Category: Financial Planning

  • Social Security and my future

    By Joel Dresang Only about 1 in 15 Americans has an online Social Security account and checks their benefits estimates once a year. I happen to be one of those few. Not only do I plan on Social Security being there for my wife and me when we retire, but I’m getting an idea of…

  • Measured steps toward education, retirement

    By Joel Dresang My wife and I have provided our daughters with limited financial assistance in college. That’s because a) We want our children to have some skin in the game, and b) We’ve needed to save for our retirement. College has presented a serious lesson in what we have hoped to instill in our…

  • Providing for your digital survivors

    By Joel Dresang I don’t want to leave a lot of connections dangling after I’m gone. My legacy shouldn’t include loose ends. […]

  • A testament to update before you’re late

    Chess pieces

    Common wisdom and my family’s experiences suggest you want an estate plan to ease survival much for loved ones. […]

  • Where I’ve been since the financial crisis

    By Joel Dresang Ten years later, I don’t remember feeling desperate. But in a recent survey, 79% of Americans said they suffered setbacks from the financial crisis: 55% said that 10 years later, their finances still have not recovered. Looking back, I notice several factors that cushioned my family and me from the crisis. […]

  • Where to retire: A flight of fancy

    By Joel Dresang Of course, affordability is key. As we get closer to retirement, Mary and I will have to compare what we currently spend on housing with how much we can manage on a retirement budget. Then we can determine how many places we’ll have, whether we’ll own or rent and where we’ll call…

  • Retiring debt in time for retirement

    Dave Sandstrom explains why investors should consider how the costs of debt weigh into their retirement plans.

  • Inevitable as taxes, yet rarely planned for

    Chess pieces

    Of all the significant life events we can plan for, our afterlife is most often left untended.

  • Trying to transition off a treadmill

    By Joel Dresang Many retirees would rather be working. But at the same time that more employers are complaining about a lack of job applicants, they’re serving sheet cake for older employees who have cleared out their desks to head for home. Under the right circumstances, older workers can negotiate mutually beneficial work-to-retirement transitions. […]

  • Retirement confidence or ignorant bliss?

    So why are workers so confident of their retirement when they’ve done so little to prepare for it? […]