Retirement Planning

Are you still living in your oversized family home despite the fact that your kids have long ago flown the nest? Do you still own a car even though you no longer commute? Are you proudly proclaiming to the world that you are retiring soon and that you will never work again?

Retirement planning for single people has its own unique set of challenges and opportunities. This is true whether you are a widow, divorced, or you never got married…

Would you like to save $1,000s (or $1,000,000s if you start early enough) more for retirement? It’s actually easier than it sounds… and way more fun than giving up your daily Starbucks or taking on a second job. It’s an approach that won’t ask you to take on additional risk with your investments. Nor does […]

Spring is in the air. I am getting ready to start my outdoor gardening, and I know there is a lot of work to do before I will harvest the bounty. As I do this, I can’t help but feel that the same is true with our monetary lives. Read More

Owning a home is an essential part of the American Dream. This is especially true for our generation, which grew up at a time when traditional family living, centered around the cozy home with a well-maintained lawn and a white picket fence, was idealized in magazines and on TV…

It’s not surprising that downsizing has become a big trend in the United States and other Western countries. After all, we are simply drowning in stuff! How much stuff? Well, according to the LA Times, the average U.S. household contains 300,000 items…

For most of our lives, retirement is a distant dream. It is the mirage in the desert that keeps us moving forward, one tired step at a time. In our younger years, we look at retired folks with a mixture of jealousy and pity…

If there is one thing that financial advisors, the media and seniors agree on it is that “the older you get, the less risk you should take with your money.” On the surface, this advice makes perfect sense. After all, having 100% of your money in stocks, one year before retirement could have disastrous consequences… especially if the market dips right before you start to cash out your savings. Read More

“Where should I retire?” This is the question we hear most often at International Living, and every January we give you our most definitive answer in the form of our Annual Global Retirement Index. When it was first conceived, our Retirement Index was our special way of coping with an embarrassment of riches. At that stage, IL had […]

Financial planners are there to ensure that our money is handled wisely and with our future in mind. These days, though, the titles they use tend to be confusing, and you might end up hiring the wrong person for your particular needs…