Will Retiring Early Help You Live Longer?

Posted on November 27, 2007 // 26 Comments

There are lots of reasons to retire early, but will it help you live longer as well? One study seems to suggest so, and is often cited in websites discussing early retirement. Dr. Sing Lin wrote a paper in 2002 called Optimum Strategies for Creativity and Longevity which studied the relationship between the age of retirement and the average of death for retirees of Boeing Aerospace. The results are startling:

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As the retirement age increases, the average age of death decreases almost linearly. The average person who worked until age 65 lived for only 18 months after retirement! In contrast, the person retiring at 50 lived for another 36 years.

There is some dispute as to the validity of this data, but I haven’t found anything solid either way. The author does make some very bold conclusions, though:
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Filed Under: Family, Retirement //

Investment Gift Idea For Children: A Roth IRA?

Posted on November 25, 2007 // 22 Comments

A few very forward-thinking readers have asked me about ways to help their kids or other young folks by giving them a Roth IRA. This seems like an awesome idea to grab them some tax-sheltered action. I’ve thought about this in passing, but never really did the research into the technicalities of it. One good article on this subject is over at Fairmark called Roth IRAs for Minors. Combine this with official IRS publications and a few magazine articles about employing your children, and here’s what I found:

The Facts

  • There is no age requirement to open an IRA.
  • Many, but not all, IRA providers will allow you to setup an IRA account for minors.
  • The primary requirement is the child needs to have taxable earned income to make a contribution. So to make a $4,000 contribution, they would need $4,000 of income. Earned income means that dividend or interest payments don’t count.
  • An important difference between IRAs and 529s is that once the child reaches 18 or so, they get complete control over the money and can do whatever they want with it.

The Payoff
How much money are we talking about? Umm.. a lot! From the Kiplinger article:

Let’s assume you give your 15-year-old daughter $1,000 to fund a Roth IRA. If the money inside the account grows at an annual average rate of 8% — well below the long-term average return for stocks — that $1,000 will grow to about $47,000 over the 50 years it takes for today’s teen to reach retirement age. If you added another $1,000 a year until she turned 20 -? and never added another dime — that initial $5,000 investment would be worth nearly $250,000 by her 65th birthday. With a Roth IRA, the full amount will be tax-free when it’s withdrawn in retirement.

Now the question is how to obtain that taxable earned income?

Income From Non-Parental Employer
This is probably the most legitimate and straightforward way, also the hardest to get. Examples for small children might be acting or modeling from an agency not directly owned by the parents. For teens this could include money from tutoring, bagging groceries, or working at the movie theater. In addition, this income may be subject to payroll taxes like Medicare and Social Security Tax at 7.65%.

Income From Parents As Employer
Maybe you already run your own business, and could use the services of a child – web design? computer set-up or consulting? From the Fairmark article:
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Filed Under: Family, Investing, Retirement //

Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted on November 22, 2007 // 15 Comments

Thanksgiving rocks. I couldn’t care less about the arguments about the true origins of this holiday, I just like how we celebrate it now. You actually try to use your kitchen and are suddenly okay with inviting strangers (okay, friends of friends of friends) into your home. No gifts, no Hallmark cards, no crazy decorations, no costumes, no excess crap.

Most importantly, today you actually appreciate what you already have, instead of focusing on what you want. It’s very ironic that the day after Thanksgiving has been twisted into the exact opposite.

And yes, I love cranberry sauce from a can!!

Filed Under: Family //

Your Money, Your Brain, and Your Happiness

Posted on November 18, 2007 // 26 Comments

In the book Your Money and Your Brain, author Jason Zweig explores neuroeconomics, which apparently is a mix of psychology, neuroscience, and economics. This book looked like it would be an easy read, but it turned out to be very densely packed with information and data from numerous psychological studies. Truth be told, it got kind of tedious and repetitive, which is why it took me over a month to finish reading it. I think more aggressive editing would have helped this book a lot.

Instead of trying to do an in-depth review, I’m just going to focus on a few interesting points brought up in my favorite chapter titled “Happiness”. Isn’t being happy our ultimate goal?

If I was rich… I’d be happy. Right?
When you are below the poverty line, then yes, making more money is correlated with happiness and even better health. But as long as you have enough to meet your basic needs, more money doesn’t buy very much more happiness. We think it will, but it reality it doesn’t. This has been shown in studies comparing African tribal herders with the Forbes 400 Richest People, ones comparing people with $500,000 net worth and those with $10M+ net worth, and even between different generations of Americans:

In 1957, the average American earned about $10,000 (adjusted for inflation) and lived without a dishwasher, clothes dryer, television. or air conditioner. But 35% of people surveyed said they were “very happy” with their lives. By 2004, personal income had nearly tripled after inflation, and the typical house was bursting with consumer goods. Yet just 34% of people now said they were “very happy”. Somehow, almost tripling our wealth has made Americans a little less happy – and still we want more.

Chasing Happiness
Similarly, people think that “splurges” or getting that next hot gadget will make them happy. In truth, studies reveal that the anticipation of obtaining that object makes your brain’s dopamine levels go nuts and you feel happy. Actually getting it? Not so much. Which leads you to thinking about the next hot gadget… and so on. The “thrill of the hunt”, eh?

Keeping Up With Those Darn Joneses
It turns out that your happiness is related money in one way – how much money the people around you have! Social comparison is a very primal instinct in humans and other animals. One theory is that such attention allowed people to imitate the stronger hunters and learn to be more like them.

For example, should you buy the nicest house in a middle-class neighborhood, or a below-average house in the richest neighborhood? Your real estate agent might point out that buying in the rich neighborhood offers the best potential for home value appreciation. But the data suggests that buying in the middle-class neighborhood and getting a bigger house than everyone else will likely make you happier.

A study of more than 7,000 people in over 300 towns and cities found that, on average, the more money the richest person in your community makes, and the greater number of neighbors who earn more than you, the less satisfied you will probably feel with your life.

The relationship between money and our brains is an interesting one. It’s good to learn about those innate tendencies, so we can recognize them and react appropriately.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Family //

Marriage and Money: Allowances For Adults?

Posted on September 1, 2007 // 84 Comments

You and your significant other love each other. Still, I bet there is still something that one of you loves spending money on that the other simply doesn’t see any value in. It might be manicures, gadgets, designer clothes, online poker, or Star Wars collectibles. If you have joint finances like we do, this can cause some resentment. Why is our money being spent on Yoda PEZ dispensers??

One possible solution to relieve such stress that we are currently trying out is the Adult Allowance, where each person is given a certain amount of money that they can spend with no questions asked. I’ve seen it in a few places, including Him and Her over at Make Love Not Debt. No rolling your eyes, no passive-aggressive sighs, no exasperated “Why would anyone buy that?”. Actually, one annoying question from me is “Why didn’t you let me spend 10 minutes researching the best deal for your XXX purchase?” The idea of paying more than needed may cause me physical pain, but why should I let that ruin her purchase?

Yes, this is essentially budgeting, but many couples view budgets as tedious and restrictive. I see this as a specific subset of budgeting which focuses not just on the ability to track spending, but the freedom of enjoying your spending without guilt. This may be a good place to start if one of you is spender, while the other is a saver.

On a technical level, some people use cash in envelopes, while other use completely private and separate bank accounts. That way, after you run out of money there’s no going back for more. However, we’re keeping it simple and just tracking it on the honor system.

We mentioned this to some of our friends, and some of the responses were the expected “An allowance? Whoa, that’s harsh.” But one of the couples actually implemented it for themselves as well! It turns out that the guy was getting some flack for driving around his gas-guzzling 4WD beast around instead of the econo-box they also own. Now, he’s been given a monthly gas budget each month so he can still have fun, while she can feel that the gas bill is under control.

What do you think about adult allowances? Good idea for resolving potential conflicts? Or unnecessary for those in a good relationship?

Filed Under: Budgeting, Family //

Do You Worry About Your Parents’ Readiness For Retirement?

Posted on August 25, 2007 // 43 Comments

Up until recently, I never really thought about my parents’ financial situation. While growing up, they did a really good job of shielding us from their financial worries and setbacks. Looking back, I’m sure there were some tough times.

As my mom and dad start to near retirement age, they’ve become more open with their finances. They assure me that they are on track for retirement. They know all about the “catch-up” IRA contributions allowed for people over 50 and are taking advantage of them. They’ve even asked me to look at some of their accounts, like the TIAA-CREF retirement annuity.

As long as they stay healthy, I’m actually pretty confident they will be fine. This is mainly due to the fact that my father loves what he does and plans to work until 70 if not longer. While he does take more vacation time now, I don’t think the words “early retirement” are in his vocabulary. Any financial planner will tell you, even delaying retirement for a few years can make a big difference. You delay taking withdrawals so your nest egg gets more time to grow, and your expected withdrawal period is shorter.

But what if they do run into issues, for whatever reason? I know that I’d step in to help for sure. For one, I know that my parents regularly give my grandparents money. I don’t know how much or how often, it could be just spending money, but I know they do send something. I guess this is what some people call the “sandwich” problem. Young families have their own retirement worries on one side, their kid’s education in the middle, and their parents’ needs on the other side.

Do you worry about your parents’ retirement plans? Should a child ask their parents about such details or get involved? How does one incorporate this into their own financial plan? Just my Saturday morning musings…

Filed Under: Family //
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