Education Center

If you're like most Americans, taxes take a pretty big bite out of your take-home pay. And for many, the costs keep rising on multiple fronts:

Interactive tools and 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. 

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.

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.

Finding an employer who cares enough to put together a thoughtful benefits package should be front-of-mind when it comes to deciding which company deserves your valuable services and talents.

It’s a given that Americans will spend outside of their typical budget during the holiday season.

You’ve heard the advice that you should try to contribute as much as possible to your retirement plan, but experts tend to speak in percentages. More important to you is what will be the real-life impact of saving for retirement. 

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.

Those saving and planning for retirement face a lot of important questions. How much will it cost to live comfortably in retirement? How much money is needed in order to pursue travel and other hobbies we enjoy? Importantly, how much is healthcare in retirement?

Remember the "pinky swears" - the silly promises you made to your friends back in grade school? What if someone came back to you decades later as an adult and expected you to abide by those promises? It's unlikely they would ever prevail in a court of law.

For many parents, the idea of setting aside savings for their young child’s college education on top of all their family’s current essential financial needs can feel like a daunting task. But it doesn't have to be, and here’s why. You don’t need to plan on saving to pay the full sticker price for your child’s education.

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.

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. 

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.

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.  

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.

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.

Many people who have had their income adjusted may be panicking and looking for other sources of cash to pay the 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.

When it comes to creating an investment portfolio to help you maintain your quality of life during retirement, most experts agree that portfolio diversification is a good option for achieving desired returns while managing risk.

Women continue to be the primary caregivers in most families with children, but they are also likely to be important breadwinners for their families. 

An increasing number of people are graduating from college with student loans to pay back. Some 44.7 million student borrowers have an average of $37,584 in student loans each, and 65% of students graduated with student loan debt in 2020.

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. 

When Americans think about growing older, many of them feel worried, according to AIG research. They worry about their health, being a burden to their families, and not having a purpose.

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.

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.

If you’re a Gen Xer, you’ve likely been facing some major financial demands over the last few years: caring for children and aging parents, dealing with a recession that lasted through some of your highest-earning working years and managing major debt.

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.

What’s the value of 1? If you guessed $1 million then it’s likely you’re in on a little-known secret that helps the most savvy of savers effectively prepare for their golden years.

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.

Though many of us will face a significant unexpected expense at some point during our lives, more than half of Americans don’t have the cash or savings on hand* to cover a financial emergency requiring $1,000 or more to resolve.

If you're not following a budget, you're not managing your money correctly. Without a budget, you really have no way of knowing how much you're spending each month, and how much room for savings your expenses and income allow for.

The prospect of growing your family may fill your heart with butterflies, excitement, nervousness—or, most likely, all of the above.

For many of us, setting aside the recommended six months’ worth of expenses in an emergency savings account to protect ourselves and our loved ones can feel daunting.

Seniors have a number of tough decisions to make during their golden years, but few could have larger ramifications on their financial well-being than deciding when to file for Social Security benefits.

Life can be full of changes, challenges and opportunities. For every situation, there are ways to cope. Here are a few things to consider when life comes your way.

If you have kids or grandkids, you're probably hoping they'll go to college one day. Of course, given the rate at which college tuition and fees continue to rise, you may also be wondering how on Earth you'll be able to pay for it.

Many people are surprised to learn that they can end up having to pay federal income tax on their Social Security benefits. To add insult to injury, some states also require residents above a certain income threshold to pay state income tax on what they receive from Social Security.

If you’re similar to the average person, you probably have a budget that you made years ago sitting in an excel spreadsheet somewhere untouched. 

If you’re one of the millions of hardworking employees at a nonprofit, religious group, school district, or governmental organization, the 403(b) is likely your primary retirement vehicle.

Many people might not realize that their will does not control who inherits all of their assets when they die. Many assets pass by beneficiary designation — which is the ability to fill out a form with the financial company holding the asset and name who will inherit the asset upon your death.

Without Social Security benefits, 22 million Americans would be poor — per a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 

Saving for college before funding retirement seems like a no-brainer for new parents.

When a new baby is born, you may think, “College is only 18 years away, while retirement is way down the line!” You may even think you’ll never retire at all, so why worry about it now? You certainly don’t want your kids burdened with student loans like you were.

Small saving moves now can significantly impact early retirement outcomes.

A large influx of funds—an annual bonus, inheritance or capital gains from a property sale—can move the early retirement savings needle, but it’s everyday savings habits that can have the biggest impact. 

No matter your age, it's good to know how to protect your financial accounts. As you get closer to retiring, you may need to tap into them, whether they're set up specifically for funding retirement or used for other purposes, such as a liquid savings or money market account.

If better financial planning has been a long-term goal for you, you’ve probably run into some common issues along the way: deciding how much you need to save for retirement, balancing debt and long-term goals, and simply covering day-to-day expenses are all common challenges most Americans face.