Everywhere you turn, there’s someone talking about COVID-19, and it can honestly get a little overwhelming. We’ve all felt that way at one point or another. One thing you may not have heard, though, is how you can use the COVID-19 crisis to do something besides worry. Instead of it being a doom-and-gloom conversation, you can think of a few ideas on how to react. We all know the global markets took a hit in the first quarter of 2020. The numbers go up and they go down — rapid changes … [Read more...] about Using COVID-19 to Benefit Your Retirement Strategy
American Financial Investments
Building Wealth Might Be Simpler Than You Think
Wealth building isn’t about get-rich-quick schemes or chasing the trends in the stock market. Often, it just comes down to making the right financial decisions, big and small, over an extended period of time. Recently, we came across an Investopedia.com article from May 2019 entitled, “3 Simple Steps to Building Wealth.” We thought these steps were worth sharing. Sometimes, it can seem like the secret to wealth building is a mystery, when in fact it can be simpler than you think. Don’t get … [Read more...] about Building Wealth Might Be Simpler Than You Think
Are You Prepared for a Bear Market?
If you’ve ever visited New York City, you may have seen the famous bull statue in the Financial District. That bull is considered a sign of optimism, indicative of what’s known as a bull market. A bull market generally refers to a time when the stock market is rising and expected to continue to rise, but it can refer to any group of securities in which that is the case. The flip side is a bear market. A bear market is generally a period marked by pessimism and potentially falling prices in … [Read more...] about Are You Prepared for a Bear Market?
Three Drawbacks to Early Retirement
Being early can be considered a virtue. Just think of some of the proverbs that we’ve all heard hundreds of times over the years: “The early bird gets the worm.” “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” There are many situations where being early can be a good thing. But when it comes to retirement, going too early can actually have drawbacks. That’s certainly not the case for everyone, but you’ll want to carefully evaluate your situation before … [Read more...] about Three Drawbacks to Early Retirement
Encouraging All to Save for Retirement
More people are saving more money for retirement than they have in the past few decades, according to a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. That’s great news! Now, for the not-so-great news. The report, titled “Retirement Security: Income and Wealth Disparities Continue through Old Age,” found that there’s still a lot of ground to cover to get retirement savings where they may need to be. The report found that 30 years ago, in 1989, about 4% of low-income … [Read more...] about Encouraging All to Save for Retirement
Creating Your Own Retirement Plan
Saving for retirement has become much more simple with automated savings for accounts like 401(k)s, but what do you do if you’re self-employed or work at a company that doesn’t offer a retirement plan? According to a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, fewer than half of American workers participate in an employment-based retirement plan. Whether you work for a small company that doesn’t offer retirement options, you’re a part-time employee that is ineligible for benefits, or … [Read more...] about Creating Your Own Retirement Plan
Is Your Retirement Prepared for the Costs of Long-Term Care?
Typically, when people think about the biggest risks to their financial security in retirement, health care costs come to mind. However, an often-overlooked risk is the costs associated with long-term care. For many Americans, the term “long-term care” has a new sense of urgency – particularly for the roughly 76 million of those in the baby boom generation. But what exactly is long-term care? Long-term care covers a host of varying services that one may need, ranging from in-home care and … [Read more...] about Is Your Retirement Prepared for the Costs of Long-Term Care?