Are you taking stock of your life and thinking about moving on?

(You're not alone.)

With Fall officially arriving, we are reminded once again that we are closer to the end of the year than we are to the beginning. Along with that comes the holiday season, family time, and last-minute shopping. And while we may not be able to assist with the cooking, cleaning, and shopping that’s just around the corner, we want to help in the best way we know how—making sure your end of year financial checklist is complete!

How often do you think about retirement?

Most of us think about it a lot — at least four times a week.¹

You've spent years planning for retirement. But now you're wondering if your retirement dollars will last through the ups and downs of the stock market.

You've reached the retirement summit - now what?

We put a lot of time into saving and investing money for retirement, but we don’t spend nearly as much effort developing a strategy for withdrawing those assets once we retire.
However, developing a retirement strategy is similar to planning a mountain trek — how we get down from the peak is just as important as how we scale up it.

If it seems like the cost of, well, everything has gone up lately, it’s true.

The inflation rate jumped in the first half of 2021, leading to price increases on everything from gas and groceries to bigger ticket items such as cars and homes.
The jump in inflation can be especially jarring after nearly a decade of steady, low rates.¹  But what causes fluctuations in the inflation rate?

And most importantly, could rising prices pose a risk to your plan for retirement?

This topic is showing up more often in news stories which can cause anxiety. As with all financial decisions, it's important that we gather information and think logically about how inflation could impact our future plans

Today we'll explore some of the common questions about inflation. We’ll also look at how to think about inflation as you plan for a retirement that could span 20, 30 or even 40 years.

Cola and Social Security.

The news keeps getting better for Social Security recipients.

It's now projected that benefits will increase 6.1% in 2022, up from the 4.7% forecast just two months ago. That would be the most significant increase since 1983.^1,2

It’s all about inflation. Social Security cost of living adjustments (COLA) are based on the consumer price index, which rose 5.4% in June — its largest 12-month increase since 2008. The official announcement is expected in October and, once it’s confirmed, the revised payment will go into effect in January 2022.³

More than 65 million Americans receive Social Security, and the annual cost of living adjustments are designed to help recipients manage higher costs. At the start of 2021, recipients saw a 1.3% increase.⁴

Much of the material available regarding personal finances is directed towards W-2 workers, or what we would consider a traditional “employee.” This makes sense, research from 2019 showed that roughly 72% of Americans are traditional employees.¹ But, the other 28% of our working population has some specific financial planning needs as well. Today we want to touch on a few tips to help self-employed workers keep their financial house in order.

Do you know someone that is retired and receiving a nice, predictable pension check every month? Maybe you're lucky enough to be covered by a pension plan—perhaps your benefit is still growing, maybe it’s frozen, or perhaps you are already receiving payments. While the word pension still means something in our vocabulary, more and more the pensions of old are going the way of the dinosaurs.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” - Benjamin Franklin