Working Benefits

By Joe Mont Half of Americans plan to work longer than they had expected, but they don’t want to spend less in retirement. Americans have become more realistic about retirement, with almost half of those eligible for Social Security now planning to work longer than they had expected. But despite talk of retirement-age frugality, a new survey by Charles Schwab found that ...

By Knowledge@Wharton.com Is the gloom and doom over retirement planning legitimate or hype? Wharton experts suggest that the answer varies according to whom you ask and what variables they’re taking into consideration. Every week, one financial services firm or another releases findings of its latest retirement study: Americans aren’t saving enough. The savings rate is abysmal. Americans keep up ...

By Knowledge@Wharton.com As crises always do, the 2008 market meltdown has thrown many problematic issues into stark relief—the state of retirement saving is easily one of the biggest and most troubling of those issues. The golden years for most Americans appear increasingly threatened by the global financial crisis. Retirement accounts have lost from $2 trillion to $4 trillion as stocks ...

By Joe Mont Rhode Island is one of the first states to explore the initiative of universal voluntary retirement accounts. With half of workers lacking access to workplace retirement plans, several states are leading the charge to create their own individual retirement accounts. So-called universal voluntary retirement accounts (UVRAs) would be a low-cost option to an IRA combining a state’s existing retirement ...

By Elaine Floyd, CFP Your client may be eager to retire early—or even on time—but what if the numbers just don’t support the move? It may be time to help your clients “recareer” by exploring options and resources. “You can’t retire yet.” This is about the worst news a client can hear during a pre-retirement planning consultation. Here they’ve ...

By Elaine Floyd, CFP Surveys show that most baby boomers plan to work in some capacity during their retirement years. The question is, should they delay retirement and keep working a few more years at their primary career, or retire early and work at something different? This decision could have a big impact on their retirement income. Baby boomers ...