Education Center

Everyone needs to consider their retirement strategy. A great place to start is enrolling in your employer-sponsored retirement plan.

One of the financial consequences of COVID-19 was that people’s retirement plans were interrupted in various ways.

During an economic crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, many people had to put their retirement plans on hold, or even borrow from retirement accounts, in order to afford household bills.

More than one income stream can help safeguard your well-thought-out early retirement strategy.

Part three in our how-to-retire-early series will focus on additional retirement income strategies that can help you turbocharge your way to early retirement.

Interactive calculators

Our interactive tools can assist you in your unique financial planning needs. Interactive calculators are made available as self-help tools for independent use and are not intended to provide investment or tax advice, either expressed or implied.

Opportunity to prepare for the future you envision. Pre-tax contributions to an employer’s tax-deferred plan can potentially help reduce your current table income while saving dollars for retirement that otherwise would have gone to pay taxes.

Need to fix your mix?

You’ve probably heard of the terms “asset allocation” and “diversification.” They sound complicated, but really, the concepts are quite simple.

As America’s economy reopens, we’re seeing higher inflation rates, and this unwelcome surge should prompt retirees to consider the threat it could pose to their financial security.

Many experts believe that long-term investment success is more a function of how assets are allocated among asset classes rather than the individual securities in which they are invested.

Your net worth is the value of all of your assets, minus the total of all of your liabilities. Put another way, it is what you own minus what you owe. If you owe more than you own, you have a negative net worth. 

Saving for your children's education requires a long-term plan. And, like saving for retirement, the earlier you start your plan the better. Use this calculator to help develop or fine-tune your education savings plan. Click the "View Report" button for a detailed look at the results.  

Consistent investments over a number of years can be an effective strategy to accumulate wealth. Even small additions to your savings add up over time. This calculator demonstrates how to put this savings strategy to work for you.

What will it take to help reach your savings goals? This financial calculator helps you find out. Enter in your savings plan and view graphically your financial results. Click the report button to get more information about your plan, and what you can do to make sure that it is on track.

Waiting to begin your savings plan can have a huge impact on your results. A delay of even a few years could cost you thousands of dollars. This calculator helps show you how much postponing your savings plan can really cost.

Interactive calculators

Our interactive tools can assist you in your unique financial planning needs. Interactive calculators are made available as self-help tools for independent use and are not intended to provide investment or tax advice, either expressed or implied.

Should you rent or should you buy your home? It takes more than looking at your mortgage payment to answer this question. This calculator helps you weed through the fees, taxes and monthly payments to help you make a decision between these two options.

Use this calculator to generate an estimated amortization schedule for your current mortgage. Quickly see how much interest you could pay and your estimated principal balances.

Interactive calculators

Our interactive tools can assist you in your unique financial planning needs. Interactive calculators are made available as self-help tools for independent use and are not intended to provide investment or tax advice, either expressed or implied.

Estate tax planning is very important to preserving your wealth for future generations. Knowing your potential estate tax liability is a great place to start your estate tax plan.

Interactive calculators

Our interactive tools can assist you in your unique financial planning needs. Interactive calculators are made available as self-help tools for independent use and are not intended to provide investment or tax advice, either expressed or implied.

Use this calculator to see what it will take to pay off your credit card balance, and what you can change to meet your repayment goals.

Do you know what it takes to work towards a secure retirement? Use this calculator to help you create your retirement plan. View your retirement savings balance and your withdrawals for each year until the end of your retirement.

The IRS requires that you withdraw at least a minimum amount - known as a Required Minimum Distribution - from your retirement accounts annually;

Contributing to a Roth IRA could make a difference in your retirement savings. There is no tax deduction for contributions made to a Roth IRA; 

An employer-sponsored retirement savings account could be one of your best tools for creating a secure retirement. It provides two important advantages.

The more you understand about money, the better equipped you are to prepare for retirement. That’s the conclusion from a number of studies that have been conducted to explore the link between financial literacy and retirement preparedness over the past decade, by academics and financial experts.

It’s never too soon to start saving for retirement but if you want to retire early, you’ll likely have to do some extra planning. 

What goes up must also come down. That’s true of Newton’s apples, your favorite wooden roller coaster, and — inevitably — the stock market.

Of course, different investors handle market ups and downs differently. Some are up for riding the drops like a coaster aficionado while others cling to the handlebars, wishing for a smoother ride.

Whether your idea of golden years perfection is training for an Ironman, launching a business, watching a ball game in every U.S. state, or simply spending more time with family and friends, retirement offers a unique opportunity to replace the nine-to-five with something vivifying, meaningful, and new.

Although it’s true there’s really no bad time to start investing, it can be tricky to figure out how to siphon off funds from other areas of your budget and redirect them to your future needs.

No matter your age or wealth, when you step into retirement there’s one overarching concern that most people have: running out of money. 

Find out what you need to know about 2021 income taxes, including information about the Child Tax Credit, allowable deduction amounts, how retirement plans may be affected by tax changes and more.

Despite its importance, financial literacy is not commonly taught as part of our national school curriculum.

Managing your nest egg isn’t one distinctive event – it’s an ongoing process that needs to reflect life’s changes throughout retirement.

Multitasking is bad for productivity: If you’re in a meeting trying to send out emails while listening to the speaker, chances are one of those tasks is going to suffer. You need to give one task your full attention. But when it comes to your money, multitasking is a necessity.

Two questions I hear a lot from people who aren’t retired are: “When can I retire?” and “How much money do I need to retire?” They’re really variations of the same question. It’s the wrong question to ask, because most people approach the retirement-date question from the wrong direction.

When planning for your financial future, it's crucial to account for those little expenses that sometimes blindside you - like medical expenses or car repairs. Sometimes those little expenses turn into big expenses and you need a little more to cover the cost.

Women are the lifestyle leaders inventing the future of retirement. For a variety of reasons, women are generally better at aging than men. They are more dynamic, take on more roles and duties, and are more clear-sighted in regard to the new frontier of longevity—and they also live longer. 

Many Americans do not have an accurate understanding of their finances. For example, research from Mint shows that three out of five Americans didn’t know the amount of money they spent the previous month.

Your 40s may not seem like the time to buckle down and get serious about retirement. But if your savings are nonexistent, it means you have plenty of work to do.

The decade before you retire is often crunch time for many would-be golden agers. It’s often a last- chance opportunity to fine-tune a plan that can set a successful retirement in motion.

With today's economic uncertainty and market volatility, it's important to understand the emotions that drive your investing decisions. Whether it's greed, fear, optimism or something else, knowing what motivates you can help you avoid making mistakes.

How much is enough?

Regardless of your current income, your 20s and 30s is the best time to start building for your future. But investing for a retirement that's 40 years away - all while trying to pay down student debt, save for a home, pay for a wedding or meet other important expenses - can feel overwhelming.

In our busy lives as working women managing our careers, family, and financial priorities, we tend to put the needs of others before ourselves.

How much is enough?

If you follow the news at all, you probably know that saving for retirement is something of a crisis for a significant portion of our country's population. So how much do you need to save?

While retirement certainly brings about its share of unknowns, perhaps the most daunting prospect associated with this stage of life is the potential to run out of money.

You probably heard about Michael Rotondo, the 30-year-old New Yorker recently ordered by a judge to vacate his parents’ home. The story made national news — and for good reason. The notion of a young person “failing to launch” is every parent’s nightmare.

Besides the obvious benefits of being in a loving relationship, being part of a couple means you have double the power to accomplish those less-than-ideal tasks in life. Everything from doing chores to planning a social calendar can now become a team effort.

Historically markets rise, fall a bit, then rise again. That volatility may be difficult to stomach, particularly for the risk averse, but it’s also what creates buying and selling opportunities (another axiom: buy low, sell high!) for savvy portfolio managers.

The ability to live a longer, healthier life is good news for most people. Between advances in medical technology and improved access to health-related knowledge, Americans are living longer than ever before.