A quick personal update first FWIW….cold weather puts me in a traveling mood, I guess, so during Jan/Feb I took off for trips to DC (twice), Hawaii and LAX/San Diego, in some cases to escape cold weather and in almost all cases to visit family/friends. Guess which trip Beth came along (hint: Hawaii hotel reservations already made for Feb 2024). They were all great trips, although I did see snow on the SOCAL trip. March was a break from travel, but April – June is filling up. Need to schedule some local golf too. Now in order to afford this uptick in travel, I had to turn on the Social Security retirement fund stream earlier than desired (see post #62). Only problem with this process is that it’s been more than 10 weeks since I applied for SS benefits. The website says it should take 2-4 weeks. I’ve left 10+ voicemail messages to the applicable SS office without a response. It only took the same office a week to get me on their Medicare roll where I’m back to paying the government instead of them paying me.
Now to the title subject. Many of you have go-to sources for retirement information, including pre-retirement resources. For the three of you who come to this blog for such information, below are some of my favorite online resources. In many cases “you don’t know what you don’t know,” which is why I started the blog, and why I continue to research a variety of resources even in retirement. There are hundreds of sources. Whether you’re approaching retirement, or already there, you may find some of these references entertaining and informative (I’ve tried to minimize references to any source trying to sell something):
TransAmerica Center for Retirement Studies. This website has a ton of information on pre-retirement/ retirement subjects via tools, articles, research papers, podcasts, etc. A good percentage of the information is common sense, but each person’s common sense “threshold” is different (mine’s pretty low on the full spectrum). I promise you’ll find some things in there you don’t already know. And remember, your kids are right in the middle of their pre-retirement life cycle.
I did not know that 11% of retirees are taking care of grandkids.
https://www.transamericacenter.org/
I shouldn’t have been surprised to see how much pre-retirement information was on the IRS and Social Security government websites. If there’s one thing I’m going to do in the near term, it’s tell my kids to look at both websites, and consider starting their https://www.ssa.gov account now so they’ll have an idea what their options will be as they approach their 60s (assuming no law changes).
I found the https://www.gobankingrates.com/ website to be full of interesting information for those on both sides of the retirement threshold. For some good entertainment, check out their article below:
https://www.gobankingrates.com/retirement/planning/brilliant-retirement-ideas/
(Note. This post is not intended to be an endorsement of any products offered on either the government or non-government sources listed above. The post simply highlights these entities as examples of interesting sources of retirement and pre-retirement information)
Each of these sources (including the government sites) have podcasts and daily or weekly electronic newsletters if one is inclined to use such venues.
Of course each major or minor investment firm is going to have a retirement information link. Some of our military-associated sources (like USAA or NFCU) could learn a few things from their non-military-related counterparts. And there are dozens of other websites who’s sole purpose is to inform on retirement planning, whether it be financial independence/early retirement (see post #45 on FIRE) or “traditional” retirement.
Now, if you really want to look through an entertaining online FIRE resource, and what to do with all that free time, start with a few minutes on the below website. There are dozens of excellent FIRE-based websites, but Mr. Money Mustache is generally credited with being the leader within this movement:
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
Or you can buy one of the thousands of books written on retirement planning.
(July 2023 Update) Lately I’ve been listening to the “Ready for Retirement” podcast hosted by James Conole. He’s founder of the Root Financial Partners company ( rootfinancialpartners.com ) in California, and I’ve found his podcasts to be outstanding- specific, more educational and less entertaining
If you have a favorite retirement planning resource, I’d love to learn check it out if you’re willing to share.