Salient to Investors: The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies said millennials – born from 1979 to 1996 – began saving for retirement at a median age of 22, versus 27 for Generation X and 35 for baby boomers. 71% of millennials offered 401(k) or similar plans contributed a median 8%
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: George Schneider writes: The trend away from diversification of portfolios into just a few stocks plus Americans’ growing insufficiency in math skills are leading Americans towards dependency on government benefits rather than self-reliance in retirement. Two-thirds of 4th and 8th graders failed the thermometer math proficiency test
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: ConocoPhillips and Abbott Lab are among the most lucrative retirement benefits, and Facebook, Amazon.com and Whole Foods Market among the least lucrative of 401(k) plans at the 250 biggest companies in the US. Over 40 percent of companies allow workers to take company contributions with them if they
READ MORE... →Five Reasons Why You’ll Never Be Rich And One Reason Why You Already Are – Personal Capital May 2014
Salient to Investors: 5 habits that prevent you from becoming wealthy: Being a “C” student who thinks they deserve an “A” lifestyle Inability to delay gratification by taking on debt. Credit card interest at 15%+ leads to financial failure – even Warren Buffet has not returned greater than a 15%
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Matt Fellowes, formerly with Brookings, said: 64 percent of 401(k) plan participants are accumulating debt faster than they are accumulating savings. For half of the 401(k) marketplace, 96 percent of the participant’s balance is a function of their contributions and employer matches, and only 4 percent is
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Zillow expects 5 percent mortgages by year-end and the 10 places where the percentage of monthly income will be pushed furthest above the average are, in order: Stockton, Ca – where the median price of a home will rise 22.8 percent by September. Honolulu, Ha – where
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Dane Stangler at The Kauffman Foundation said people aged 55 to 64 started 23.4 percent of companies in 2012, up from 14.3 percent in 1996. Stangler said the 30-yr corporate job with a gold watch is no longer there, and many people are not ready to retire.
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The IRS said conversions from regular IRAs to Roth retirement accounts increased more than nine times in 2010, rising to $64.8 billion from $6.8 billion in 2009, and the first time Roth conversions were greater than contributions. More than 10 percent of IRA holders with annual incomes
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: Expanding populations fueled global prosperity with both workers and consumers but global aging threatens to cause chronically weak economic growth, a more volatile international economy and the risk of a new financial crisis triggered by innovative investments dubbed “death derivatives.” Rob Arnott at Research Affiliates said our
READ MORE... →Salient to Investors: The median net worth for US households headed by boomers aged 55 to 64 was almost 8 percent lower, at $143,964, than those 75 and older in 2011. Boomers lost more than other groups in the stock market and housing bust of 2008, and many also lost
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