RETIREMENT PLANNING

Two of the biggest financial goals in most people’s lives is purchasing a home and saving for retirement. So why not kill two birds with one stone by using your home equity to double as your retirement fund? Saving for a house or a comfortable retirement can be hard enough as it is, let alone having to do both, but if you’re willing to incorporate a little home downsizing in your retirement plan, you can have your cake and then sell it to fund your golden years too. However, just because you could do it, doesn’t necessarily mean you should do it.

Using Home Equity to Fund Retirement

Financial emergencies can strike at any time, and unfortunately, they usually come with little to no warning. Job loss, vehicle or home repairs, medical expenses and other major events can quickly consume your emergency fund and leave you looking for a way to get by. But you don’t have to panic. Here are some tips for dealing with a financial crisis, starting with preparation:

Prepare Before Disaster Strikes

What do Woody Allen and personal finance have to do with each other, you ask? Maybe not a whole lot, but if we dissect his films closely, there are definitely lessons to be learned.

The over opinionated Woody Allen is constantly placing social criticisms, personal quips, and when examined closely, financial advice into his movies. By extracting these gems from across the span of his films and bringing them together, we can gain insight into some valuable tips on spending, saving and more.

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Determining whether a living trust versus a will is more suitable for you and your beneficiaries is vital to estate and retirement planning, not to mention essential to the bigger picture of your finances. After all, you wouldn’t want the remainder of the assets you worked so hard to accumulate for a comfortable retirement to fall into the wrong hands once you’re gone. Though discussing details regarding your eventual absence from your beneficiaries’ lives may be hard, neglecting the arrangements could have disastrous results.

Living Trust vs. Will

If you are one of the millions of people who are eligible to participate in an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan, do it! There are numerous benefits–both present and future–that are available to you for contributing to this type of retirement plan.

First Step: Contribute

Saving for retirement is never an easy task, but after many workers lost their savings during the recession, they’re having a more difficult time than ever trying to recoup their losses. A new survey released by Sun Life Financial found that a whopping 80 percent of workers need at least three years to rebuild their retirement savings as a result of the recession. This is a 16 percent increase over the previous year’s survey results.

The Recession Has Had a Lasting Effect

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That’s right, it’s National Save for Retirement Week. Did you even know it existed? Since 2006, the third week of October has been designated by Congress as National Save for Retirement Week in order to “increase personal financial literacy and raise public awareness of the retirement-savings vehicles available to all workers” according to RetirementWeek.org.

While retirement is on the minds of many in this recession, how men and women think about the subject differs. According to a new study released by Ameriprise Financial on Monday morning, gender may have a huge impact on how consumers approach their retirement.

Women More Enthusiastic about Retirement

Thomas J. Feeney has been in the investment industry for over four decades. As the chief investment officer of both Marathon Asset Management Co. and Mission Management & Trust Co., there isn’t much of the financial world he hasn’t seen. As much as his schedule allows, he also breaks down his thoughts and strategies on his blog, Measure of Value.

Every other week, we’ll tap Tom’s insights to get a deeper perspective of what’s going on in the market and see through his eyes what the smart money is thinking.

What is a financial professional? The term loosely covers anyone that works in an industry dealing with, well, finance. This could be someone as prominent as a stock broker on Wall Street or someone as common as your local insurance agent or tax accountant. Knowing the area of expertise each one deals with will help you pinpoint the right hire to help you meet your financial goals. After all, you wouldn’t have your insurance representative do your taxes or your CPA accountant picking your stocks.

The following is a simple break down of five of the most common industry professionals working in finance. While some responsibilities do blend together and some professionals do double dip in expertise, this guide should help clarify where each professional fits in the world of finance.