Smart401k Blog

Photo Credit Shazwan

Last week, after Kansas City received a dusting of snow, my 20-minute drive to work became an hour-long journey. I found myself dreaming of places where winter is defined by long-sleeve shirts rather than expedition-weight parkas.

I’m still a few decades away from retirement, but it’s never too soon to create retirement goals and use my 401(k) investment plan to reach them. Part of my retirement plan is to become a ‘snowbird’ and journey south for the winter. Since I know what I want to do, it’s easier to create a strategy to reach my goals.

Whether you’re already a snowbird, within a few years of starting your migratory lifestyle or just dreaming and strategizing, here are some things to consider as you do your financial planning:

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Photo Credit Whatsername

As I recently scraped the frost off my car windows, I couldn’t help but think about all those “snow birds” headed south for the winter. The migratory lifestyle is ideal for many retirees, but there’s also a growing contingent of Boomers making the expat leap and retiring abroad.

The allure of great weather and, in some cases, a cheaper cost of living is tempting. While numbers are difficult to nail down, there are probably more than 500,000 retirees living abroad, according to CBS Money Watch.

A move overseas takes some serious research and planning. If you’re thinking about joining the expat crowd, be sure you’ve addressed these considerations:

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I spent a lot of time at my local golf course when I was growing up. Every time I walked into the clubhouse, the friendly manager greeted me. When I returned for the first time in years, Dusty was still behind the clubhouse counter. I asked why he was working at the golf course when he could be enjoying retirement. He indicated that his wife would ring his neck if he were home all day.

Dusty isn’t alone. Results from a May 2011 survey published by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies stated 54% of workers plan to work during retirement.

If you’re in the same boat, here are a few tips to help you find an in-retirement job:

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We follow lots of really good blogs – mostly related to personal finance and economics. The Blog Round-Up allows us to point you in the direction of some great content from the blogging world. Posts* included in today’s round-up speak to the theme Ideas for Life During Retirement.

This unique post also falls into another series we run called Envisioning Retirement.

More studies and data are showing the benefits of envisioning your own retirement. People who can envision themselves in retirement are more likely to save more money and diligently plan for retirement.

To help you see and feel what your life could be like during retirement, this blog series will provide information and reviews about hobbies, travel and other activities you might enjoy during your retirement years.

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Photo attributions: scrapbooking by shimelle; golf by kulicki; ocean dock by Alaskan Dude; cruise ship by Jesus & Kristle; fishing by Brianmoc; books by indi.ca

More studies and data are showing the benefits of envisioning your own retirement. People who can envision themselves in retirement are more likely to save more money and diligently plan for retirement.

To help you see and feel what your life could be like during retirement, this blog series will provide information and reviews about hobbies, travel and other activities you might enjoy during your retirement years.  (more…)

Most articles about retirement planning focus on you – the future retiree. Oftentimes authors also discuss how spouses’ retirement savings will interact in a retirement strategy. Have you ever thought about how your retirement savings decisions will affect everyone else in your life?

Think about all your family, and even your friends. Your financial situation during retirement could be part of their lives too.  (more…)

Whether you’re retired or just ready to take some time off work, you might be feeling the vacation bug this time of year. Recently there was a post in the Smart401k blog about taking a staycation to help save money. Staycations can be great, but if you’re like me, sometimes you just need to get away.

Expenses can quickly add up when you’re traveling – lodging, food, plane tickets or gas, car rental. Before you start stressing too much about the costs of heading out of town, there are a number of ways you can save money and make an amazing trip relatively inexpensive.  (more…)

I think having kids is the most wonderful thing in the world – I absolutely, positively love being a parent. The only regret I have about parenthood is that I wish we’d started planning and budgeting for it a few years ahead of becoming parents.

Several people said things like, ‘When the time comes, you’ll just find the money.’ Hmm … ultimately that’s been true, but it’s not the best way to set yourself up for budgetary success.

If I could go back in time, I would give Carolyn of five years ago a few kernels of wisdom. It leads me to wonder whether I could apply some of the lessons of parenthood to retirement. (more…)

Recently I heard a smartplanet interview with the Northwestern University professor who is leading research on the idea that people might make better retirement planning decisions when looking at their own aged picture:

We used a combination of software that relies on an age-progression algorithm. [This] allows people to take a photo of somebody and run it through this program. The age-progression algorithm does all the things that happen with aging — sagging the cheeks, the jowls, the eyes, graying the hair, adding some wrinkles. We conducted the study in a virtual reality environment, which allowed people to step into the body and the mind of someone we want to represent. We can have people go into this virtual world and look into a virtual mirror and interact with who they’ll be in the future.

Half of our participants did that — they saw themselves in the future. Half of our participants just saw a digital avatar of themselves now. We found that the participants who were exposed to their future selves allocated almost twice as much money to a hypothetical retirement account compared to the participants who were exposed to their current selves. (more…)

In my experience speaking with people who are nearing retirement, many think it’s an all-or-nothing deal. A common viewpoint is one day you walk out of the workplace and never return again.

The fact is that, after spending a lifetime in a challenging career, it can be difficult to stop working cold-turkey. A growing trend these days is semi-retirement, or gradual retirement. (more…)