Puritan Financial Group: How to Fast-track Your Retirement Planning

The trouble with saving up for retirement is the fact that you’re putting away money you can spend today. You might find yourself buying things you don’t really need, and rationalize that you’ll make up for the dent in your savings goals sometime soon. Oftentimes, many people procrastinate, even when it comes to really important matters like saving up for retirement.

To speed up building your retirement savings, you have to realize that despite the human tendency to act with the short term in mind, you’ll have to take steps to plan financially for the long-term good. Here are a few things that could help you get over the hump and start putting away money for your nest egg:

There’s a bigger possibility that you’ll do whatever it takes to reach your financial goals for retirement if you keep your goals simple, and set deadlines for these goals. Tell other people, such as close friends and family, what your deadlines are. Statistically, you’ll be in a better mindset to achieve these goals if you commit early on.

Many retirement plans include “to-do” lists, which may include items such as portfolio re-balancing and checking your income and spending figures against retirement calculators to see if adjustments are necessary, or looking at other viable sources of lifetime income. Assigning your spouse or a close friend the responsibility of checking on what you’re doing can help push you into action, and hopefully, help you take concrete action towards building your nest egg according to a schedule.

Retirement planning goals can be difficult to reach, especially as a lot of people would rather procrastinate and claim that they’ll make up for the financial shortfall sometime soon. Setting financial planning goals and letting a friend or family member monitor what you’ve been doing (and hold you accountable for any delays) can increase your efficiency by leaps and bounds.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Retirement Planning Obstacles Women Encounter

Many female workers and retirees feel that the financial service industry isn’t doing them justice. Many feel ignored by their investment planners, while others aren’t happy with the advice or aid they get, based on findings from a survey by The Boston Consulting Group. As investors, a number of women even feel that the entire industry is an obstacle, and not a clear path, to good investment advice that will hopefully result in a stable nest egg. Aside from the services provided by financial firms, experts also found that women are unhappy with the industry due to problems with financial products, as well as managing one’s finances with the “married” mentality.

Experts say that the financial services industry may force retirement strategies and formula developed for men onto women clients. The issues of life expectancy and income come into play here: on average, women earn less and live longer. This can become a problem if an aggressive strategy or product meant to augment a nest egg to last two decades of a male client’s retirement is used in the financial plans of a female client who may live beyond that. To this issue, advisers focused on women’s finances recommend higher-risk investments while the clients are young.

As a female investor ages, lower-risk or conservative investments must become a larger part of one’s portfolio. The problem is, financial planners or investment advisors may fail to offer annuities and long-term health care coverage – products that can prove to be useful to women retirees. Experts recommend that female investors look into conservative products meant for the longer term if they’re nearing retirement.

Many investment planners also quip that most married women bank on the savings of their partners to bear the brunt of their retirement expenses – this can be a problem down the road, as statistically, women have a bigger chance of flying solo in retirement, making a personal investment plan even more important. To this, professionals recommend automatic deposits into personal brokerage accounts or retirement plans, instead of mainly focusing on plans shared with partners.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Social Security and the Great American Retirement Plan

Studies show that workers at the two lowest income quartiles bank on Social Security to give them almost 85% of their retirement income. At the other end, the second highest quartile in terms of income relies on Social Security to make up more than half of their retirement funds. The highest quartile still relies on their pension payouts, although not as considerably as the other three quartiles.

It’s not that Social Security, as a government program, has insufficient funds to distribute to workers who’ve come of retirement age. Financially, the program stands on solid ground, as Congress forecasts that Social Security will be able to cover all benefits, which will be taken from its tax revenue income, up to a minimum duration of thirty years.

Although the program can theoretically afford all payouts for a few more decades, these very payouts are small (which may be why projections say that these payouts are feasible). This is a significant concern for many retirees as Social Security is typically the worker’s go-to plan. As of now, payouts only replace thirty to forty percent of the worker’s average salary from the year before actual retirement. This figure won’t be enough to fund retirement if it is the primary source of income, or more unfortunately, the only revenue stream.

The New America Foundation proposal seeks to implement “Social Security Plus,” a program to double payouts upon retirement to support seniors in their golden years. This new spin on the old Social Security program seeks to improve the financial situation and quality of life of United States retirees by doubling individual payouts, which will cost approximately $650B per year for more than fifty million Americans at the receiving end. While the possible benefits to society are quite impressive, the concept still seems far away – how will this program get funds?

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Game Educates Seniors on Fraud and Scams

A number of New York City departments have taken a step forward in helping its senior citizens avoid investment fraud and other scams. The creation of the interactive video game “It’s My Money” is a fresh approach to educating retirees and other members of the populace about how to identify and stay away from potentially fraudulent investments.

The game stars I.M. Money, a character who goes through daily occurrences such as talking on the phone and checking electronic and snail mail. Aside from the chapter “Senior Scams Prevention,” which is targeted towards individuals planning their retirement, it also contains a portion dedicated to preventing identity theft. The two chapters focus on investment opportunities the central character encounters within his home. Each chapter has four parts, wherein the player has to answer questions based on his or her understanding of the presented story and a point-by-point summary.

A representative from the Department for the Aging states that this new approach to learning about fraud and theft prevention is a more effective way for seniors to identify financial scams and examine potential investments before putting in their money. With scams and financial abuse towards retirees on the rise, the free program is recommended for seniors, their families, and caregivers to prevent further senior scams.

The game can be obtained through a downloading link, with a user-friendly installation and in-game interface designed to be played by even the most technologically-inexperienced seniors. The educational value contained in “It’s My Money” is already apparent in the first few minutes that you play the game. It can be played solo, although playing in a group is recommended due to the ideas and discussion it is likely to generate.

Senior citizens are often targeted by insurance and investment scammers. “It’s My Money” can be a valuable tool to help retirees weed out good investments from bad, and protect their nest egg for their retirement. To know more about how you can avoid financial scams, play the game after downloading it at http://www.anyf.org/immoney.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Ways To Manage Your Nest Egg

If you’re looking at ways to manage your nest egg and prevent the depletion of your funds, identifying stable investments isn’t the only aspect of retirement planning you should consider – stretching your budget by cutting back on your spending is also important. If you’re a senior who drives regularly, you can lower your expenses by reducing your insurance premiums.

Aside from asking your agent for discounts, canvassing for lower rates from multiple insurers, taking a safe driving course, and paying for your yearly insurance with a lump-sum premium payment, you can also do other things to save money on your car insurance policy.

You can save on insurance premiums and manage your policies better with a multi-line insurance plan. Insurance companies that carry car and home insurance can offer you a combination policy, which is less costly than purchasing separate coverage for your home and vehicle.

Downgrading to a car of lower value can also help you cut down on your car insurance expenses. Since the risk your insurer undertakes is lower with a cheaper vehicle, you’ll need to pay much less for your insurance premiums. Aside from the savings you get with the policy itself, you’ll also save money with the cheaper maintenance costs and fuel expenses that usually comes with a smaller car.

Once you’ve decided to downsize your means of transportation, make sure that you purchase a car that comes with an alarm, an anti-lock braking system, and airbags. Since these safety features also translate to less risk for your insurer in case an accident occurs, you’ll need to pay less for your premiums as well.

If you need to save more money to fund your retirement and maximize the nest egg you have, you can take advantage of these tips to help you pay less for your auto insurance policy. Call up your financial advisor or your insurance agent to know more about how you can save with lower car insurance premiums.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.