4 Skills You Need for a Successful Retirement
by Tom Sightings
Source: U.S.News & World Report
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-skills- ... 00734.html
1. Making sure your financial plan is set up in such a way that the surviving spouse can step in right away
2. Ensuring that there’s enough money for the surviving spouse, usually the woman
3. Updating beneficiary information on your accounts (remember, beneficiaries can override heirs listed in a will)
4. Preparing for diminished capacity because it’s likely that we won’t be able to manage our affairs during our final days or months.
Those preparing for retirement or already in retirement should consider these risks when making plans for the future:
1. Personal and family risks - Changes in your life or the life of a loved one that could impact your retirement income stream
2. Healthcare and housing risks - These include the risk that failing health will require moving to a facility with professional caregivers
3. Financial risks - These risks revolve around inflation, investments and stock market activities
4. Public policy risks - These risks involve government decisions that could affect retirees
Basically, the 4% rule says that you should save 25 years’ worth of living expenses in order to fund 30 years of retirement.
New research indicates that if you want to significantly improve the quality of your life, both immediately and over the long term… just retire.
So why did research over the past 20 or 30 years conclude that both health and happiness decline in retirement?
The researchers behind this report say the findings of the past may have been skewed by people who retired because of health problems. That could have given a misleading picture to all the research.
The 4 percent rule was meant to cover 30 years worth of retirement savings
These days, Inglis is using an interesting, and simple formula to figure out how much a retiree should take from his or her savings every year.
"Just divide your age by 20 to determine a safe percentage of savings to spend," he says.
"For example, a 70-year-old can safely spend 3.5 percent annually."
Longevity is increasing. If we make it to age 65, 85 is very likely in our future. Obviously, it costs a lot more to live to 85 than it does to live until 75.
And as everyone knows, interest rates have been way down for a long time… and they show no signs of improving.
They’re the lowest rates of our lifetime, and they’ve eaten away at our yields as they’ve declined.
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