Retirement

Talking to your parents about growing old and their plans for the future is hard to do. After all, they still remember changing your diapers. What could you possibly know that they don't? Talking about their money is even harder -- worse than talking about sex. And you remember that awkward...

Retirement savers are back on track after the 2008 stock market downturn, according to a report from Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest provider of workplace retirement savings plans. Fidelity reported that the average 401(k) savings reached a 10-year high at the end of 2010 with the...

This isn't an ugly mother-in-law story. Actually, I loved my mother-in-law, and her death at 85 was painful -- far more painful than it really needed to be because she hated to talk about what she considered her personal affairs -- especially when it involved money. And the rest of us didn't want...

Baby Boomers hit a big milestone this year: the oldest will be hitting 65, what was once called the Golden Years. For the next 19 years, 10,000 of them will mark this big occasion every day, according to Pew Research Center. To help them navigate this new era and the growing pains that come with...

Why aren't we saving more money? According to a Harris Poll released early this month, 27% of Americans have no personal savings and 34% have nothing saved for retirement. Of course, not all the news is bad. As a country, we're beginning to spend more than we did just a year ago when we were in...

Part of planning for retirement is a math exercise -- figuring out how much money you have, how much you need and how to best save enough to build a big enough nest egg before you hang up your work boots. It's not calculus, but figuring this out without help isn't easy either. Fortunately, there...

It was too good to last. For years, I (and every other financial expert on the planet) was able to tell people that they could tap Social Security at age 62, pay the money back later on – no interest required – and draw a higher payout years down the road. It was perfect. In effect, a...