How To Head Into Retirement With No Mortgage

“Should we pay off our mortgage before we retire?” This is among the most common questions I get from clients and “Money Matters” listeners (tune in from 9-11 a.m. Sundays on WSB radio (News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB). I most recently heard it from a couple who are on their final approach for retirement. […]

Couple Retires By Mid-30s

What’s your definition of “early” retirement? Sixty? Fifty-two? A California couple recently retired in their mid-30s with $1 million in the bank, according to a story in Forbes magazine.  That remarkable accomplishment would be difficult for most of us to replicate. I know I couldn’t do it — not with four kids! The couple, Travis […]

How To Hold Steady When The Market Swings

I vividly remember a book series from my childhood called “value tales.” Each book chronicled someone famous and a trait that personified their success. Now, years later, I’m reading those same books with my kids. We just read “The Value of Humor,” which profiles the life of Will Rogers. Rogers’ prime years were during the […]

A Retirement Chart Sure To Give You Anxiety

I love how easily two-step charts are able to relay information to us. You look left, look right and then find your corresponding data point that reveals your answer. If only we could answer all of life’s tricky questions through a quick two-step chart. The other day I shared JP Morgan’s 2015 Guide to Retirement […]

Robo Advisor vs. Digital Advisor

The robo-advisor: not since John Bogle came up with the idea for Vanguard in 1975 has a new development in the investment industry caused so much controversy and turmoil. I can appreciate Wealthfront CEO’s position on his new robo competition from Charles Schwab. There are already dozens of media stories that detail the debate. I […]

One Secret To Retiring Sooner

As people have really dug into my new book over the last few months, You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The Five Money Secrets of the Happiest Retirees, I’ve had a common question come back to me: “Given the fact that people are already living longer, requiring a longer draw-down period from their nest […]

6 Financial New Year Resolutions You Need To Make For 2015

Okay guys, we’re officially a few days away from 2015, so it’s time to put your pen to paper and write out your New Year’s resolutions. I’m a big fan of this tradition because I think we all have areas in our lives that can be improved with a little work. While many people have […]

3 Ways To Avoid Being Part Of The Upcoming Retirement Crisis

I ran across an interesting article this week from the Boston Globe with another dire warning about retirement in America. It profiles the work of Alicia Munnell, a former top economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston who is now the head of Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research. At the age of 71, […]

The Morbid State of Retirement in America

1 in 5 American’s would rather die than run out of money in retirement and other unsettling retirement findings for the middle class. Wells Fargo released a survey at the end of October that studied “middle-class” American’s feelings on retirement, and the results were shocking.  The survey polled just over 1,000 people between the ages […]

CIA Success Story

In today’s CIA Success Story, we share a story about a recently retired airline employee who wanted to figure out how he could continue to afford his current lifestyle throughout retirement. He had a specific interest in working with us to come up with a strategy that would allow him to generate multiple streams of […]