retirement - The Insurance Pro Blog

122 Gen X Retirement: Gloomy

When it comes to Gen X and Retirement all is not well with the MTV Generation. But this despair doesn’t seem to be rooted in a systemic lack of effort—one of the core flaws often noted by its preceding generation—rather it originates from a demoralizing late-in-life shift in world view coupled with a struggle to gain attention among the institutions that most likely hold the answers to Gen X’s path to retirement prosperity.

Or perhaps it’s just a hold over of that 90’s Curt Cobain and Fiona Apple everything sucks and everyone is awful mentality with which a lot of them entered into adult hood augmented by their having to witness the breakdown of the US economy right before most of them truly got to ride the gravy train.

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401k’s Aren’t the only Retirement Plan that can Leave you High and Dry

by Brandon Roberts

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We’ve definitely not shown a lot of love and admiration for the old 401k Plan around here. While there may be circumstances where contributions to a 401k make sense (though relatively few circumstances) we would be remiss not to point out that 401k’s and their sister products (e.g. 403b’s, 457’s, etc.) aren’t the only wholesale retirement product that can let you down.

No, I’m afraid one of the most respected retirement vehicles that many would love to see gain a resurgence in the employee benefits market place can also be just as disappointing for a number of reasons. I’m talking, of course, about traditional pension plans.

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050 The Retirement Income Conundrum

by Brantley Whitley

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(Complete Show Notes Below)

In the 50th episode of the Financial Procast:

Why is Income in Retirement so Different?

In today's broadcast of the Financial Procast, we head off into some deep water with a lengthy discussion surrounding retirement income. What is it about retirement that makes everyone think their life is going to magically change? There's really nothing that is going to decrease the importance of your income when you retire.

One of the worst “rules of thumb” that's been perpetuated among the retirement planning discussion is that somehow you should only need about 80% of your pre-retirement income during your retirement.

What? Who came up with that idea?

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035 If You Turn to Page 15,099

by Brantley Whitley

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

(Complete Show Notes Below)

In the 35th episode of the Financial Procast:

We Discuss the PBS Frontline Special “The Retirement Gamble”

If you haven't seen this short special/documentary, here's a short preview and a link below the preview that will take you directly to the Frontline page on the PBS website where you can watch the epidsode in its entirety–don't worry it's less than an hour long and it's worth your time.

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The Coming 401k Bond Blood Bath

by Brantley Whitley

For a while, Brandon and I have been discussing the coming 401k bond blood bath for people who are retiring and have been planning for years to shift their asset allocation to a much more conservative posture. Remember when the conventional wisdom was that during your retirement years you would shift the weighting of your investment portfolio to income producing assets…think bonds.

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The Retirement Income Opportunity has arrived

by Brantley Whitley

If you've read any of my previous posts, it's no big surprise to you that I'm very passionate about the subject of retirement income. Honestly, I think this is one of the biggest boondoggles for financial advisors, investment companies and life insurance companies.

None of them have been prepared for the growing demand that is now upon us to help our clients distribute their accumulated wealth in the best way during their retirement.

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What is a Pension?

by Brandon Roberts

Ah the Pension. A long sacrosanct retirement vehicle known for its rigidity and stability. The anchor that led many American's into a comfortable retirement. That was, until the late 70's early 80's when a few pieces of legislation dramatically changed the retirement planning landscape and gave way to a new (and much cheaper for some people) focus to retirement planning.

We'll ignore all of that for a minute, and instead focus on what exactly a pension is, and then come back to why it has sort of gone the way of the dodo.

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What is an Annuity?

by Brandon Roberts

When it comes to financial planning and insurance products the annuity is traditionally regarded as the product that disperses or liquidates a sum of money. Long known for their reputation as the safe product used for creating guaranteed income streams.

Annuities have evolved as much (if not more) than life insurance contracts over the past 100 years and their use in practice has dramatically shifted to more closely complement modern day financial planning.

Does an annuity belong in your portfolio? I don't want to make a blanket statement, but rather equip people with the knowledge to be able to reasonably think either they should or shouldn't entertain this idea further.

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Should I Cash-In my Life Insurance (How CNN Got it Wrong and Why you should Care)?

by Brandon Roberts

Recently I cam across an article on the CNN Money Help Board posted from someone who was looking for some advice on deciding what to do with two life insurance policies he and his wife had. The central sticking point for the individual was that the kids were gone and now he was trying to decide if it made sense to keep the life insurance policies he and his wife had.

Here's the Article

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Here’s the Best Part, You Can Spend It!

by Brandon Roberts

Here's something we should address right off the bat that I think a lot of people in the BOY et. al. crowd tend to forget to mention: YOU CAN SPEND YOUR MONEY! So, if today I'm serving you dinner in the form of financial security, we're going to start first with dessert. And if it weren't for copyright law (and a little bit of laziness), I might think about stealing a picture off the internet of a young child with ice cream all over his/her face. But I'll just let you envision that instead.

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