Archive for the 'Economy' Category

Financial Wellness for Retirement

40-52% of workers are delaying their retirement.

70 is the “new 65,” according to Sun Life Financial. Their Unretirement Index, along with Towers Watson’s 2010 Global Workforce Study, show that 40-52% of Americans will delay their retirement due to ill financial health.

Towers Watson found 68% of those workers will continue working in order to keep their health care coverage, while 61% cited their lacking 401(k) plans as the reason for staying. Sun Life found that only 25% are “very confident” they will be able to cover medical expenses in retirement.

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Published by Sophie Asmar on November 30, 2010

Mercer: Benefits Communication Foremost Solution in Turnover

Benefits communication used to engage and retain employees as economy improves

Mercer recently announced the results of their Attraction and Retention Survey, covering over 320 employers this year. These are their most valuable findings:

Better economy means higher employee turnover. As the economy and job market continue to improve, 62% of companies think employee turnover will increase as well. When employees have more options, they are less likely to be loyal unless their company puts effort into keeping them.

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Published by Sophie Asmar on July 19, 2010

Financial Wellness for 2010 & Beyond – Plastic Revisited

Using credit for money

Just last week, the Senate approved legislation increasing the federal government’s borrowing limit by $1.9 trillion.  When signed into law the federal government will be able to borrow more money than at any time in our country’s history, making our total national debt a mind numbing $14.3 trillion.  And this will only allow us to pay our bills through 2010!

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Published by JS Wolff on February 2, 2010

Rethinking the 401(k) Pitch

For nearly 30 years, employees have been coached that the best way to save for retirement is to take advantage of tax deferred investing, most prominently through their 401(k) plans. This strategy has always been anchored in the hope that lower tax brackets await us during our retirement years. But current economic realities are causing many in the financial community to question whether tax deferred saving remains a healthy long term strategy for employees.

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Published by JS Wolff on September 14, 2009

Financial Wellness and Unintended Consequences

If my brother-in-law was lined up with 10 people and you were asked to pick out the economist, he would be easily identified. In the 35 years I’ve known Mitch, he has never cared a lick about the clothes he wears or the car he drives.  There is no pretense or image thing going on whatsoever.  He’s just a solid, albeit quirky guy who happens to be intellectually brilliant. And doing things his own way,  he retired early, owns a free and clear home in beautiful La Jolla, CA (my sister’s influence) and accumulated a fair amount of wealth, while never wavering from his extreme aversion to risk.

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Published by JS Wolff on June 8, 2009

Financial Wellness and Home Ownership

There’s a difference between reading about the national housing crisis in the newspaper and actually seeing one of your neighbors lose their home. That’s just what occurred two doors down from us.

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Published by JS Wolff on May 31, 2009

What’s in Your Financial Constitution?

Voters in the state of California spoke loudly and angrily last Tuesday. After years of convoluted budget fixes, exotic borrowing schemes and skirting tough issues, Californians just said “no” to another series of band-aid fiscal ballot measures that just seemed like more of the same. Voter frustration has risen to such new levels that now there is even a movement to completely rewrite the State’s constitution to prevent the politicians from operating like credit drunk consumers.

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Published by JS Wolff on May 25, 2009

Have Financial Baggage?

A few weeks ago I referenced the “Miracle on the Hudson” and how Captain “Sulley” Sullenberger’s Flight 1549 heroics can guide us during financial emergencies. You may recall that Sullenberger safely landed a commercial airliner on the Hudson River after hitting a flock of geese and losing both engines. I was intrigued by his success enough to study a few of the attributes that led to this amazing outcome.

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Published by JS Wolff on May 18, 2009

Historical Worst Case Financial Planning

I’ve talked to some pretty nervous investors recently…even with this latest uptick they’re not sure if they can ever trust the stock market again. With their fears being totally understandable, I decided to research an historical worst case scenario to help them evaluate the length of time they needed to be in the market to be reasonably assured that they wouldn’t  lose money.

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Published by JS Wolff on May 12, 2009

Sleeping Financially Well

According to the 2008 American Psychological Association’s Stress in America survey, money is often on the minds of most Americans. In fact, the results revealed that money and the state of the economy are two of the top sources of stress for 80 percent of Americans. And symptomatically, one third of Americans reported losing sleep over the economy and personal finance concerns, according to a recent poll by the National Sleep Foundation.

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Published by JS Wolff on April 21, 2009