Monday, May 06, 2013

Catch Up Retirement

Since I seem to meet people in the Boomer category who haven't thought much about saving for retirement ... or simply think they can't, here's some ideas.

Don't worry about the contribution not being enough and just start small. Have loose change in your pocket? Save it. Get a raise? Save that too. The most important step to take is the first one. ...

Utilize tax deferral options fully. Most people in their 50s who don't have enough saved for retirement should focus their attention on contributing to a 401(k) and traditional IRAs. ...

Consider whether you can downsize expenses. I don't like to use the phrase "downsizing your lifestyle" because not every reduction in spending is really a sacrifice. I recently cut my cable bill and joined Netflix via their free trial offer. ...

Don't be too aggressive with your investments. It’s tempting to increase the risk level of your investments to try to reach your financial goals faster, but that would be a huge mistake. ...

Lots of artists are visually oriented and can't work up a lot of enthusiasm for investing, for poring over stock prospectuses or trying to figure out how much they should allocated to bonds and how much to equities (stocks). Bo-ring.

But anybody can make it simple, and relatively effective. When you're in your twenties, thirties or early forties, divvy up the money into three index funds: 33.3% into Total U.S. Stock Market, 33.3% into Total International Stock Market, and 34% into Total Bond Market.

When you hit 45-60, split the money 50%/50% between stocks and bonds, and when you enter geezerhood, slide the bond portfolio up to 60%-66% of your portfolio. (None of this hs to be complicated, the major trick is: not bailing when one fund or another goes south. (Some people "stay the course" better than other people.)

Lastly, I've got 401(k) enrollment coming up over the next few weeks. Find times and locations below.

401(k) Enrollment Meeting Dates

Disney

Disney Feature - Southside Bldg.
Tue. May 14th, 10 am Rm. 1300

DisneyToon
Thur. May 16th, 2 pm,
Conf. Rm. 101

Disney TVA - Sonora Bldg.
Wed. May 22nd, 10 am, Rm. 1172

Disney TVA - Empire Cntr..
Wed. May 22nd, 2 pm, Rm. 5223

Cartoon Network
Wed. May 15th, 1 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Dreamworks Animation
Thur. May 30th, 2 pm,
Dining Rm. B&C

Dreamworks - Dragons
Thur. May 23rd, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Fox TV Animation
Wed. June 5th, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Marvel Animation
Thur. June 13th, 10 am,
Marvel Anim. Conf. Rm.

Nickelodeon
Wed. May 29th, 2 pm,
Main Conf. Rm.

Robin Red Breast
Tue. May 21st, 2 pm,
Large Conf. Rm.
Santa Monica Bldg.

Starz/Film Roman
Tue. May 28th, 2 pm,
“Glass” Conf. Rm.

Sony Pictures Animation
Tue. June 4th, 2 pm,
North - Rm 2050

Warner Bros. Animation
Wed. May 8th, 2 pm,
Bldg. 34R - Main Conf. Rm. 107

And a reminder to TAG members: Our "investing for retirement" panel/seminar happens on Tuesday, May 28 after the General Membership Meeting.

3 comments:

Jim Mortensen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steve Hulett said...

To answer your questions:

1. Odds are good that the pension plans will still be around because a) They are funded to 84% of liabilities and are in the "green zone" as described by Federal law.
b) If the worst happens anyway, then there's a federal guarantee that will recoup pensioners a large part of their money.

2. TAG doesn't auto-enroll because the studios aren't set up to do it and have told us (when we asked) that they won't do it.

Of course, laws could change and disaster could still strike. But the current pension law was passed by a GOP congress and signed into law by G.W. Bush.

That's why I do lots of enrollment meetings; why I always have a bag of enrollment books slung over my shoulder; why I ask(endlessly) "Want a 401k enrollment book?"

Members can enroll at the start of any month.

Anonymous said...

The key to having enough to retire on is to start saving early and be consistent. Save with every paycheck and take advantage of any employer matching plan. I recently came across a new retirement site retirementandgoodliving.com that has good information on finance, health, retirement locations, travel and more. Worth checking out.

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