Nevin's Data "Points"

My decision as to whether or not to save in my workplace savings plan wasn’t long or complicated.  Yes, I had to actually fill out a form, and yes, I actually had to figure out how to invest those savings (though in fairness, there were only four funds from which to choose, one of which was company stock). Yes, there was also a generous match, but when you’re young there are more enticing ways to spend your income than—well, not spending it. That said—and at age 22 I’d not always fully embraced my parents’ counsel—my mother didn’t hesitate to insist that I did so.   My mother, now a retired school teacher, then (and still) reminds me with some regularity (and deserved pride) that she began having $50 taken out of her paycheck at work—though my father protested at the time they couldn’t afford to do so. Or at least he did until he saw that first quarterly statement—at which point he began looking into how he could s...

A few years back — when my kids still believed in the reality of Santa Claus — we discovered an ingenious website. This was a website that purported to offer a real-time assessment of your “naughty or nice” status. Now, as Christmas approached, it was not uncommon for us to caution our occasionally misbehaving brood that they had best be attentive to how those actions might be viewed by the big guy at the North Pole. But nothing ever had the impact of that website — if not on their behaviors (they were kids, after all), then certainly on the level of their concern about the consequences. In fact, in one of his final years as a “believer,” my son (who, it must be acknowledged, had been particularly naughty that year, and he knew it) was on the verge of tears, worried that he’d find nothing under the Christmas tree but the nuggets of coal in his stocking he so surely deserved. Bad Behaviors? With so many reports purporting to chronicle the sorry state of retirement confidence...

While retirement and retirement savings may not be high on your Independence Day weekend agenda, it can be a good time to focus on things that have been pushed aside for more pressing priorities. Here are four steps you can take this weekend that can help put you on the road to achieve financial independence. 1. Figure Out How Much You Need Yogi Berra once famously noted that if you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there. Effective savings strategies start with a goal, something to aim for. For many, retirement savings goals seem impossible to set. After all, there’s no “blue book” on the cost or quality of retirement — no single answer to the question, “How much do I need?” As a result, many people fear that their estimates “aren’t even in the ballpark” of what will be required. The 2015 Retirement Confidence Survey affirmed a long-standing trend — that most haven’t made even a single attempt to figure out what they might need for retirement. There are, howeve...