Retirement

I didn’t open a retirement account until I was 26. Not because nobody told me to, but because “retirement planning” sounded like something for people with mortgages and minivans, not someone still splitting rent three ways. Looking back, that gap between 22 and 26 probably cost me more than any other financial decision I’ve made […]

A reader wrote in a few months back asking if she was “double dipping” by putting money into her company 401(k) and a Roth IRA at the same time. She wasn’t. So can I contribute to both IRA and 401k accounts in the same year? Yes, and she was just doing two smart things at

So, can you retire with $1 million? For most people, yes, but how comfortably depends on your withdrawal rate, your age at retirement, and how much Social Security fills the gap. A $1 million portfolio using the standard 4% withdrawal rule generates about $40,000 a year before taxes. Add an average Social Security check and

My uncle spent about two years chasing $1.26 million. He’d read it somewhere as “the number Americans think they need to retire comfortably,” and he built his entire plan around hitting it. Then he actually sat down and did the math on his own spending, his paid-off house, and his Social Security estimate. His real