Building an emergency fund is one of the critical first steps to personal financial success. With that in mind, a reader named LG recently wrote in with a question about using a Roth IRA as an emergency fund:
I know you’ve written a lot about emergency funds, but my question is can a Roth IRA serve as an emergency fund?
Roth IRA as an Emergency Fund?
This Week in Personal Finance – March 12, 2010
What a week! We finished up our 10-day journey where we looked at 10 money-saving tips to help us stash $10,000!
Through each of those tips we freed up between $275 per month on the low side all the way up to $950 per month on the high side if you were able to maximize each [...]
I Might Need $3,000,000 To Retire: What’s Your Number?
ING Direct’s recent survey results about retirement are scary. I don’t know what the world is going to be like in thirty years, the time I’ll be approaching “retirement age.” I do know that if my pattern of increasing expenses doesn’t change until then, and if I’m still earning primary income by trading my time and effort, a comfortable retirement is going to require a lot of saved and invested money.
Read more »Best Places to Invest for Retirement
A reader named KC recently wrote in with a question about investing for retirement:
I’m 28 years old with a wife and a six month old baby. We’ve always been money-conscious, but would really like to focus our efforts. We both have Roth IRAs, but are not satisfied with them. They are heavily loaded, and we weren’t that familiar with them when we were advised to set them up. My question is where you would recommend I go for a long-term investing vehicle? I always hear to go with no-load mutual funds but would like your opinion.
Retirement Savings Down in 2010, Despite Stabile Consumer Confidence Levels
A survey on retirement savings shows that while consumers have more confidence that they will be able to retire, the actual preparations made and savings being put away for retirement have dwindled in the past year.
Many Without Any Retirement Savings
According to the 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 29% of workers [...]
Most Americans Still Unprepared for Retirement
Wow. CNNMoney has an article up today about a recently released survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. They surveyed 1153 US workers and retirees older than 25 years of age in January. Here are some of the results:
54% of workers said they have less than $25,000 saved for retirement
24% have delayed their retirement in the past year
27% of workers said they have less than $1000 saved
43% have less than $10,000 saved for retirement
The “Die a Slow Death” Effect of Investment Dependence
Depending solely on other people for your investment decisions can mean dying a slow death.
Over the last few decades, the switch from employer-managed pension plans to self-managed retirement accounts (i.e., IRAs and 401k’s) has turned each person into his or her own pension fund manager.
This Week in Personal Finance – February 26, 2010
So we’re taking a break from our 10 day journey to save $10,000 to have a look at some interesting items from around the web.
If you missed the initial post on the 10 Money-Saving Tips to Help You Stash $10,000, I highly encourage you check that out and join us as we resume next week!
It’s [...]
6 Steps for a Woman's Financial Self-Defense
By Hollis Colquhoun Women account for over 80% of consumer spending, and at the same time elderly women make up over 80% of this country's impoverished. How can that be possible?
As a consumer buyer, it appears as though women are spending their money to satisfy the immediate needs of the household. According to Mindshare/Ogilvy & Mather, women's spending accounts for:
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