Personal Finance: Retirement
ALA Recommended Books
The Charles Schwab Guide to Finances after Fifty by
Here at last are the hard-to-find answers to the dizzying array of financial questions plaguing those who are age fifty and older. The financial world is more complex than ever, and people are struggling to make sense of it all. If you're like most people moving into the phase of life where protecting--as well as growing-- assets is paramount, you're faced with a number of financial puzzles. Maybe you're struggling to get your kids through college without drawing down your life's savings. Perhaps you sense your nest egg is at risk and want to move into safer investments. Maybe you're contemplating downsizing to a smaller home, but aren't sure of the financial implications. Possibly, medical expenses have become a bigger drain than you expected and you need help assessing options. Perhaps you'll shortly be eligible for social security but want to optimize when and how to take it. Whatever your specific financial issue, one thing is certain--your range of choices is vast. As the financial world becomes increasingly complex, what you need is deeply researched advice from professionals whose credentials are impeccable and who prize clarity and straightforwardness over financial mumbo-jumbo. Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz and the Schwab team have been helping clients tackle their toughest money issues for decades. Through Carrie's popular "Ask Carrie" columns, her leadership of the Charles Schwab Foundation, and her work across party lines through two White House administrations and with the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, she has become one of America's most trusted sources for financial advice. Here, Carrie will not only answer all the questions that keep you up at night, she'll provide answers to many questions you haven't considered but should.
Call Number: 332.024 SCHISBN: 9780804137362Publication Date: 2014
How to Make Your Money Last by
Turn your retirement savings into a steady paycheck that will last for life with Jane Bryant Quinn's "'how to' book that covers every phase of retirement finance. Bottom line, anyone on the retirement track or in retirement should own this book" (Huffington Post). Today, people worry that they're going to run out of money in their older age. That won't happen if you use a few tricks for squeezing higher payments from your assets--from your Social Security account (find the hidden values there), pension (monthly income or lump sum?), home equity (sell and invest the proceeds or take a reverse mortgage?), savings (should you buy a lifetime annuity?), and retirement accounts (how to invest and--critically--how much to withdraw from your savings each year?). The right moves will not only raise the amount you have to spend, they'll stretch out your money over many more years. With this book, financial expert Jane Bryant Quinn, "America's dean of personal finance" (Forbes), explains how to turn your retirement funds into a paycheck that will last for life. She also shows how to look at your savings and investments in a new way. If you stick with super-safe choices the money might not last. You need safe money to help pay the bills in your early retirement years. But to ensure that you'll still have spending money ten and twenty years from now, you have to invest for growth, today. Quinn shows you how. At a time when people are living longer, yet retiring with a smaller pot of savings than they'd hoped for, this book will become the essential guide--"a hugely valuable resource for readers, wherever they are on their personal financial timeline" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
Call Number: 332.024 QUIISBN: 9781476743776Publication Date: 2017
The New Commonsense Guide to Your 401(K) by
Since the credit crash, investors have been searching for answers as 401(k) accounts have suffered unprecedented declines. Not only have markets been tumultuous but new regulations and concerns regarding hidden fees have been introduced to an already opaque area of investing. Despite the severe economic retreat in 2008-2009, one thing hasn't changed: 401(k) accounts-because of their tax benefits-are still the best way for most people to invest for retirement. Mary Rowland breaks down how they work, why they're still a smart investment, how to keep an eye out for hidden fees, and why now is the time to start reinvesting in your retirement. As the former personal finance columnist for the Sunday New York Times and the author of three books on investing, Mary Rowland has extensive experience covering the issues that 401(k) investors face when they consider how to best prepare for retirement.
Call Number: 332.02401 ROWISBN: 9781576603277Publication Date: 2010
Official Social Security Administration Answers to 100 Frequently Asked Questions about Retirement by
For most Americans, Social Security is their largest financial asset, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and indexed against increases in the cost of living. But it is estimated that Americans lose $10 billion a year in unclaimed benefits. This is money that has been earned, that they are entitled to, and is lost forever. It can total tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars for an individual over the course of their retirement.Why is this money lost? Because almost no one can understand the 2,711 core laws (and counting) and thousands of codicils that comprise the program. Taxpayers wanting answers to their questions such as "What is the best age to to start receiving retirement benefits?" can call the SSA 800#, go to a field office, or attempt to wade through the information available on the SSA website. This book sifts through the blizzard of information available from the SSA to provide the answers that will help you maximize your benefits.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9781566493161Publication Date: 2018
Roadmap for the Rest of Your Life by
Life after 50 isn't what it used to be. The rules have changed. No more guaranteed pensions, retiree health plans, or extensive leisure and travel. It's time to forge new paths and create innovative models. This AARP comprehensive roadmap provides guidance on the key areas you'll need to consider: finances and work, health and fitness, Medicare and Social Security, estate planning, insurance, housing, and more.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9781410462350Publication Date: 2013
Social Security, Medicare and Government Pensions by
Your complete guide to Social Security retirement and medical benefits. The rules for claiming Social Security benefits have changed. Find out if you can still choose between your own benefits and spousal benefits. Learn this and more with Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions--completely updated for 2019. Social Security benefits. Figure out how to get retirement, disability, dependents and survivors benefits, or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Decide whether it_s best to claim benefits early, at full retirement age, or not until you turn 70_and how to time your claims so you and your spouse get the best benefits. Medicare & Medicaid. Learn how to qualify for and enroll in both programs, including Medicare Part D drug coverage. Medigap insurance & Medicare Advantage plans. Compare Medigap and Medicare Advantage plans, and choose what_s best for you. Government pensions & veterans benefits. Discover when and how to claim the benefits you have earned. What_s New in 2019? End of donut hole for brand name prescription drugs New Medicare costs and Social Security amounts for 2019, and New Medicare Advantage features and enrollment. Whether you_re looking for yourself or helping a parent, you_ll find valuable information here to help get the benefits you_ve earned.
Call Number: 344.73023 MAT 2015ISBN: 9781413325874Publication Date: 2019 + older editions
You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think by
From Wes Moss--named by Barron's as one of America's top financial advisors "The keys that Wes Moss identifies to having a happyretirement are simple but brilliant. Read this book." -- Clark Howard, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Living Large in Lean Times "Financial planner Wes Moss offers you something different -- not just a plan to retire, but a way to do it sooner and to be happy when you do." - Atlanta Journal Constitution If you think you need to win the lottery or work until you're 75 to retire with financial stability, Money Matters host Wes Moss has very good news for you. You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think reveals the secrets for ensuring a successful retirement--sooner rather than later. After conducting an intensive study of happy retirees to learn the financial practices they hold in common, Moss discovered that it doesn't take financial genius, millions of dollars, or sophisticated investment skills to ensure a safe, solid retirement. All it takes is five best practices: Determine what you want and need your retirement money for Figure out how much you need to save Create a plan to pay off your mortgage in as little as five years Develop an income stream from multiple sources Become an income investor Getting on the fast track to a great retirement is a lot simpler than the retirement professionals would have you believe. You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think provides the proven-effective, five-step formula for creating the retirement of your dreams.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9780071839020Publication Date: 2014
Sources
American Library Association. Financial Literacy in Public Libraries: A Guide for Building Collections.
My thanks go to ALA for inventing this wheel for me.
Thrall Library's Links for Investors.
CFPB's list of financial educational resources
Additional Books
Social Security 101 by
A crash course in retirement benefits! Too often, writing about social security turns the noteworthy details of the benefits into boring details about regulations or biased political arguments that would put even a die-hard bureaucrat to sleep. Social Security 101 cuts out the tedious explanations and instead provides a hands-on lesson that keeps you engaged as you learn all you need to know about the federal program that's been around since the Great Depression. From the history of social security to its likely role in the future, this primer is packed with hundreds of entertaining tidbits and concepts that will keep you engaged as you learn how to maximize your benefits. So whether you want to learn about calculating your retirement age or estimating your projected payments, Social Security 101 has all the answers--even the ones you didn't know you were looking for.
Call Number: 368.43 MILISBN: 9781440599224Publication Date: 2016
The Big Retirement Risk by
A guidebook packed with the best strategies to manage wealth in retirement, helping readers live the life they've always envisioned--without risk of running out of money With decades of experience as a financial consultant, Erin Botsford shows readers how to identify their preferred lifestyle and sustain it throughout retirement. With the philosophy that money allows choices, she shows readers how to become informed, wise investors--avoiding common pitfalls, challenging the status quo, and refusing to take advice blindly. No one wants to run out of money before they run out of time, and Botsford helps restore confidence in members of the Baby-Boom generation who may have lost assets during the financial crisis. With a thorough examination of the transition into retirement, she addresses common concerns such as ";Do I have enough money to last a lifetime?"; ";What about my spouse and children?"; ";Will Social Security be there when I am eligible to receive it?"; and ";What about Medicare, health insurance?"; From a chapter titled ";Economics 101"; to detailed analyses of market patterns, the author exposes the failures inherent in traditional methods of asset allocation. With comprehensive explanations of investment strategies, she helps readers adopt a new philosophy about their finances and retirement planning in order to protect their hard-earned money.
Call Number: 332.024014 BOTISBN: 9781608322480Publication Date: 2012
Plan Your Prosperity by
Whether you're in retirement, just getting ready to retire, or 5, 10, or 40 years out, this book can help you invest smarter your whole life and yes, plan better for retirement. Harmful mythology abounds about retirement investing. Many retirees or soon-to-be retirees have heard a plethora of advice. Take 100 (or 120) and subtract your age to get your equity allocation, put the rest in bonds or cash. Buy only bonds. Buy only high dividend stocks. Or some combination! Buy equity-indexed annuities or some ?guaranteed? income product. All examples of a potentially harmful myth many folks believe to be smart, strategic moves. Investors believe preparing for retirement requires a radically different set of tools or a dizzying array of products. Navigating the world of retirement products and services can be a full-time job. But investing for retirement is, in practice, not much (if at all) different from investing. In Your Retirement Plan, Ken Fisher will give readers a workable strategy to either develop their own retirement investing plan or work more successfully with a professional to increase the likelihood of achieving long-term goals while avoiding common pitfalls. The book will include easy-to-follow steps like How to think, correctly, about investing time horizon. How to better figure how much income you need How to determine if a portfolio can provide that income How to figure how much to save each year to achieve retirement goals What pitfalls to avoid And more. . . . In this retirement planning book that's not just for retirees, Fisher will hand readers the tools and confidence they need to better plan for the future.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9781118431061Publication Date: 2012
How Much Can I Spend in Retirement? by
How much can you spend in retirement? Naturally, this is an essential question for those approaching this important life transition. Essentially, if you wish to retire one day, you are increasingly responsible for figuring out how to save during your working years and convert your savings into sustainable income for an ever-lengthening number of retirement years. The nature of risk also changes in retirement, as the lifestyle of retirees become more vulnerable to the impacts of market volatility, unknown longevity, and spending shocks. Retirees have one opportunity to build a successful plan. It is not an easy task, but it is manageable. This book focuses on sustainable spending from investments, which is an important piece of any retirement plan. People want to know if they have saved enough to be able to fund their lifestyle in retirement. In this book, I explain the findings of a large body of financial planning research regarding sustainable spending from investment portfolios in the face of a variety of retirement risks. That body of research tends to begin with the 4 percent rule of thumb for retirement spending. I explain how and why it was developed, what it means, and when it may or may not be appropriate for retirees. William Bengen's 1994 study gave us the concept of the SAFEMAX, which is the highest sustainable spending rate from the worst-case scenario observed in the US historical data. The Trinity study added portfolio success rates from the historical data for different spending strategies. Both studies suggest that for a thirty-year retirement period, a 4 percent inflation-adjusted withdrawal rate using a 50-75 percent stock allocation should be reasonably safe. I have reservations about the 4 percent rule. It may be too aggressive for current retirees for reasons including increasing longevity, historically low interest rates coupled with higher than average stock market valuations, the impact of the international experience with the 4 percent rule casting a different light than 20th century US historical data, the need to maintain a rather aggressive asset allocation to have the best shot at success, and because the 4 percent rule assumes that investors do not pay any fees or otherwise underperform the underlying market indices. However, other factors suggest that sustainable spending may be even higher than traditional studies imply. Reasons for this include that actual retirees may tend to reduce their spending with age, that they build more diversified portfolios than used in the basic research studies, that real-world retirees may be willing to adjust spending for realized portfolio performance, and that some retirees may have the capacity and tolerance to accept higher portfolio failure probabilities because they have other sources of income from outside their portfolios. Related to these points, I also analyze nine variable spending strategies for retirees as well as the use of strategies that support short-term spending needs with individual bonds and longer-term spending needs with stocks. Retirees need to weigh the consequences between spending too little and spending too much-that is, being too frugal or running out of assets. This book is about implementing what I call the "probability-based" school of thought for retirement planning. It is especially relevant for people who plan to fund their retirements using an investment portfolio and those who are hesitant about using income annuities or other insurance products. I will explore annuities and insurance more extensively in later volumes since I do believe in the value of risk pooling as an additional source of returns to more efficiently meet retirement spending goals. But for now, we have plenty to discuss within the world of sustainable spending from an investment portfolio in retirement. The book concludes with a discussion about how to put these ideas together into a retirement spending plan.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9781945640025Publication Date: 2017
Saving for Retirement by
Saving for Retirement will relieve confusion and barriers to action for Americans who are increasingly worried about retirement. The book removes everything from the readers' path that typically trips people up and hits the sweet spot for everyone aged 18 to 60. Using new figures (including troubling new projections of healthcare and long-term care costs), Gail MarkJarvis helps readers calculate exactly how much money they'll need and how to get there. She presents easy, proven investing strategies for anyone at any age that will transform pocket change into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Packed with her readers' personal stories, this book teaches powerful professional financial planning principles -- but makes them simple enough for anyone to apply on their own.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9780132963039Publication Date: 2012
Social Security Works! by
A growing chorus of prominent voices in Congress and elsewhere are calling for the expansion of our Social Security system. Social Security Works! amplifies these voices and offers a powerful antidote to the three-decade long, billionaire- funded campaign to make us believe that this vital institution is destined to collapse. It isn't. From the Silent Generation to Baby Boomers, from Generation X to Millennials and Generation Z, everyone now has a stake in understanding the real story about Social Security. Destined to be a game-changer, setting a strategy to benefit all.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9781620970379Publication Date: 2015
Unretirement by
The budget battles of recent years have amplified the warnings of demographic doomsayers who predicted that a wave of baby boomers would bleed America dry, bankrupting Social Security and Medicare as they faded into an impoverished old age. On the contrary, argues award-winning journalist Chris Farrell, we are instead on the verge of a broad, positive transformation of our economy and society. The old idea of "retirement"-a word that means withdrawal, describing a time when people gave up productive employment and shrank their activities-was a short-lived historical anomaly. Humans have always found meaning and motivation in work and community, Farrell notes, and the boomer generation, poised to live longer in better health than any before, is already discoveringunretirement-extending their working lives, often with new careers, entrepreneurial ventures, and volunteer service. Their experience, wisdom-and importantly, their continued earnings-will enrich the American workplace, treasury, and our whole society in the decades to come. Unretirement not only explains this seismic change, now in its early stages, it provides key insights and practical advice for boomers about to navigate this exciting, but unsettled, new frontier. Drawing on Chris Farrell's decades of covering personal finance and economics forBloomberg Businessweek andMarketplace Money, this will be an indispensable guide to the landscape of unretirement from one of America's most trusted experts.
Call Number: RCLSISBN: 9781620401576Publication Date: 2014
Librarian
Websites
- AARP AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps to enhance quality of life for people 50 years and older.
- Ballpark E$timate A calculator to estimate how much to save for retirement.
- Benefits Planner A guide to retirement, disability, and survivor benefits from the Social Security Administration.
- How to Apply for Retirement Benefits Instructions for the online, in person, or telephone application for Social Security retirement benefits.
- Kiplinger's Retirement Kiplinger’s personal finance resources for those in the retirement transition.
- Managing Retirement Income A FINRA website dedicated to managing retirement income sources, tax issues, selecting payout methods, working in retirement, and managing health care costs.
- My Retirement Paycheck A guide from the National Endowment for Financial Education for managing retirement income sources, avoiding fraud, and minimizing the impact of debt on retirement resources.
- Retirement Planner, Social Security Administration Step-by-step instructions on retirement planning from the Social Security Administration.
- Retirement Savings IRS guidance on saving for retirement.
- When to Start Your Benefits A set of questions from the Social Security Administration to help determine the right age for accessing your retirement benefits.
- The 7 Deadly Sins of Personal Finance Behavioral tips from AARP to help retirees and pre-retirees avoid common personal finance mistakes.
- Benefits Checkup A service from the National Council on Aging to help seniors find benefit programs. Includes straightforward descriptions of the types of benefits available to older Americans.
- Home Equity Advisor This National Council on Aging website guides seniors through important considerations about using home equity during retirement.
- National Registry of Unclaimed Retirement Benefits A nationwide database listing retirement account balances that have been unclaimed.
- Saving Matters A retirement savings education campaign sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. Includes practical information for employees and employers.
- Suspending Retirement Benefit Payments Information on suspending retirement benefit payments from the Social Security Administration.