Squared Away Blog

Remaining on the job for a few more years may not appeal to many older Americans who long to retire. But in the above video, a compelling case for working longer is made by Steven Sass, an economist with the Center for Retirement, who also edits this blog. Sass explains that delaying retirement improves a retiree’s financial security in three critical ways: The worker can continue to save money for a few more years and will have more time to earn investment income on his savings. ……

Maria Machado estimates that women over 50 make up about three out of four of the Dallasites seeking to cut their living expenses either by renting out a room in their home or by renting from a homeowner. Shared housing often isn’t their first choice. “We like our independence,” said Machado, head of the Shared Housing Center, a non-profit roommate matching service in Dallas. But “house rich and money poor” older women will turn to house-sharing when they become widowed or if Social Security is their sole source of retirement income, she said. Companionship is another benefit of match-ups, whether with another senior or a younger adult. The Shared Housing Center is part of a national network of programs matching…

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) has redesigned its website providing information for “house rich but cash poor” older people who want to think about tapping their home equity. Home equity – the house’s market value minus the amount owed on the mortgage – remains a largely unused source of income that many older Americans could be putting toward their medical care or to improve their lives. Home equity held by Americans age 62 and over reached $5.76 trillion last year – an increase of nearly 30 percent since 2013. A marker of how much of this retirement resource remains untapped is the small number of federally insured reverse mortgages – about 50,000 – that seniors take out every year against t…

One segment of the U.S. labor force sheds light on the continuing struggle to find work: part-time employees who want a full-time job but can’t find one. The U.S. unemployment rate has drifted down during the economic recovery. But the number of people the Department of Labor calls “involuntary part-time” roughly doubled during the recession to 8 million and still remains stuck at this much higher level. Millions of Americans work part-time because they want to, but this involuntary part-time workforce is one more gauge of the slack labor market and lingering pain three years after the Great Recession officially ended. The Labor Department counts part-timers as involuntary if they can’t find a full-time job or if they work part-tim…

This will not surprise you: men have more money saved for retirement than women. Men averaged $123,262 in their defined contribution plans, compared with $79,572 for women, according to a new report by Vanguard based on its 2014 recordkeeping data. But these figures hide a larger truth: women are actually better at saving for retirement. “Overall, women are better at this but men earn more money so they have higher wealth accumulation,” says Vanguard researcher Jean Young, author of the new report, “Women versus Men in DC Plans.” Young’s research found that women are 14 percent more likely to enroll in a voluntary workplace retirement savings plan. Women save 7 percent of pay, compared with 6.8 percent for men, controlling…

In 2013, almost 40 percent of all households ages 55 and over had not paid off their mortgages, up from 32 percent in 2001. These borrowers were also carrying a lot more housing debt by 2013. During that time span, the housing boom first encouraged homeowners to borrow against their newfound home equity.  Then the 2008 bust hammered house prices from Miami to Seattle, reducing home equity and leaving many people holding relatively large mortgages. By 2013, these two factors had combined to exacerbate Americans’ poor preparation for retirement, according to a study by the Center for Retirement Research, which supports this blog. The researchers analyzed the impact of the bursting of the housing bubble on the National Retirement Risk…

Great news for older workers considering a career change – those who’ve done it are happier and less stressed. People who attempted a career change sometime after turning 45 were surveyed last year by the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) in Massachusetts.  Whatever the reason for making a change – voluntary or forced – the majority of those who did so felt their results were successful. These late-career changers need to be put in a larger perspective.  Older workers are much more likely to stay put in a job than are younger people moving up the ladder, and older people also have a tougher time recovering and finding a new full-time job after becoming unemployed. But when older workers…

These personal finance videos are like sensible shoes: they won’t win any awards, but they can be useful. Produced by the College of Financial Planning, the short videos demystify the fundamentals of personal finance that the planners who teach and take courses at the college rely on in their practices. “Free Money” (above) features Dirk Pantone, a vice president and certified financial planner, interviewing Kristen MacKenzie, who teaches there, about 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457(b)s and the employer match. “Living on Borrowed Time,” has Pantone and MacKenzie discussing the difference between good debt and bad debt, both of which impact credit scores. “The Road to Investing Your Assets” explains why low fees and portfolio diversification are so important. There are 13 videos. …

Ken Osborne with his mother. Ken Osborne became vigilant about safeguarding his 81-year-old mother’s savings as her memory loss set in. She often failed to recall what she’d said during frequent, unsolicited phone calls from people prying into her personal life and financial affairs. “She’s vulnerable,” Osborne, a resident of Jacksonville, Florida, says about his mother who lives 140 miles away. Osborne took preventive action. He signed his mother up for a debit card funded by, but segregated from, her primary bank account.  Osborne maintains a $500 balance in the card account, giving his mother the freedom to spend her own money – whether for groceries or a church excursion to North Carolina – while giving him control of t…

Most people in a recent retirement survey fielded by the American College of Financial Services were confident that they had saved enough money to live in comfort in retirement. But how do they know if they’re on-track? Four out of five also flunked the survey’s retirement planning quiz, answering less than 60 percent of its 38 financial questions correctly. What’s striking about the poor results is that the quiz takers were a select and relatively well-off group: 60- to 75-year-olds with at least $100,000 in financial assets, excluding their home equity. A majority of them also have a financial adviser. One would think that people with both investment and retirement experience would do better. This also raises the question of what…

Call it the anti-retirement movement – older Americans who are either resisting the lure of retirement or have eagerly exited a short-lived retirement to return to work. Squared Away tracked down three people who fit the profile of the type of people research has shown are most likely to keep working into their mid-60s, 70s, or even their 80s: college-educated go-getters who find unlimited travel or golf a tad boring. To be sure, these are the lucky Americans who have financial and other advantages that many older people lack. The extra money they receive from working, even if it’s part-time, isn’t their primary motivation, though it’s nice to have. And age has given them the luxury of crafting their own…