Can You Retire? Part 3: Your Decision

In the last two articles, to help you answer the “Can I retire?” question, I went over an approach for calculating your essential living expenses and for determining whether you will have enough income from “guaranteed” sources to cover them. I also looked at what you could do regarding withdrawals from “non-guaranteed” sources, such as … Read more

Can You Retire? Part 2: Your Income

In the first article in this three-part series on financial planning for retirement, I introduced an approach for answering the all-important question, “Can I retire?” The article focused on the first step: Calculating your essential living expenses in retirement. In this article, I am going to discuss the second major phase of the process: Identifying … Read more

Closing out 2017

We are starting a new year. 2017 was a good one for retirementstewardship.com. We were able to stay on pace publishing an article about every two weeks, and also added a lot of new subscribers. So, first and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to every one of you who are subscribers and regular … Read more

The New Tax Law and Retirement Stewardship

You know the old saying, “The only things that are certain in life are death and taxes.” Yes, taxes are a reality – before, during, and even after retirement. But honestly, I don’t think or worry too much about taxes until tax time. Then I download a copy of TurboTax and go to work. My … Read more

Tithing and Giving in Retirement

Most of us will see a change in our financial situation in retirement. Instead of earning an income from work, we will start receiving income from other sources such as Social Security, pensions and/or annuities, and possibly withdrawals from our retirement savings accounts. Since our income sources will change in retirement, in what ways should … Read more

7 Hard Truths About Retirement

I was recently reading an article in Forbes magazine titled, “Can You Handle the Truth About Retirement?” It was enlightening but frankly also a little depressing. The author lists things like, “after you retire, the only guarantee is that you will die” (a true statement, but just a tad morbid, I think); “problems don’t go … Read more

The Link Between Thankfulness and Retirement Stewardship

The Thanksgiving holiday is almost here. Have you noticed that each year Thanksgiving seems to be more and more about “Black Friday” than Thanksgiving itself? It’s sad to think that, for many, getting a good deal on more “stuff” is at least as important as being grateful for what they already have. Besides, most of … Read more