retirement - WIFE.org

How to Retire on Time for Female Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and the Self-Employed

Women all across the country are starting their own business or joining the “gig economy” as freelance graphic designers, photographers, or even Uber drivers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, just over 10% of all U.S. workers are self-employed. Women make good entrepreneurs because they are able to juggle lots of tasks and respond to […]

How to Retire on Time for Female Freelancers, Entrepreneurs, and the Self-Employed Read More »

Are You Entitled to Some of Your Husband’s Retirement Savings In Your Divorce?

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 4 minutes of reading

Aside from your home, it is likely that the retirement accounts you and your husband hold make up a large portion of your shared assets. Divorce accounts, like 401(k) plans, IRAs, and pension funds come with a lot of rules and regulations, which makes them a little tricky to tackle in divorce. However, retirement accounts

Are You Entitled to Some of Your Husband’s Retirement Savings In Your Divorce? Read More »

Five Simple Tips That Will Help You Save Big on Taxes in Retirement

By Candace Bahr / 3 minutes of reading

Most people think about taxes only in the spring. But if you are planning to retire in the near future, there are lots of things you should be doing right now to put in place a smart retirement tax strategy that can save you big bucks and help you achieve the retirement you want. If

Five Simple Tips That Will Help You Save Big on Taxes in Retirement Read More »

First Steps – Planning for Retirement In Your 20s

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 4 minutes of reading

Part One in Our Retirement for a Lifetime Series You are fresh out of college with a degree clutched in your hand. Get ready world, you are going to do big things…eventually. First, you have to find a job, figure out a living situation, somehow replace the muffler on your car AND come up with enough

First Steps – Planning for Retirement In Your 20s Read More »

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 30s

By Candace Bahr / 3 minutes of reading

Part Two in Our Retirement for a Lifetime Series Welcome to your 30s! There are a few more candles on your birthday cake now, but each one of those candles represents knowledge, experience, and wisdom gained. At this point in your life you probably aren’t scrimping to get by like you were in your 20s

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 30s Read More »

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 40s

By Candace Bahr / 3 minutes of reading

Part Three in Our Retirement for a Lifetime Series Welcome to your 40s. At this point in your life, your earning power should be growing as you use your experience and expertise to reach the top of your field and embrace more senior and leadership positions. Of course, with more money comes more opportunities to

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 40s Read More »

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 50s

By Candace Bahr / 3 minutes of reading

Part Four in Our Retirement For a Lifetime Series What’s that over there on the horizon? It’s your retirement, coming close. Yes, it’s still some years off, but you can see it now in the distance. How do you feel? Excited? Uncertain? Full of dread? By now, you should have several decades of retirement savings

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 50s Read More »

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 60s and Beyond

By WIFE Editor / 3 minutes of reading

Part Five in Our Retirement For a Lifetime Series When you blow out your candles on your 60th birthday, you will be tantalizingly close to the traditional retirement age – 65. Of course, traditions change, and many Americans are reaching this important milestone with big financial worries. According to the Federal Reserve, the median retirement

What You Should Be Doing to Plan for Retirement – Your 60s and Beyond Read More »

How Much Flexibility Is Too Much In Your Financial Plan?

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 3 minutes of reading

When it comes to your financial plan, it is important to maintain enough flexibility so that your plan can accommodate unexpected events that are out of your control. On the other hand, a sound financial plan needs to be firmly grounded by factors you can control so that even in the face of unexpected events,

How Much Flexibility Is Too Much In Your Financial Plan? Read More »

How Understanding the Female Brain Can Make You a More Savvy Investor

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 3 minutes of reading

In the book, Unleash the Power of the Female Brain, Dr. Daniel G. Amen, a psychiatrist and brain imaging expert, imaged the brains of 46,000 men and women. He compared the blood flow and activity patterns between male and female brains and found significant differences. In summarizing his finding, Dr. Amen reported that female brains

How Understanding the Female Brain Can Make You a More Savvy Investor Read More »

What Should Fund Investors Do With Style Boxes? Use Them!

By Richard Loth / 4 minutes of reading

Background Several years ago, Morningstar’s Don Phillips invented what is called a style box, now widely used by the investment community to categorize mutual funds according to investment characteristics of their portfolios. Fund categorization allows investors to diversify the asset-allocation of their portfolios by choosing a selection of funds according to varying degrees of risk

What Should Fund Investors Do With Style Boxes? Use Them! Read More »

What is Your Greatest Risk?

By Candace Bahr / 2 minutes of reading

My grandmother and my mother-in-law each lived to age 96. Many of us know women who lived to age 100 or later. A lot of women are afraid of a stock market decline, but because we are living longer than ever before, there’s actually something that could be more devastating to your hard earned wealth—the

What is Your Greatest Risk? Read More »

Beware These Risks to a Comfortable Retirement

By Candace Bahr / 2 minutes of reading

Americans are more at risk than ever before of not being able to maintain their same standard of living after they retire. The National Retirement Risk Index shows that in 2012 the number of at-risk households increased from 44% to 53% in the previous five years. This reflects the effects of the poor job market,

Beware These Risks to a Comfortable Retirement Read More »

IRA and 401(k) Mistakes

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 1 minute of reading

Avoid these pitfalls when investing for retirement. As a financial planner for over 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of money mistakes in my time. But the worst seem to come with retirement plans. Something about them just makes people do silly things I guess. One of the biggest mistakes is simply investing too conservatively.

IRA and 401(k) Mistakes Read More »

Financial Workout Tips

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 2 minutes of reading

If you vowed to lose weight and get more exercise this year, you aren’t alone. But how about extending that fitness regime to your finances? Here are some financial workouts tips to get your finances in shape. 1. Put Your Spending On A Diet Carrying too much debt is as exhausting as carrying extra weight.

Financial Workout Tips Read More »

Eight ways to get Money from an IRA penalty-free

By Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 2 minutes of reading

When you lose your job or have unexpected expenses, unless you have a substantial emergency funds you are left scrambling for funds to cover life’s emergencies, and money in IRAs is an obvious target. Funds withdrawn from an IRA are taxable, and if you are under 59-1/2, you also will pay a federal penalty of

Eight ways to get Money from an IRA penalty-free Read More »

These Long-Term Tax Strategies Will Help Savvy Women Stretch Their Dollars Further

By Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 5 minutes of reading

Politicians are always promising to completely revamp the tax code, but on the whole, our current tax policy has remained stubbornly consistent, with only minor changes over the years. Likewise, smart tax strategies will stand the test of time. As tax season bears down upon us, here are some reliable and long-term tax strategies that

These Long-Term Tax Strategies Will Help Savvy Women Stretch Their Dollars Further Read More »

Getting Income From Retirement Plans After Divorce

By Ginita Wall, CPA, CFP® / 2 minutes of reading

As a part of my divorce settlement, I am supposed to get a portion of my husband’s retirement plans. I’ll need some of the money to live on, but I’m only 53, so I’m too young to receive retirement benefits. What’s the best way to handle this retirement plan distribution? Generally, a Qualified Domestic Relations

Getting Income From Retirement Plans After Divorce Read More »