financial planners

Bucks Blog: Generation X Hit Hardest By Recession

May 30, 2013 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

Members of Generation X, now in their late 30s to late 40s, were especially hard-hit by the recent recession, and are at risk for downward mobility in their retirement years, a new report finds.

Generation Xers, the group of Americans following the Baby Boomers, lost nearly half of their overall net worth between 2007 and 2010, according to a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Generation Xers lost an average of about $33,000, reducing their “already low” relative levels of wealth, the report found.

While Gen-Xers saw greater increases in wealth from home equity during the housing boom, they have lower overall rates of home ownership compared to earlier generations, which mutes the impact on the wealth of their group overall, the report found.

The report defined Generation X as those born between 1966 and 1975, so they now range in age from 38 to 47.

By comparison, both early and late baby boomers also were hurt by the recession, but to a lesser extent, losing 28 percent and 25 percent of their median net worth, respectively.

Gen-Xers also have higher levels of debt than other age groups, the report found.

The upshot is that based on the analysis, Gen-Xers will only have enough at retirement to replace about half of their pre-retirement income, if they retire at age 65. Financial planners typically suggest that retirees should be able to replace at least 70 percent of their annual income, through savings and accumulated wealth.

Early baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1955, who are currently 58 to 67 years old — appear on track to replace between 70 to 80 percent of their income, in contrast to the age groups that follow them.

Late boomers, born between 1956 and 1965, are also less well-prepared for retirement than earlier generations, the report found.

The report is based on data from 1989 through 2010 collected by the Federal Reserve Board and the University of Michigan.

“As policymakers focus on Americans’ retirement security, particular consideration should be paid to how younger generations of workers can make up for these losses and prepare for the future,” said Erin Currier, director of Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, in a prepared statement.

Are you a member of Generation X? How are you saving for retirement?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/30/generation-x-hit-hardest-by-recession/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: financial planners, net worth, retirement income

Bucks Blog: How to Get Reasonably Priced Help With Investments

January 18, 2013 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

This weekend’s Your Money column is of a piece with several I’ve written in the past, all revolving around the question of how to get competent people to help you with your investments for a reasonable price.

Over the years, most of those competent people have tended to work only with customers who have a lot of money, with the exception of a small cohort of financial planners who deign to work by the hour. Reasonably priced (or free) help tends to come from people who are earning commissions of some sort from the provider of the investment product that they are selling you. And all too often, they are more concerned about their payment than your long-term financial health.

Now comes Rebalance IRA, the latest in a series of services like Wealthfront, Betterment and others that want to put you in the right kind of investments for a price much lower than the standard 1 percent of assets per year that wealthy people tend to pay for full-service financial planning.

So would you give up one half of 1 percent of your investments each year to an adviser like the ones at Rebalance IRA? Or are you among the few people who are in control enough of their emotions to be able to manage their own money effectively?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/18/how-to-get-reasonably-priced-help-with-investments/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: assets, commissions, financial planners

Bucks Blog: The Best Financial Advice for Widows

September 3, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

Phil Sussman for The New York TimesKathleen Rehl, a financial planner in Land O’ Lakes, Fla., is herself a widow and the author of “Moving Forward on Your Own.”

In this week’s Your Money column, I took the best shot I could in 1,400 words or so at helping widows avoid the financial pitfalls that so many of them fall into. They need not rush into making financial decisions, they should think hard about housing, they should not be a “purse” for anyone and they should be wary of blindly following financial orders left by their dead husbands.

But surely there is more to add here. If you and your spouse are still alive, one of the best things you can do is make sure that you both know exactly what you own and what you owe and how to find all the relevant account information. I heard horror stories this week of accountants and financial planners digging in attic boxes for information and begging financial services companies to reset account passwords that a widow did not know.

For those of you who have been through the loss of a spouse yourself or have helped a widow (or widower) through it, what financial advice and tactics did you find most helpful — and most problematic?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=ca1ff6a793907db52d9e46981a330eb5

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: financial decisions, financial planners, phil sussman