Author- Sandra Cleveland

Retirement is changing!  As a matter of fact, many people currently facing retirement don’t think of this phase as retiring, but more of a midlife reinvention.  Baby boomers are currently in this hot seat.    

According to a new report, The Financial Journey of Modern Parenting: Joy, Complexity and Sacrifice, many parents see their children’s adult years as the most expensive stage of parenting.  This may sound shocking when you think about the childhood years of babysitters, braces, dance lessons and sports that contribute to the average cost of raising a child to age 18 at more than $230

What type of person are you?

You may have read that women are far more likely to face poverty in retirement than their male counterparts—but you may not realize just how big the disparity is.  In fact, women are 80% more likely to fall into poverty toward the end of their lives, compared to men, according to a 2016 study by the National Institute on Retirement Security. 

Many seniors who are looking for ways to improve their finances in retirement want to learn more about reverse mortgages.  These are not a typical part of our clients’ financial plans; however, we were asked about these recently by a young client who was concerned about her grandparents, whose assets had dwindled down to a primary residence. 

Many couples, especially in two-income families, keep at least some of their earnings separate.  This can make it challenging to reach a place where both spouses have a complete grasp of their monthly income and expenses.  If this is true for you, then as you are approaching retirement is a critical time to sit down with your spouse and make sure you both have a thorough understanding

Most aging Americans agree that the best place to spend your latter years is in your own home.  In a recent AARP survey, 85% of respondents said, "What I would really like to do is stay in my current residence and local community as long as possible."  This is known as “aging in place.”

When people talk about retirement planning, they generally mean “planning” in the financial sense.  That kind of planning is a big job, and it’s not uncommon for couples to leave their focus there and neglect to plan for what they want day-to-day life to be like during retirement. 

One of the hardest things for financial planners to help people accomplish is correcting financial decisions that weren't sufficiently thought through at the outset.  In failing to ask the right questions before making a decision, people frequently cheat themselves out of the ability to have more money and a more comfortable lifestyle in the future.  And they sometimes place thems

When a spouse passes away, the remaining spouse often feels a natural insecurity about being the sole signer on the bank accounts. They want someone to be able to pay their bills and handle their banking in the event of a hospital stay or illness that renders them incapable of handling their affairs themselves for a time.