Welcome to Retirement Scan, our daily roundup of retirement news your clients may be talking about.
Women save less but live longer than men, making fixed annuities a good strategy to secure their retirement, writes an expert in Kiplinger. The products, he writes, provides guaranteed lifetime income. A fixed annuity also offers advantages that “help women build savings faster: tax deferral and generally higher rates than CDs or Treasurys with a comparable term. Without taxes, savings can grow faster. Fixed annuities are a valuable supplement to IRAs and 401(k)s,” he writes.
Support for adult children, maintaining an oversized house and carrying a mortgage in retirement are some of the major risks that clients should avoid if they want to secure their golden years, according to this article in Yahoo Finance. Giving away too much cash, rising medical costs, taking 401(k) loans and incurring long-term care expenses can also put a client’s retirement at risk. The same is also the case for those who need to look after their aging parents and adult children, make minimum contributions to their retirement plans and withdraw their 401(k) money every time they leave their jobs.
Determining the expenses in retirement is crucial to developing a financial plan for retirees, according to this article in USA Today. Spending is generally expected to decline although retirees should expect their health care costs to increase through retirement. Housing will remain the biggest expense for retirees, who will also spend more on gifts and less on food.
Certain locations can help clients maintain their lifestyles — or even improve them.
Clients who held unskilled positions tend to retire earlier than those who worked professional jobs, according to a report published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health in this article from Motley Fool. Unskilled workers are also likely to have a longer retirement horizon than their professional counterparts, the study also found. The researchers attribute the early retirement of many unskilled workers to health problems.
