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Deciding when to start taking Social Security payments is one of the most important decisions you and your fiduciary advisor will make about your retirement plan. It’s also one of the trickiest to get right.
By the end of February, your financial institutions should have sent you all your relevant tax documents for 2017, like earning statements on your investment accounts, interest earned on savings, etc. If you’re missing anything important, you might want to get in touch with those institutions and make sure the info you need is on its way.
The headlines and talking heads painted a very bleak picture last week as the market went through its first significant bout of volatility in two years. But at Keen on Retirement I’m not trying to scare you into clicking on another link or sticking around through the next commercial break. We want to give folks our honest perspective on what’s really going on in the markets and the state of the economy’s fundamentals.
I’ve written before that my team at Keen Wealth places a high priority on educating ourselves about trends, innovations, and ideas that could have an impact on the financial and lifestyle planning we do for our clients. Personally, I set aside a few hours out of my workweek for learning time, and recently I came across a fascinating Ted2017 talk from Susan Pinker. She’s a developmental psychologist whose book, The Village Effect, talks about how important face-to-face social bonds are to our longevity and quality of life. I recommend watching Pinker’s entire Ted2017 talk, but I’d also like to focus on a few insights that I think can really help seniors strengthen their social bonds and enjoy a long and prosperous life in retirement.
On January 13th, I was walking through the grocery store with my mother and daughter when I noticed that I’d missed a call from my son, Devin, who was vacationing in Hawaii. I played Devin’s voicemail and listened as he very calmly told me that I didn’t have to worry. The alert of an incoming ballistic missile, headed for Hawaii, had been a false alarm. He was safe, after spending a terrifying 25 minutes huddled in a storm drain with about a dozen other people.
I’ve mentioned before how vital it is that retirees replace their old 9 to 5 routines with a schedule that keeps them active and engaged. More and more retirees – including some of my own clients – have started taking retirement gap years to help them do just that.