Blog
Weekly articles about how to live a secure, fulfilling retirement.
Sometimes the best plan is not having a plan
One of my clients called me out of the blue the other day and asked me to change her address from Omaha to a condo in Florida. A few days earlier she had abruptly quit her job, put her house on the market, and was getting on a plane two days hence and heading to the...
Are you a system thinker?
If you look around, almost everything you see—from planets to people—is made to work as part of a system. Take the human body for example. It has the skeletal, nervous, circulatory, muscular, and digestive systems, just to name a few. All of those separate systems...
How (and why) to retire debt free
It’s almost impossible to open a newspaper these days without reading about your retirement “number.” That is, the amount of money you need to set aside to fund your retirement years. While important, the “number” is only one way to skin the proverbial cat. What if...
9 tips for taking great travel photos
Ask a hundred different people what they plan on doing during retirement and the answer you'll likely hear most is "travel." There is just something compelling about getting out and seeing the world. Especially when your itinerary is no longer limited by the...
How to maximize your time in retirement.
Time is money, as the old saying goes. If true, you may never be so wealthy (in time at least) as you are during retirement. Gone are the days of having to trade your most precious commodity for whatever the market would bear. More than ever, you are free to spend...
Should you buy long-term care insurance?
For many people in retirement, their greatest fear is ending up in a nursing home. Being able to live independently or, barring that, getting into a quality facility of his or her choice is an important end goal. Unfortunately, this type of care does not come cheap....
10 questions to ask your spouse before you retire.
Your retirement planning should not be done in a vacuum. If you are married, you should definitely include your spouse in the process. You would be surprised at the number of couples who are blindsided by differences over retirement dreams, plans, and expectations. ...
Traveling? Should you buy travel insurance?
Note: I originally published this article in the AARP Bulletin. Carla McDowell has always loved to travel. She’s toured the Soviet Union, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea, Costa Rica, England and Alaska. And like a growing number of Americans, she...
How do you define retirement?
Ask a thousand different people what retirement is to them and you will get a thousand different answers. Many associate retirement with a particular age (sixty-five) or work status (not working). Many define it with certain activities (travel). In reality, all...
Annual retirement review checklist
Retirement has a lot of moving parts and when you consider that it could last for thirty years or more, it should come as no surprise that it will have several distinct phases. Sixty-five will look different from seventy-five, which will look different than...
Can you count on Social Security and Medicare?
Every year, the Social Security Board of Trustees reports to Congress on the fiscal health of the Social Security program. Not surprisingly, high unemployment and a wave of retiring baby boomers have put a heavy strain on the program. Benefits being paid already...
Maximizing retirement: Time vs. Tasks
In his wildly popular book The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferris told the story of Vilfredo Pareto, an economist who lived from 1848 to 1923. Unless you’ve read that book, you’ve probably never heard of Pareto, but you’re probably familiar with his most famous economic...