Planning for retirement is an essential part of couples' financial management. As life expectancy increases and healthcare costs rise, ensuring that you have sufficient funds to maintain your lifestyle during retirement has become more critical than ever. Two major factors that can significantly impact retirement income are Social Security tax and inflation. Many people don't realize that Social Security income can be taxable, (which doesn't seem right since Social Security was a "tax" from your income to start with). Understanding how these elements affect your financial future can help you make more informed decisions and better prepare for the years ahead. What is Social Security … [Read more...]
Inflation’s Effect on Retirement Savings
Inflation and Retirement The stock market crash of 2008 may have left you feeling a little nervous about investing your money in the market. The fear of losing everything to another recession or depression has caused many people to make “safer” investment choices, and some people aren’t even investing at all, choosing to place their money in a “high yield” savings account, instead. Unfortunately, "high yield" these days is still lower than the rate of inflation, causing you to actually lose money. Inflation Worse than a Crash Losing your money to inflation is actually much scarier than losing your money to a stock market crash. Stock market crashes are rare, but inflation is inevitable. … [Read more...]