Welcome to Retirement Scan, our daily roundup of retirement news.
For seniors who want to improve their retirement prospects, working longer may not be a good idea, a Forbes contributor writes. “[T]he advice to work longer is not a real solution in the presence of widespread age discrimination, unpredictable life shocks and involuntary retirement — getting laid off or pushed out of a job before one is ready to retirement,” she writes. “One statistic is enough to cast serious doubt on the work-longer thesis: around half of older workers are essentially forced into retirement.”
Are your workers dreaming of retiring a millionaire? They are advised to calculate the amount they should save every month to amass $1 million by the time they retire and adopt an aggressive approach to investing, according to this Motley Fool article. They should also set a realistic budget and find ways to minimize their spending.
Employees are advised to stay informed on creditor protections for 401(k)s and IRAs before dipping into their retirement plans, as these rules vary by account type, according to this Kiplinger article. Compared with IRAs, employer-sponsored plans are more secure because they are protected by federal law. Workers should also check applicable laws in their home state, especially before rolling 401(k) assets into an IRA, as some states offer limited or no creditor protections for IRAs.
San Francisco and six other urban centers in California lead the top 50 U.S. cities where retirees with very limited or no savings can spend their retirement, according to a study by GOBankingRates in this article from Yahoo Finance. GOBankingRates ranked the largest cities based on factors that include home prices, crime rates and county health index. Also considered in the ranking is the state taxation of Social Security benefits.
