RETIREMENTGUY

The late stages of the year are a natural time to take stock of where you are and what you still want to accomplish by December 31. Families who use this season to think clearly and act deliberately can start the new year in a stronger position. The key is to start now. Giving yourself ample time to review your balance sheet and your personal and financial goals for the coming year will allow you to make thoughtful adjustments before January 1, if needed. An early start will

We do see people follow the pattern of go-go, slow-go, no-go. And so, in the go-go phase, often, spending is high, and we’ve planned for that. We built in extra spending, and we’re taking a set of baseline expenses and assuming it’s going to go up each year, typically 3% for living expenses, 5% for healthcare-related expenses. All of that is baked into their cash flow planning, the amount of money we say that they’re going to need each year. But where I often see people not n

Many of us spend our working years diligently building our retirement account balances, with the goal of feeling confident that it will be enough to support us throughout our later years. Despite that, even investors with a comfortable level of savings often struggle to feel secure about tapping their retirement accounts. Justin Bailey, a Utah-based regional vice president of planning solutions with Fidelity, says many affluent clients tell him they want a portfolio that can

Travel the country in an RV. Build the wine cellar in the basement. Who doesn't have big dreams for when they retire? But instead of paying for these items outright, like so many retirees do, the smarter approach may be to rent instead. Just ask any RV owner who can't afford the gas. Or the homeowner who spent thousands on power tools for one project, only to never use them again. Cash is king in retirement, and to keep more of yours, here are five things retirees are better

One of the biggest decisions retirees make — when to claim Social Security benefits — would be described differently under a bill that may soon become law. The Claiming Age Clarity Act, a bipartisan bill that changes certain terms to describe the ages when a worker may claim Social Security retirement benefits, passed the Senate on Tuesday. The bill is now on its way to President Donald Trump for his signature. The White House did not respond to CNBC.com’s request for comment

If you have millions saved in your 401(k) and IRA, that feels like a win, and it is. But there's one way a large balance quietly works against you: The more money sitting in tax-deferred accounts, the more likely the IRS is to tax the maximum allowable portion of your Social Security check. That happens by default, unless you plan around it. Most people who reach this point spent decades doing everything right: Saving consistently, maxing out their 401(k), following the advic

For many families, the Great Wealth Transfer starts long before an inheritance. Many adult children are becoming their aging parents' go-to financial decision-makers. The shift from adult child to the family's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) can happen suddenly after discovering unpaid bills, a suspicious bank wire request or an aging parent falling prey to a scammer. Or the job can be created out of necessity after realizing mom and dad's financial life has grown too complex t

Key Takeaways Withholding taxes from retirement withdrawals can simplify tax payments and help avoid penalties. Retirees should take advantage of lower tax rates in early retirement. The years before required minimum distributions are an ideal time for Roth conversions. Tax-smart withdrawal strategies can improve retirement portfolio efficiency. Managing IRA balances early may help limit future IRMAA costs. Christine Benz: Hi, I’m Christine Benz from Morningstar, and welcome

Most retired couples rely heavily on Social Security benefits. When one spouse dies, there's often a major loss of their benefits. The surviving spouse will get either their own benefit or the survivor benefit (the deceased spouse's benefit), whichever is higher. If one spouse's benefits are low, the impact on income will be small. But when both spouses are collecting substantial benefits, as is often the case, there will be a significant reduction that could last for many ye

Retirement planning has often been presented as a math problem: accumulate a certain nest egg, apply a withdrawal rate, and hope the numbers hold up for 25 or 30 years. In my latest book, The Retire Sooner Method, I take a much broader view: Financial preparation remains essential, but our research suggests that a more fulfilling retirement may also depend on how people plan for purpose, relationships, health, and the daily structure of life after work. https://www.forbes.com

Caring for a loved one with a disability often means thinking about retirement alongside long-term caregiving and financial support. Today, Christine Benz will talk about some of the key planning decisions that can help you prepare for both. Christine is Morningstar’s director of personal finance and retirement planning. She’s also the co-host of The Long View podcast and author of How to Retire: 20 Lessons for a Happy, Successful and Wealthy Retirement. https://www.morningst

People are already using ChatGPT to help with retirement planning, but is it good enough yet to deliver the kind of smart, personalized financial guidance human advisers have traditionally provided? Does it engage in ethical financial behavior and act in the best interests of clients, as human and organizational fiduciaries must? https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/want-to-use-ai-to-plan-your-retirement-heres-how-to-proceed

You’ve probably heard the classic retirement advice: if your savings fall short, just work a few more years. A longer career means more time to contribute to your 401(k), more employer matches, and a bigger Social Security check down the road. The problem is that this plan assumes you get to choose when you stop working. For roughly half the people who retired last year, that choice was never theirs to make. New data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute reveals just h

If you’ve invested in an S&P 500 index fund, you probably feel like you’ve bought a little bit of everything in the American economy. You’ve got tech, banks, soda companies, and oil rigs all in one neat package. It feels like the ultimate "diversified" move. But here is the reality: the S&P 500 isn't a "one-of-each" buffet. It is a market-cap weighted index. This means the bigger the company, the more of your dollar goes into it. As of early 2026, the S&P 500 is more "top-he

For decades, Americans have been taught to build their financial lives around one event: retirement. Save early, save often, and one day you can stop working altogether. Retirement has been marketed as the pinnacle of a successful life, the moment that finally belongs to you. But what if this premise is flawed? What if retirement, as we imagine it today, is not only outdated but potentially harmful? And what if the real goal of saving isn’t retirement, but something more mean

We look at a variety of different asset allocations to see which supports the highest safe withdrawal rate. When we ran the research in 2025, it was a fairly light equity allocation, just between 20% and 50% of equities in that portfolio, for that 3.9% safe withdrawal rate. Retirees shouldn’t adjust their spending each year to align with safe withdrawal rates; this is meant to be guidance for people who are just embarking on retirement. https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/

Retirement is full of decisions, and the state you choose to retire in could be the most important one. A recent WalletHub study pitted the 50 states against one another across three main categories — affordability, quality of life, and healthcare — to determine the best places for retirement. The three factors were assessed using 46 different metrics. To determine a state's affordability, metrics such as adjusted cost of living and retired taxpayer-friendliness were consider

For his new book, Healthy to 100, longevity researcher Ken Stern wanted to answer a question that nagged him: Why do so many people in some European and Asian countries live long, healthy lives? How can Americans be like them? For six months in 2024, he traveled to five of the most successful aging nations — Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Spain — to find out why their average life expectancies were often six years longer than ours and to interview residents in thei

When deciding on the optimal age to claim Social Security benefits, conventional wisdom – backed by much of the academic research – often favors delaying benefits until age 70. This conclusion is rooted in models that rely on expected value: the assumption that the 'best' decision is the one that maximizes lifetime benefits in dollar terms. To create these models, researchers often use a very low (or even 0%) real discount rate, under the logic that the 'guaranteed' nature of

When it comes to retirement planning, there’s one financial wildcard, one blind spot that can upend the best-laid plans: the high cost of long-term care — if you ever need it. Like many people, this reporter has not given much thought to the cash cushion or funding vehicles to pay for long-term care (LTC) later in life. My wife has an LTC insurance policy she got through work 15 years ago that will offset her costs. However, despite diligently building a retirement nest egg,