recession! We’re all getting squeezed from both ends…

It’s costing you 60% more than last year to fill up your gas tank.

Last month, you thought about buying a new home. This month mortgage rates have priced you totally out of the market.

Global supply chain glitches mean that things you bought all the time are almost impossible to find. (Seriously, a sriracha hot sauce shortage?!?)

Your low-interest charge cards are projected to average 20% in a couple of months – and the high-interest rate ones will be off the charts.

A few months ago, you were sitting on your big, juicy 401(k) or IRA and thinking of early retirement. Now, you’re praying they’ll let you keep your job when you’re 82.

Not long ago, you looked at your retirement account balance and felt euphoric. A humongous asteroid could be heading toward earth and the market would still go up! I can relate. [Read more…] “Shaky Economy Stressing You Out? Here’s What to Do…”

How to Shield Yourself from Market Volatility, Inflation and Interest Rate Woes

March 9th, 2022 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

Stock market volatility has returned with a vengeance, as this chart of the Dow over the last 3 months starkly illustrates.

Down Jones Industrial Average

We’re facing a whirlwind of economic challenges we have little or no control over. Here are the top 5 currently contributing to the volatility:

Challenge #1: Inflation has hit a 40-year high

That’s hammering consumers, wiping out pay raises, and reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s decision to rip off the band-aid and raise borrowing rates multiple times this year alone, which some economists fear will trigger a recession.

Challenge #2: The pandemic and rock bottom interest rates pushed home prices up at a head-spinning rate

Trading a Pension for Tension: Why You Need a Safe Money, Guaranteed Income Strategy for Retirement

January 20th, 2022 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

Today, as you try to figure out a safe money retirement income strategy, you’ve got a lot to consider:

The market goes up, and the market goes down. Will it be down when you need to sell some of the assets in your retirement fund? How can you control your financial future when Wall Street is absolutely unpredictable?
What about inflation and taxes? What if you put your money into safe CDs, only to get clobbered by inflation? Will higher taxes give you less money to spend in retirement – just when the cost of everything is going up due to increasing inflation?
How can you plan your withdrawals if you can’t know for sure how long you’ll live? Over the last century, life expectancy in this country has mostly gone up. How can you be sure your retirement savings won’t run out before you do? And what’s your Plan B if your money does run out?

If you don’t have answers to these questions, join the club! These are the challenges we all face when planning for our retirement, but there are proven strategies that can guarantee you can put these challenges behind you. [Read more…] “Trading a Pension for Tension: Why You Need a Safe Money, Guaranteed Income Strategy for Retirement”

How to Avoid Depleting Your Retirement Nest Egg

November 23rd, 2021 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

The #1 retirement fear of Americans is running out of money. AARP reports that 50% of Americans share that fear.

And with good reason, because the average 65-year-old (the average retirement age in the US is 61) will outlive his or her savings by almost a decade, according to the World Economic Forum. Unfortunately, many will be forced to choose between putting food on the table or paying for life-saving medicine and may end up being dependent on their children.

We spend our working years hustling to build up our retirement nest egg. We assume that when we retire, we’ll supplement Social Security by withdrawing some of the principal. But no one can give us surefire guidance on how much we can safely take from our nest egg each year. In fact, William Sharpe, winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, said retirement income planning is “the hardest and nastiest problem in finance.”

How long will your money last in retirement?

Retirement Plan Unpredictability is a Major Wealth Killer

September 27th, 2021 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

I have written at length about my research into the wealth-killing traps of 401(k)s, IRAs, 403(b)s, and Roth plans… and how to avoid them.

In this post, I’m going to talk about the trap of retirement plan unpredictability, and I’ll start by asking you a critical question:

Do you know what the value of your retirement account(s) will be on the day you plan to tap into them… and in 20 or 30 years?

If your answer to that question is “no,” then you don’t have a plan – you’re gambling.

Yet isn’t the money you’ve earmarked for retirement money you can’t afford to lose? On top of all of life’s stresses, do you really want to have to worry about when the next market crash could wipe out 50% or more of your life’s savings – as has happened twice just since the year 2000?

Market Volatility Has Proven to be a Cause of Health Problems and Even Early Death

Tax Deferral is a Scam and Here’s Proof

July 16th, 2021 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

Tax deferral is a con, and I’m going to prove it to you.

Actually, I’m going to let you prove it to yourself, with this 5-second experiment.

The conventional wisdom says, “Maximize your contributions to tax-deferred plans, like 401(k)s, IRAs and 403(b)s. Your money compounds without being reduced by taxes, and you’ll end up with more money during retirement.”

But is it really true?

The Society of Actuaries says that if the tax rates are the same, “It doesn’t make any difference whether [the taxes] are taken away from you at the beginning (tax-exempt) or at the end (tax-deferred). It’s the same fraction of your money that is left to you.”

But most people look at their savings and think it’s all theirs. You may have forgotten you’ll owe the IRS the taxes you deferred all those years – on every penny you’ve put in and every penny of growth.

If the tax rates miraculously manage to be lower during your retirement, you might come out ahead by deferring your taxes. But where do you think tax rates are headed long term? You must consider what tax rates might be during a retirement that could last 30+ years. [Read more…] “Tax Deferral is a Scam and Here’s Proof”

When Does Taxation Become Theft?

May 12th, 2021 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

In his first 100 days in office, President Biden unveiled three colossal spending packages earning him the nickname, “The Six Trillion Dollar Man.”

Biden and Congress are just getting started with the most massive expansion of government since FDR’s New Deal during the Great Depression. Apparently, it’s desperately needed, even though the pandemic-caused recession is over.

This is a government that is notorious for wasting hundreds of billions of our hard-earned dollars every year. Think $518,000 to study how cocaine affects the mating habits of Japanese quails, $998,798 to ship two 19-cent washers from one state to another… and the list goes on. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried!

And let’s not forget this is a government with a long history of not being able to make much of a dent in controlling fraud and abuse. The government admits that more than $134 billion of improper Medicare and Medicaid payments were made in 2020 alone – and that’s just one government agency. [Read more…] “When Does Taxation Become Theft?”

How to Trade In Your 401(k) for an Increasing Guaranteed Income for Life

March 8th, 2021 by Pamela Yellen | Leave a Comment

Jason is 53 years old and just changed jobs. He’s facing two retirement planning dilemmas…

He has $830,000 in his 401(k) from his previous job and wants to move it where it gives him more guarantees that he and his wife, Julie, won’t outlive their money in retirement.
He had been putting $19,000 a year into his old 401(k) and wants to continue socking away that much. But in the last couple of years he experienced several downsides to 401(k)s that have soured him on the idea of continuing down that path.

The Five 401(k) Drawbacks Jason Discovered…

Drawback #1: When the pandemic hit, Jason’s employer stopped doing any matching contributions, which had been a big incentive for him. He’d forgotten the employer match isn’t guaranteed.

Drawback #2: As Jason gets closer to retiring, he has much less of an appetite for risk and volatility. What if the market crashes again shortly before he plans to retire in 14 years at age 67?

He’d been saving diligently in a 401(k) for 29 years already, and his average annual return had been less than 6%! Sheesh! All those sleepless nights and heart-stopping crashes… for less than 6% a year?!? He wondered if a monkey throwing darts couldn’t have done better than that… [Read more…] “How to Trade In Your 401(k) for an Increasing Guaranteed Income for Life”