Information To Plan for Retirement

It's the question underneath every other question about retirement.Not 'when should I take Social Security?' Not 'should I buy an annuity?' Not 'what should my investment allocation be?' Those are all important questions — and we spend a lot of time on them at Common Sense Retirement Planning.But underneath all of them is the foundational question that most people are really asking: Can I afford to retire?

Folks, I want to have an honest conversation about something that doesn't get nearly enough daylight in the financial planning world: fees.Not in a sensational way. Not to make anyone feel bad about what they're currently paying. But because I genuinely believe that informed consumers make better decisions — and when it comes to financial advice, you have an absolute right to know exactly what you're paying and what you're getting in return.

I want to tell you about two people who experienced the exact same market drop and had completely different outcomes. The first person — we’ll call him Alan — was 41 when the market declined sharply. His 401(k) dropped significantly over several months. It was unsettling to watch. But Alan kept contributing every paycheck, kept his investment mix steady, and 18 months later, the market recovered and his balance was higher than before the drop...

Folks, let me be upfront with you. Picking a financial advisor is one of the most important decisions you'll make as you approach retirement. And yet most people spend more time researching a new car purchase than they do evaluating the person who's going to manage their life savings.

Folks, I hear the word ‘conservative’ thrown around constantly in the financial planning world — and I want to be direct with you today: it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. We’ve had people come into our Greenville office who told us their previous advisor had them in a ‘conservative’ portfolio, and when we…

How Upstate South Carolina’s Retirees Can Avoid Costly Financial Planning Missteps Before They Retire Folks, if you’ve spent 20 or 30 years working at one of the Upstate’s great employers — BMW in Spartanburg, Michelin here in Greenville, Fluor, Lockheed Martin, GE, or Prizma — you’ve done an incredible job building a career and saving…