A digest of timely information and insight about finance, investing, and retirement.
Here are the best places to retire | Time-Money
A dozen cities make up the list of best places to retire for 2016, with special attention paid to tax climates that will let retirees hang on to more of their money, along with top-notch services and plenty to do. See which cities won for the Mountain region.
Even math teachers are at a loss to explain annuities | The New York Times
Schoolteachers and other government and nonprofit workers who participate in 403(b) retirement savings plans offered are often at the mercy of confusing contracts tied to arcane investments, sold by representatives who may not understand them.
The proliferation of annuities in 403(b) plans is largely a matter of history. When Congress introduced them in 1958, they were viewed as supplemental pensions for teachers, and the only permissible investments were annuities. Certain types of annuities can serve as a useful retirement tool for some savers seeking a stream of guaranteed income. But many teachers already receive pensions providing a steady income base.
Teacher pensions under fire: 5 tips to prepare for retirement | Marketwatch
If you’re a teacher, the promise of a good retirement pension may have been a selling point when you took the job. But concerns over the funding of these pensions have some wondering whether their benefits will be there for them in full after their last day of work. [Read how a series of studies from 2015 showed that PERA is the most cost-effective, efficient retirement plan available.]
Here’s what happens when someone is forced to retire because they’re ‘old’ | Marketwatch
Mandatory retirement is still in the workforce, and it’s causing problems as people live – and work – longer. Being compelled to leave a job because you’ve hit a certain age could impose significantly negative consequences on older employees, and experts say such a requirement shouldn’t exist at all.
Social Security Benefit Formula Robs Older Workers | Forbes
The Social Security formula steals from people with long work histories and hands the dough to people with short work histories. It does this by counting only the 35 best years of earnings. This is an old problem, but now it’s easy to see exactly how it affects you and what a change in your earnings history would do to your benefit.
The biggest money mistakes we make – decade by decade | The Wall Street Journal
Our relationship to money changes as we get older. So do the mistakes that we make with it. Every new stage of life brings new financial strategies we need to follow. And at every stage we find new ways not to follow those strategies, costing ourselves money and jeopardizing our security. A closer look at some of the biggest mistakes we make – decade by decade – includes a few strategies to avoid them.
