It’s certainly not a pleasant thought to think about: traditional pensions are disappearing and Social Security is on the road to bankruptcy. Yet the biggest obstacles that can threaten your retirement funds aren’t always mentioned in the headlines.Setbacks like losing your job and life-threatening medical conditions are surprisingly common in later life.A recent Boston College study has found that the results can be particularly devastating for those nearing retirement. The college’s Center for Retirement Research studied people in their 50s and 60s and found that: Twenty percent of workers lost their jobs during the 1992 to 2002 study period. Among married couples, nearly one in three experienced job loss. - Forty-one percent of those studied were diagnosed with a major medical condition such as heart problems, diabetes or cancer. - Thirty-four percent experienced health-related limitations on their ability to work. - Eight percent were widowed, 7% experienced a severe disability and 4% divorced.Overall, the study found 6 out of 10 people in their 50s and 60s experienced some kind of serious negative shock that threatened their financial security.How to protect yourself:These are scary statistics, but they convey an important truth about retirement planning: you can’t assume everything […]
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Britons are experiencing financial difficulties, one industry commentator has asserted.
Anna Sofat, director of Addidi Wealth, reports that consumers are facing intense monetary difficulties across a number of different areas. She pointed out that inflation in reality has been outstripping government rates for a significant period of time. This, it was claimed, has had a particular impact on energy expenses and subsequently the cost of utility bills. Ms Sofat went on to report that the average amount of money that people are now paying for their gas and electricity is “horrifying” in comparison to a few years ago.
The director of the women-dedicated wealth management service went on to report that mortgage rates for homeowners across the country have been increasing over recent months. She pointed out that many consumers have come to the end of their fixed-rate and remortgage deals and subsequently gone on to an offer which attracts a high rate of interest. Ms Sofat also asserted that many two and three-year fixed-rate mortgage products suddenly became much more expensive during the last few months of 2007. Furthermore, the impact of the current credit crunch was also indicated as helping to keep costs at a premium.
In addition to such financial […]
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You may not have very much difficulty knowing how to manage your money if you have had formal training of some sort either in school or if you have the ability to hire a professional financial advisor. The vast majority of the average working class of people often do not have a clue how best to go about planning things like education funds for our children and for our retirement.
With the state of economics at this present time, many of us are not putting as much effort as we should into preparing for these long term investments that may seem far into our future because of the fact that we are all struggling just to meet our expenses of today, much less being able to set aside anything substantial for the future. We hear about the necessity of planning and saving all the time, but wonder if it can really be possible for us to even think about it.
It is possible to learn how to make progress in the area of saving and investing for our future, no matter how small the advancement might seem at the time. The most important factor involved in this process is the simple act […]
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