Retirement Calculators

Dow Jones Stock Graph
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Do you need some help planning the financial side of retirement?  There is no shortage of online calculators to give you a hand.  Below are 10 examples and there are many more if you search.  They each appear to have their own “spin,” which makes it useful to try a few different calculators.

Vanguard

https://retirementplans.vanguard.com/VGApp/pe/pubeducation/calculators/RetirementIncomeCalc.jsf

Vanguard’s calculator collects some basic information and then shows a graph of where you are versus what you will need.  I like the way the graphs change instantly as you adjust the numbers.  It allows you to try different scenarios easily.

Bankrate

https://www.bankrate.com/retirement/calculators/retirement-plan-calculator/

Bankrate collects your info and produces a graph of how long your money will last after retirement.  If you are not saving enough it is kind of depressing to see your money drop to zero while you are still alive.

Nerd Wallet

https://www.nerdwallet.com/investing/retirement-calculator

This one asks for some simple info and then projects what you will have versus what you will need.  It can be an eye opener.

Schwab 

https://www.schwab.com/retirement-planning-tools/retirement-calculator

Schwab’s calculator is pretty robust.  One thing I like is that it allows you to input your investment risk tolerance, from low to high.  For example, I tried Moderately Aggressive which assumes 80% stocks, 15% Fixed Income, and 5% Cash investments.

Smart Asset

https://smartasset.com/retirement/retirement-calculator

This calculator is fairly detailed.  It allows you to input both yours and a spouse’s information together.

AARP

https://www.aarp.org/work/retirement-planning/retirement_calculator.html

The calculator is rather detailed with input for you and your partner, and your anticipated lifestyle.  One thing I liked is after you are complete it gives you options as to what to do if you aren’t on track.

Dave Ramsey

https://www.daveramsey.com/smartvestor/investment-calculator

This one appears to be a basic calculator of the balance you will have at retirement.  One interesting item is the “What If?” section that shows the effect of some small changes like eating out less or saving just a little more.

Calculator.net

https://www.calculator.net/retirement-calculator.html

The Calculator.net site has all kinds of calculators.  Besides the calculations similar to other retirement calculators it has some others like “How long will your money last?”  or “How much can you withdrawal after retirement.  These are of interest to those that are close to retirement or already retired.

Merrill (Bank of America, formerly Merrill Lynch)

https://www.merrilledge.com/retirement/personal-retirement-calculator

Merrill’s calculator goes through a series of easy screens to make its calculations.  One variation from some of the others is that it allows you to adjust the amount you will spend in retirement, from 60% to 110% of your current salary.

Fidelity

https://www.fidelity.com/calculators-tools/retirement-calculator/overview

Fidelity offers a variety of retirement related calculators.  You can spend hours playing with the calculators and reviewing the guidance.  Not surprising that they have a nice collection.  I personally like them as a broker for stock investments because of the very complete range of information they provide on individual stocks and investments.

The different calculators each have their own twist on retirement calculations.  The nice part is they are all free so you can experiment as much as you want.

10 Things I Learned About Retirement

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I originally wrote this article a couple years ago but never published it.  I learned a lot in the last couple years so here is the updated version.

I’ve been studying this whole retirement idea for a few years now.  I’ve learned a lot both generally and personally.  I wanted to share some tidbits.  Most of these little nuggets deserve their own article or even a series of articles!

Don’t Rush to Collect Social Security

The best time to start collecting Social Security will vary with your personal situation, but for many the longer you wait the better.  This is because the amount you receive increases considerably with each year that you wait (up until age 70.)  Personally it seems right to wait till at least what SS calls “Full Retirement Age” if possible.  This is an important decision so get all the advise you can.

Retirement is Going to, as Much as Going Away

For most of my life I considered retirement to be that wonderous time when I could finally quit my job and relax.  Now I look at it as more of a “transition” to a new phase with all kinds of new opportunities.

Have a Plan Before You Retire

It’s obvious that you need a financial plan before you retire.  What’s not so obvious is you need a plan for what you are going to do with yourself.  And it should be more detailed than “travel more.”  It is unlikely you are going to be traveling 365 days a year, no matter your financial situation.  What are you going to do with the rest of your time?

My own personal experience is that you should have a Plan B.  I am writing this in the fall of 2020 and “retired” into the middle of a pandemic on 5/1/20.  My Plan B has involved writing, websites and other interests.  And I learned over the past few years that I don’t really want to retire in the traditional sense anyway!

Make a Plan if You are Already Retired

Did you concentrate on mostly the financial aspects of retirement before you retired?  It’s not too late – time to start planning all those other things – like what are you going to do with yourself!  I also think it is good to periodically review those plans as things may change after you gain some retirement experience.  Browsing through this blog may give you some ideas!

Who Says You Should Stop Working?

Working will be part of many retiree’s plans.  And this isn’t just for financial reasons, although it certainly helps there too!  Working keeps your mind sharp and has many social benefits.  It keeps you connected to the real world.  Of course, your retirement work doesn’t have to be the same thing you did before, it doesn’t have to be full time, and it might not even pay well – think rewarding volunteer work if you don’t need the income.

How Many Sources of Income do You Have?

This is one where retirement has really changed.  My Dad had Social Security and a pension, along with company health benefits for most of his retirement.  Now we need to consider Social Security, working, retirement savings, stock dividends, and assorted other income sources to make the retirement puzzle work.  And who knows what will happen with health care!

Move Your Butt!

This is a biggie.  We need to keep moving, both physically and mentally.  And this needs to continue regardless of our age.  Without decent health all the other retirement ideas become much more difficult.

Eat Smart but Don’t Go Crazy

I’m not a health professional but I think a little common sense goes a long way here.  Most of us know what we should be eating, just like we know we should be exercising.  However, if you want that weekly ice cream cone go for it!  Just don’t make it six a day!

Plan How to Keep People in Your Life

I’m learning more and more about this one.  Some of us are blessed with big happy families and many friends.  Others have small families that may or may not get along and rely on work associations for much of their social contact.  You need to make a conscience effort to figure out how to keep people in your life.  This might involve clubs, volunteering, or part time work.

Don’t Wait to Do Stuff, Like Travel

With so much emphasis put on the financial aspects of retirement there might be a tendency to be almost too frugal in the early years of retirement.  While this might be necessary for some, try to make some of the things you really wanted to do, like travel, a priority.  You never know, we all know people that finally retired only to have health problems that prevented travel pop up way too soon, and they miss out on some of their life ambitions.

This represents just a few things I’ve learned in my years of retirement research.  I’ll keep updating as I learn more, and feel free to comment with your ideas!

Multiple Income Streams – Part Two

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In a previous post (Multiple Income Streams Part One) we talked about the importance of multiple streams of income in retirement. This included the impact of multiple income streams for those with various levels of retirement assets. In this post we’ll expand on those ideas by broadly identifying where some of that income can come from and propose a general plan.

Income generally has a way of progressing from less passive to more passive during life. If you remember from the previous post we basically defined passive income as income that you do not have to devote a lot of time to keep it coming. No income is completely passive but at one side of the spectrum you might have a job that requires lots of time and effort (not passive at all.) On the other side of the spectrum you might have dividend income where the checks just keep coming (unless the company stops paying.)

In between a job and dividend you might have various business such as service businesses, where you trade your time and talent for income.

With this in mind let’s consider a mix of five income sources to look at how you might achieve multiple stream of income:

Job

Jobs are the least passive but they might have the advantage of being the most reliable and sometimes even provide benefits like health insurance. For a retiree this might mean a part time job that assures at least some fairly reliable income.

Part Time Service Business

Also not very passive might be a service business. Examples might include consulting or even babysitting. Here you are trading your time for income but you have more flexibility in when and how much you work. And as long as you do the work you usually get paid! So it is fairly reliable.

Selling things

Selling things is probably somewhere in the middle when it comes to passivity. Easiest example is selling things from around the house that you no longer need. For a little effort on EBay or Craigslist you might collect a considerable sum. Of course you eventually run out of things to sell, but it is a good way to initially establish an additional stream of income.

Recurring income product

This is a product you create that requires a lot of time up front but can provide a lasting income stream. For example suppose you write a book that you self publish on Amazon. There is a lot of work initially but you can potentially receive an income forever from sales of the book, and that income is fairly passive.

Stock Dividends, Annuities, and Social Security

Stock Dividends are probably one of the most passive forms of income. A similar example might be an annuity. The basic principal is that you invest money and receive a stream of income from that investment. Social Security is similar in that you paid in a long time in order to receive a series of payments.

Putting it all together

After thinking about the above income sources it isn’t hard to see where multiple income stream might come from. For example:

  1. You start with a part time job.
  2. You do a little pet sitting and begin establish a list of repeat customers.
  3. You start selling things around the house on Ebay and Craiglist. Maybe you start small and generate about $50 a month.
  4. You write a little book called “How to start a pet sitting business.” You sell it on Amazon and it generates some money every month.
  5. You save your money from the above and buy some dividend paying stocks and a small annuity. This gives you another income stream on top of your Social Security.

As you can see it isn’t too hard to envision multiple streams of income. The idea is to actually take action and start with the more non-passive income types and then maybe as you get older to build up more of the passive sources. Good Luck!

Until next time…