Entries by mbeals

8/28/2013 – Retirement plans rebound, post-recession (WSJ)

During the worst of the Great Recession, some companies stopped offering retirement plans to their employees; at the same time, many savers who had such plans stopped contributing to them, as they struggled with financial pressures like a spouse’s unemployment. But a new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a non-partisan think tank, suggests […]

8/21/2013 – Gen Y and Boomers, Suffering the Most (NY Times)

As my colleague Robert Pear reports, a new study from Sentier Research finds that four years after the start of the economic recovery, the median American household income is still down 4.4 percent. Incomes have risen a little since their recent trough in August 2011, but not enough to make up for the losses sustained […]

8/21/2013 – 10 tips for a green retirement (CBS MoneyWatch)

Playing with my 2 1/2-year-old granddaughter recently, it occurred to me there’s a very good chance she’ll be alive for another 90 or 100 years. As a result, she’ll most likely live through the potential long-term consequences of the dire headlines we read about now, such as global warming, pollution, overcrowding and excessive government debt. […]

8/14/2013 – How an aging nation affects job numbers (Wall Street Journal)

A recent Goldman Sachs study focused attention on the impact of population aging on labor force participation.  The authors had a much more ambitious goal than the simple point that I would like to emphasize.  They were trying to determine whether the sharp decline in the labor-force participation rate (the percentage of the working population […]

8/13/2013 – Warning Clients On 401(k) Loans (Wall Street Journal)

Within the past few weeks, adviser Marc Shaffer has heard from two clients looking to tap their 401(k) plans, one for a family emergency and another to purchase land on which to build a home. As the economy makes a painfully slow recovery, financial advisers like Mr. Shaffer continue to hear from cash-strapped clients who […]