Discover why one family settled on this European haven to call home. Tom Wang / Shutterstock.com
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Live and Invest Overseas. “Do you know where our passports are?” my husband asked, sounding slightly panicked over the phone. I was away on a business trip, but we were moving to Portugal in a few weeks so I had put all the paperwork for the move, including our passports, together in a box. I told him this, and he said he would go look.
Read this to decide whether heated floors are right for your home and budget. New Africa / Shutterstock.com
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on Point2. Heated flooring can be an absolute comfort, especially when stepping out of the shower on a cold day. Beyond the warm, fuzzy feeling you can get from in-floor heating, there are several other advantages to enjoy. However, every coin has its flipside. So, if you’re considering installing radiant floor heating in your home…
If you don’t have enough saved for retirement, you could find yourself facing financial hardship as a senior. See how to tell if your savings are on track.
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Social Security replaces about 40% of your work earnings when you retire and claim benefits, which is not very much. You don’t want to try to live on your retirement benefits alone since they really aren’t intended to be a sole support source for you.
If you’re like most people and work for an employer that doesn’t offer a pension with guaranteed monthly income, you’re probably going to need a pretty hefty amount of money in a retirement account (like an IRA) to help see you through your later years. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re on track with your saving efforts so you won’t find yourself falling short.
So, how can you know if your retirement savings will leave you rich or broke? Here’s what you need to do.
To determine if you’ll be flush with cash or struggling to get by as a senior, you’ll want to figure out what amount of money you’re likely to have available to you as a retiree.
There are plenty of calculators online that you can use to help you do that, including one on Investor.gov. Just input:
The amount you have investedThe monthly contributions you plan to makeThe number of years until retirementThe estimated interest rate (around 10% is reasonable)
Say, for example, you currently have $25,000 invested, you plan to make monthly contributions of $300, and you have 20 years until retirement. You could use this calculator to determine you’re likely to end up with about $374,377.50 in your brokerage account or other retirement plan.
Next, you’ll want to estimate a safe withdrawal rate. That’s the amount you can take out of your retirement accounts without going broke by draining your balance too fast. Generally, taking out about 4% or less of your account balance the first year and adjusting up for inflation after that is a good rule of thumb.
If you chose 4% as your withdrawal rate and you had $374,377.50 in your investment account, your investments would only give you $14,975.10 per year. Even when combined with Social Security (which has an average monthly benefit of $1,907 in 2024), that may not give you enough to maintain your lifestyle.
The last step to determine if your retirement savings will leave you rich or broke is to anticipate whether your savings will give you enough to live the way you want.
Most experts recommend you replace a minimum of around 70% to 80% of pre-retirement income, but some people need more if they want to travel a lot or if they have expensive medical needs. If you anticipate you’ll be making $85,000 per year at the end of your career and you want to replace 80% of that, you’d need your savings and Social Security to add up to $68,000. So you’d likely be far short if you just had Social Security and minimal savings to live on.
If this calculation shows that you won’t have enough to replace the required percentage of income, you probably won’t be able to maintain your lifestyle as a retiree. You can start saving more now to give yourself a better future — or begin making plans for a drastic reduction in cost of living, perhaps by moving to a cheaper area. If you don’t want to close off future options to yourself, start saving more now so you can get on the path to being rich instead of broke as a retiree.
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With a new year getting underway, there are three moves you need to make to set yourself up for a secure future. Keep reading to learn more.
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There are certain personal finance tasks you need to complete every year. Taking care of these obligations will help ensure you’re making the most of your money and not taking on more risks than you should with your hard-earned dollars.
Since a new year is getting underway, it’s a great time to check these tasks off your list so you can feel confident you’re on the right track toward a more secure future.
You should have money invested in a brokerage account. And you should have some of this money in the stock market because investing in stocks can produce a better return than buying many other assets. But you don’t want too much money in stocks because you can also lose that money as the market goes down.
The amount of money you should have in stocks changes over time. When you are younger, you have more time to wait out recoveries and to get back your money after a market crash. When you are older, you don’t have the luxury of time and can’t afford to face big losses when you’re nearing retirement. You might not have time to wait for a market rebound if you need to start taking out your money.
One good rule of thumb to figure out how much to invest in stocks is to subtract your age from 110. Then, invest that percentage of your portfolio in stocks. So if you are 20, you’d have 90% of your portfolio in the market but if you are 70, you’d have 40%.
Since you’re getting older as the new year begins, take a look at whether you have the right percentage of your money in the market and make any necessary changes.
It’s also a good time to take a quick look at your financial accounts. Specifically, you’ll want to check out:
Are you paying any unnecessary fees to your bank?Is your credit card charging an annual fee but not providing enough benefits to justify it?Is your credit card rewards program a good fit?Do you have any loans you could refinance at a lower rate?
By asking yourself these questions, you can decide if it’s time to make a change. If you paid $100 in ATM fees last year, for example, you may want to switch to a bank with a wider ATM network or one that reimburses you for the fees you paid.
Make a list of your accounts and the features of each one, consider what you like — and don’t — about them, and research what else is out there to see if there’s a better fit.
Finally, it’s time to check your insurance policies to make sure:
You have the right amount of coverage. Do you need to increase your policy limits if, for example, the cost of rebuilding your home has gone up.You have the right types of coverage. Do you have adequate protection for all your assets (including your car, your home, and anything else you can insure)?You’re paying the right price for your coverage. Is there an insurer out there that might offer a cheaper price for the same or better coverage?
Get a couple insurance quotes from different providers, making sure you have all the coverage you need, so you can make an informed choice about whether to stick with your current insurer or switch companies.
By completing these three moves as a new year begins, you can make sure you aren’t leaving money on the table or at risk of losing it if you have taken on too much risk in the market or don’t have the right insurance protections. It won’t take long to do these tasks and they can make a big difference in your future.
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Shopping at the right time has made all the difference for my grocery expenses. Learn the technique I use to reduce my costs dramatically.
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Groceries have become pretty expensive thanks to inflation causing food prices to rise. Like most people, paying a lot of extra money for food for my family has been a hit to my checking account.
Fortunately, I’ve found ways to reduce what I’m spending on groceries. And one of the steps that has made the biggest impact is a very simple one that anyone can replicate. Here’s what I’ve done to cut my bills dramatically.
The most important change I’ve made to reduce my grocery bill is to stock up on items when they are on sale so I never have to pay full price for them.
See, like most people, my family buys items on a set schedule. We regularly buy pasta sauce, cereal, granola bars, applesauce, apple juice, and dozens of other products. And we go through them on a pretty steady basis. For example, we eat about a jar of applesauce a week (my kids love it!) and a box of cereal every two weeks.
To help reduce the amount I was charging on my credit cards for food, I kept track of how often my grocery store put a particular item on sale. For most things, it was every six weeks to every eight weeks, although some products only went on sale every 12 weeks. Once I figured out how long a sales cycle was for a particular item, I just bought enough of that item at a discount to ensure I wouldn’t need to purchase it again until the sale came back around.
For example, my local store marks applesauce down every eight weeks. So, I’d buy eight or nine jars at the discounted price, saving around $1 on each one (or sometimes even more for a great sale). This alone saved me $8 (or more) off what I otherwise would have spent for those applesauces in a two-month period.
By doing this with lots of products that I purchase, I’ve reduced my monthly grocery bills by around $40 to $50 compared with how much I saved before trying out this technique. That’s extra money I’m able to put into my savings account or use to meet my financial goals — and all without changing what my family eats or making any other shifts to my lifestyle.
If you want to try this technique, take a look in your pantry and make a list of some of the staples that you buy often. Make sure you’re only including things you know you won’t get sick of, as you don’t want to buy items that will just get thrown away. On your list, put a check mark each time you use up a jar or container. Do this for a few months, and you’ll be able to see how quickly you go through each product.
As you’re noting the food you eat regularly, you can also figure out the grocery store sales schedules. You can use a spreadsheet to record when your commonly purchased items go on discount, or just keep weekly receipts and sales flyers. If you do this for around eight or 12 weeks, you’ll figure out your store’s sales schedule.
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to start bulk buying during sales weeks — and can begin reaping the savings. It doesn’t take as much time as it might seem to do this, and you’ll likely find it’s well worth the effort when you can keep your grocery bills down. The best part is, once you’ve implemented this system, it will keep working for you and helping you save money for a long time to come.
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Payments apps are a convenient way to move money around. Learn why it pays to watch what you type in the memo line.
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Welcome to the year 2024. Video calls are finally a reality, you can have nearly anything delivered to your house in just a few days (and sometimes on the same day), and we can move money around without even handling it as cash.
Payments apps link to your bank accounts and credit cards, letting you send money to other people, make purchases, and shift cash between different banks. They’re easy to use and incredibly convenient. But if you use them, it pays to be careful about what you put in that memo line.
Payments apps like Venmo have leaned into the “social” aspect of sending money to a friend, and allow users to type fun notes and use emojis in the memo line when they pay others. Your transactions are also public by default, meaning any users on the app can see them. This might seem like harmless fun, and most of the time, it probably is. But it’s worth reviewing your use of any payments app and considering what information you’re including when you send money, as your relationships and living situation could become public knowledge in a way you might not want.
Speaking of that memo line, if you’re inclined to joke around and indicate that you might be paying for something that is legally questionable, you might find your payments getting flagged by the app or your bank. Banking regulations are no joke, and banks can face serious fines for letting illegal transactions slip through. If the payments app or your bank suspects that you’re making transactions that involve terrorism, illegal drugs, or sanctioned countries, you might face a headache to untangle the problem. So resist the urge to type “drug money” or something similarly suspect in the memo line.
Payments apps could also open you up to fraud and money loss if you’re not careful. Here are a few other tips for using them safely.
Only pay people you know: Venmo and similar apps are great for sending money to friends and family, but less ideal for paying a stranger. If you order something online and make a payment via an app, then it never arrives, you’re less protected than you would be if you used, say, a credit card.Take your time: It only takes a few minutes to review payment information (including the bank account you’ve selected and the person you’re paying), and it’s worth taking this extra bit of time to be careful. You don’t want to accidentally pay the wrong person or overdraft your checking account.Don’t store money in the app: Cash left in a payments app might not be subject to FDIC protection, so if someone pays you, transfer that money to your bank account as soon as you can.Use secure passwords: I hope you’re not using the same password for all your accounts! Create unique and secure passwords for payments apps and consider enabling multi-factor authentication as well. Receiving and inputting a code from a text message might take a moment, but the extra security is worth it.Report possible fraud: If you do suspect fraud, report it to the payments app as well as the Federal Trade Commission.
Payments apps like Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle offer a convenient way to pay and get paid. Just be careful about what you type in the memo line to avoid having your transaction flagged, and always use common sense to keep your money safe from scammers.
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