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Retirement Calculator, Inc. provides the tools and resources necessary to assist you in making critical economic decisions regarding your retirement future.

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Asset Allocation

Often financial "experts" make asset allocation difficult to understand. My goal in this series of articles is for you to understand asset allocation thoroughly, in an easy to understand format.
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NATIONAL OVERNIGHT AVERAGESTODAY+/-LAST WEEK
30 yr fixed mtg 3.80% 3.76%
15 yr fixed mtg 3.11% 3.02%
5/1 ARM 2.69% 2.68%
30 yr fixed jumbo mtg 4.38% 4.39%
5/1 jumbo ARM 2.94% 2.89%
Rates may include points
NATIONAL OVERNIGHT AVERAGESTODAY+/-LAST WEEK
$30K HELOC 4.60% 4.59%
$50K HELOC 4.24% 4.24%
$30K home equity loan 5.77% 5.76%
$50K home equity loan 5.50% 5.47%
$75K home equity loan 5.47% 5.44%
Rates may include points
NATIONAL OVERNIGHT AVERAGESTODAY+/-LAST WEEK
36 month new car loan 3.13% 3.13%
48 month new car loan 3.24% 3.25%
60 month new car loan 3.34% 3.35%
72 month new car loan 3.31% 3.31%
36 month used car loan 4.36% 4.36%
Rates may include points
NATIONAL OVERNIGHT AVERAGESTODAY+/-LAST WEEK
6 month CD 0.46% 0.46%
1 yr CD 0.70% 0.70%
5 yr CD 1.38% 1.38%
1 yr IRA CD 0.71% 0.71%
5 yr IRA CD 1.49% 1.49%
Rates may include points

Start Your Retirement 529 Plan Today

Retirement Calculator, Inc.
retirement529plan.com

Retirement529plan

Sometimes it's hard to know whether you should put your savings towards retirement or a 529 plan. You've learned all along the way that college is important, and you want your kids to get the best education that money can buy.  The tough part about that is that a great education is going to be expensive.

Based on all of the reports and evaluations, the expense of putting your son or daughter through college is rising every year. You're aware of this, and you've talked with your financial planner about the best way to save.

Your advisor has told you the merits of a 529 plan, a savings plan that is used solely to finance education. But you've also heard about the risks involved. There's a 10% penalty on everything you withdraw from your 529 plan that is not used for education. When you apply for additional financial aid, your 529 plan is taken into consideration and could make your child ineligible for some tuition grants.

In other words, putting all of your savings into a 529 plan could end up making your child's education even more expensive. And, though you want what's best for your kids, the more that you spend to finance their education, the less money that you will have saved for your own retirement.

And what about your retirement plan? If you're saving and investing well for your future, you may be able to withdraw from your retirement funds to help pay for your child's tuition expenses. Depending on when you make withdrawals from your retirement savings that will help you finance that college education , without affecting the money that you have when you retire.

But how do you know how much you can withdraw from your savings? How can you be sure that using money that you are saving for retirement won't put the future you've always dreamed of at risk?

One way is to look closely at the way your stocks, bonds and mutual funds have performed over time. Another is to understand how the rate of inflation will affect your financial costs. Still, another is to have a strong sense of interest rates. 

Your financial advisor may charge you for any research that is done. You may not have the time to do all of the research yourself, to study 20 or 50 years worth of investment data. And if you try to project how your savings and investments will perform, you may end up far off if you miscalculate interest and inflation rates.

So what do you do? You know that you need help. You know that you don't want to spend a fortune on advice. You also know that your time for planning is limited. 

That's why you should take advantage of an opportunity to use someone else's research. Ray Martin of CBS News encourages viewers of the Saturday Early Show to invest wisely. He also recommended to viewers that they take advantage of our free retirement calculator as a way to analyze their savings and investments.

Why? We've done the research for you. We've even established a way in which you can evaluate your investment strategy in comparison to others. 

We know that everyone invests in their own ways. That's why you can use our free retirement calculator to evaluate your investments, regardless of what your financial goals include. Take a good look at your retirement plan. See how investing in a 529 plan would affect you and your future.

Then take advantage of a free consultation with one of our financial advisors to ask the questions that you have. Get the answers you need and determine whether you would benefit more from a retirement or 529 plan, then map out your strategy.

All it takes to get started is a click of the red button to download the free and easy to use retirement calculator. A simple mouse click will get you on your way to determine the best way to invest in your, and your child's, future.

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Retirement Homes is a comprehensive directory of retirement homes, retirement communities, senior housing, long term care and elder care facilities. Retirement Homes will help you learn about all your retirement living, senior housing, and long term care options in the USA and Canada.

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Retire In a Weekend

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Analysis of the Economics of Early Social Security Withdrawal

Robert J. Phillips
Chief Retirement Consultant

Deciding whether or not to take the early withdrawal of social security at age 62 can be difficult. If you need this income at 62 to fund your retirement the decision is fairly straightforward. Take it early! On the other hand, if you have another source of revenue to fund your retirement your decision will be primarily based on lifestyle, health and investment preferences.

Several factors can affect your decision. First is your life expectancy. If you are in good health and have a family history of living beyond 90 then waiting for full benefits may be best. Two other factors impact this decision. First and most important is the value of money or your expected return from your investments. If you are using other investments instead of social security to fund your retirement you should use the rate of return of these investments as your value of money. There is another way to look at the value of money. If you do not require the social security money to live, you can invest the distributions for the future. The rate of return of this investment is your value of money. If your investments will make larger returns such as stocks this would favor taking the early withdrawal.

The last factor impacting your decision is inflation. Social security includes an annual adjustment based on inflation. You cannot control this variable but you should be aware of its impact. If future inflation is significant it will favor a later full distribution

FREE Social Security Calculator:

Find Out Your Breakeven Age

We developed a calculator to assist in analyzing the impact of taking early benefits at age 62 or waiting for full benefits at age 66 to 67 depending on the year you were born...If you were born in 1960 or later your full benefits will begin at age 67 and your reduction for early benefits at age 62 will be 30%. If you were born between 1946 and 1960 your full benefits begin as early as age 66. We have included a chart that summarizes information.

To use the calculator you need to input your year of birth. You also need to input a value of money up to 10% and a projected inflation adjustment. The calculator analyzes income generated over time from both the early and full benefit investments. It calculates the age at which full social security will catch up and breakeven with the early withdrawal. If you were born before 1960 your breakeven age will be impacted by the year you were born. An early breakeven age favors waiting for full benefits.

The social security calculator is not the final answer whether to take an early withdrawal but it does give you additional economic data to assist in that decision. Ultimately you must balance income, investments and lifestyle to optimize your enjoyment during your retirement years.