In the world of personal finance, asking what's the worst that could happen is not the same as asking: "will I be able to afford this?" or "have I saved enough for retirement?"
Personal Finance: Your Money Under Stress

To hear all of our archived broadcast, go to our new site Financial Impact Factor Radio
Retirement Risk and Taxes

Over the last couple of years, there had been a focus on the nearest-retirees - those literally on the cusp of leaving the workplace. How would those poor souls do it? Decimated portfolios littered the financial landscape and the hopes and dreams of those closest to retirement were endlessly profiled as being the norm. Should your retirement plan be more than guesswork and assumptions?

Is simply suggesting that your retirement plan is okay enough? Hardly.
More on the value neutral retirement plan here.

There has been so much said about credit lately, I was wondering if there was more to learn about credit than simply suggesting we don't know what the heck we are doing. There is a widely publicized number about credit, and I suppose this might be the best place to start. How many of you have heard a number for the average the debt for credit cards as being around $8,000?

This is where almost every 401(k) plan in this great nation fails. Once you have been put in the drive-up lane, you are stuck. You are essentially given a select number of choices, many of which are easy to determine how much they cost. The 401(k) Drive-Up Window: A Menu of Investment Options

The focus for most financial planners has been the wealthy. But they have realized the middle America has retirement needs as well. In this five part series, we will explore the nature of the not-so-wealthy investor, why she/he fails to do what the financial community sees as right for their future, their motivation, or lack of it, and how to overcome the intimidation factor.
National Save for Retirement Week

Personal finance is more than personal

The New Retirement Plan: Run Towards the Danger. Find out why risk is still the best ally an investor planning on retirement can have.

Featured Personal Finance and Retirement Planning Titles

"Mutual Funds for the Utterly Confused" (McGraw-HIll, December 2008)

Mutual Funds for the Utterly Confused

Retirement Planning for the Utterly Confused

International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans says "The book explores the importance of time and retirement philosophy in making a retirement plan."
Read the review

Investing for the Utterly Confused

Building Wealth in a Paycheck-to-Paycheck World

"This is an all-inclusive retirement disaster." But believe it or not, there is hope for your retirement.

So, how exactly does greed and your retirement plan work?

Are you asking: What now retirement plan?

Do women need a different retirement plan?

Our editor Paul Petillo is a regular guest on Moms Making a Million radio show, Friday mornings 8am PST. Tune in! Do you have a question? Write Paul now.

All Past topics at the new site Why money makes people divorce . Have the Money Talk Now! Framing Your Life- as a Sentence Does being rich make you smarter? Five financial catch phrases you should ignore 401(k) plans and your job search Financial Planners and Women Can credit cards help your financial future? National Save for Retirement Week Do You need disability insurance? Who takes these surveys we hear about so often? The mysteries of the annuity. When women (or men) begin a business, be careful of the " legal hurdles. Part two, the fiduciary responsibilities of starting a retirement plan for their employees. Yet another study on how women invest Why having a baby might keep you from buying a house. Should Retirement Planning be Scary? The Odds'n'Ends Edition Retirement Wonder Years The Top Reason We don't understand Retirement Money Tips: Things you might overlook as summer begins. investing with your gut - bad for business, bad for investing, bad for women Taking a look at a financial plan for divorce. Past shows on MomsMakingaMillion How much life insurance does a woman need? What makes women differ from men when it comes to investing. When women earn more, their retirement plan benefits. Retirement Planning and Property Taxes A Mother's Day Special: Taking care of Your Mom Make your child a millionaire More than an IRA; A Self-Directed Retirement Plan Suppose You don't have a 401k? Advice for the Young Mom Financial Spring Cleaning Socially Responsible Investing Investing on the Worst Day A Look at MF performance Mutual Funds and Taxes Small Business Retirement: SIMPLE Small Business Retirement: SEP-IRA Solo 401(k) Your 401(k) Rollover - First Steps Company Stock Match Can you know too much about your 401K? Dividends in mutual funds Dividend Investing with DRIPs The Dividend Difference A new series on investing An introduction to 401(k)s A Look at Risk Tolerance (that might be better called Anxiety Tolerance Today we looked at the risk of too little risk Suppose that Index fund in your 401(k) is not what it seems What is a Target date fund? Constructing a 401(k) plan

On buying insurance: We've just completed a three part series on buying insurance.
Buying the Right Policy
How to buy insurance
Do you need a disability policy?

You are jettisoned from your 401(k) at retirement with a large chunk of money, a lifetimes' worth of hard earned cash. You are forced to make a decision about what to do with it. Kept in its present form would require you pay taxes on it as it is. Rolled into an IRA allows you to hold off on distributions, possibly until you are 70 or begin to take money out.
Are you ready for old-old?

Almost every investor in the country owns a bond. This ownership might be via bond mutual funds, investments in individual bonds be it corporate, government or municipal, or through the widely used target date funds. Each is prone to its own troubles. Do you know where your bond mutual fund is?

Beginning to invest at age 20 is often expressed as the most important thing we can do. And there are many options on how to begin. In fact, it's a banquet and an amusement park - and no easy task. Teaching Kids about Money and Investing

Our Annual Prediction for the new year!
2011: It Just Has to Be Better

It isn't like this would be a fair fight. But get two investors who believe in one or the other in the same room, and the index fund investor would declare their style the winner, based on low cost alone. While fees play an important role in the long-term objectives of any investor, particularly those using mutual funds for retirement, the idea of long-term has seen its day come and go.
Indexing versus the actively managed mutual fund - again.

Our New Site offers you a Secure Retirement in 15 Years or Less:
Target2025.com

Our Newest Daily Feature
Repercussions: A Retirement Review
Part One: Should you pay for College?
Part Two: Funding Your Retirement Should Take Priority: Here's Why

Your retirement plan is being sliced and diced - so the retirement planning professionals will know you when they see you. Or when starting young means something else. Read more.

The question I get asked the most these days is about the 401(k) match, or lack of it. And the answer is, yes, keep investing.

A special six part look at Personalizing Personal Finance that includes not only a look at investing but insurance, taxes, estate planning and more.

Your Retirement; Your Business Plan:
New: 401(k) Transparency for the Small Business

Part One: The Individual 401(k)
Part Two: The SEP-IRA
Part Three: The SIMPLEs and the UNI-DB

Five Questions for the Finance Guy
Our Personal Finance Editor
Paul Petillo answers some important questions about how to get where you are going.

Investing

How well do you know your finances?
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Mutual Funds

Investor Channel

New Our Mutual Fund Blog!

New Tool for BlueCollarDollar Investors
A Stock/Fund Screener

Can Your Fund Fail?

Risky Business

WWW BlueCollarDollar.com

About your 401(k) plan Your retirement planning tool is showing signs of increased balances even as some of the experiments to get people to invest more - via auto-enrollment - is as Aon Hewitt suggests, somewhat sub-optimal. Balances are up; Participation not so much

Mark Twain once said: "I deal with temptation by yielding to it." In a special five part series, we examine the overwhelming temptations facing investors in 2011. We discuss investing, investing in index funds, ETFs, bonds and more.

Is there no safe in safety? Someone asked me that question recently. What I think they meant was: is there no return in safety? Truth is there never has been much. These days, it is even less. The What-if Retirement

There has been so much said about credit lately, I was wondering if there was more to learn about credit than simply suggesting we don't know what the heck we are doing. There is a widely publicized number about credit, and I suppose this might be the best place to start. How many of you have heard a number for the average the debt for credit cards as being around $8,000?

Like puzzles? There is good news out there. But according to a survey done by Mercer, a company who promotes itself as a global leader for trusted HR and related financial advice, products and services, we have yet to internalize this information. We are still cautious, anxious and worried, more than we should be about the continued level of unemployment.
The Retirement Conundrum

Got Retirement Doubts?

The mutual fund investor has a great many more options available to them in the post-Great Recession marketplace. The question is: are they right for you as you make a retirement plan using 401(k)s or IRAs?
Here's a look at a new kind of mutual fund as well as a look at the 50th anniversary of the REIT.

All of us know someone, even if it is the person in the mirror, who has experienced some financial bumps recently.
Can Financial Disasters Teach Us a Lesson?

Stocks, Mutual Funds or ETF: Which is best for me?

Loans at Provident for people with bad credit

Boost your cash flow with invoice factoring

We obtain the best possible life insurance rates for your circumstances. Spectrum Insurance Group

Why Investors Do What They Do
Loss Aversion | Narrow Framing
Anchoring | Mental Accounting | Diversification
Herding | Regret | The Media Hype
Investor Optimism

Find a friend in Frugality at the Stretcher

Understanding Risk in 2009 and 2010
Active Trading Risks | Counter Party Risk | Derivative Risks | Foreign Investment Risk | Growth Investment Risks | Issuer and Leverage Risks | Management Risks | Market Risks | Regulatory Risks | More on Leverage Risk | Sector Risks

Online trading class helps you learn trading skills required to make money in stock market.You can interact with other bettertrades students on the facebook .

Payday Loan

Did you know that the IRS keeps Statistics on your income? Here's how to avoid an IRS audit

Your Home:
Mortgage/Buyer's Guide:

Real Estate/Mortgage Channel

Are you one of numerous taxpayers who might pay the alternative minimum tax? Included on this page are downloadable forms for special tax situations. Updated for 2008

Retirement Planning: Actuarially Speaking It is all in the numbers. What kind of investor are you?
Take the Test

Our Retirement Planning Blog

Some thoughts on Social Security

Bonds

Work the Numbers on our new 20 in 1 mortgage calculator.

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Eighteen Months of
Managing the Financial Crisis
and Rebuilding Your Wealth

Retirement Planning and Personal Finance: News You Can Use
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