Education Center

It’s a given that Americans will spend outside of their typical budget during the holiday season.

For many investors, putting away money consistently into their investments is a major achievement on its own. Having the time and know-how to pick from a dizzying array of investment products, allocate assets, and diversify your portfolio provides another set of challenges entirely.

If you were to lose a family member unexpectedly, would it impact your family's finances? Would the liability costs of an accident affect your savings? If so, you may want to consider insurance.

Having a professionally assisted financial plan has many advantages. First of all, it can help to soothe the uneasiness in the back of your mind about your financial future.

You’ve heard the advice that you should try to contribute as much as possible to your retirement plan, but experts tend to speak in percentages. More important to you is what will be the real-life impact of saving for retirement. 

Remember the "pinky swears" - the silly promises you made to your friends back in grade school? What if someone came back to you decades later as an adult and expected you to abide by those promises? It's unlikely they would ever prevail in a court of law.

Need to fix your mix?

You’ve probably heard of the terms “asset allocation” and “diversification.” They sound complicated, but really, the concepts are quite simple.

No matter your age, it's good to know how to protect your financial accounts. As you get closer to retiring, you may need to tap into them, whether they're set up specifically for funding retirement or used for other purposes, such as a liquid savings or money market account.

Setting a goal is an important prerequisite for accomplishing almost anything. And without setting clear financial goals, some people are likely to spend their lives aimlessly earning and spending, rather than building wealth and achieving a more financially secure life.

Many people who have had their income adjusted may be panicking and looking for other sources of cash to pay the bills.

When it comes to creating an investment portfolio to help you maintain your quality of life during retirement, most experts agree that portfolio diversification is a good option for achieving desired returns while managing risk.

An increasing number of people are graduating from college with student loans to pay back. Some 44.7 million student borrowers have an average of $37,584 in student loans each, and 65% of students graduated with student loan debt in 2020.

Whether your idea of golden years perfection is training for an Ironman, launching a business, watching a ball game in every U.S. state, or simply spending more time with family and friends, retirement offers a unique opportunity to replace the nine-to-five with something vivifying, meaningful, and new.

What’s the value of 1? If you guessed $1 million then it’s likely you’re in on a little-known secret that helps the most savvy of savers effectively prepare for their golden years.

When planning for your financial future, it's crucial to account for those little expenses that sometimes blindside you - like medical expenses or car repairs. Sometimes those little expenses turn into big expenses and you need a little more to cover the cost.

Managing your nest egg isn’t one distinctive event – it’s an ongoing process that needs to reflect life’s changes throughout retirement.

If you’re a Gen Xer, you’ve likely been facing some major financial demands over the last few years: caring for children and aging parents, dealing with a recession that lasted through some of your highest-earning working years and managing major debt.

Multitasking is bad for productivity: If you’re in a meeting trying to send out emails while listening to the speaker, chances are one of those tasks is going to suffer. You need to give one task your full attention. But when it comes to your money, multitasking is a necessity.

Historically markets rise, fall a bit, then rise again. That volatility may be difficult to stomach, particularly for the risk averse, but it’s also what creates buying and selling opportunities (another axiom: buy low, sell high!) for savvy portfolio managers.

When Americans think about growing older, many of them feel worried, according to AIG research. They worry about their health, being a burden to their families, and not having a purpose.

How much is enough?

Regardless of your current income, your 20s and 30s is the best time to start building for your future. But investing for a retirement that's 40 years away - all while trying to pay down student debt, save for a home, pay for a wedding or meet other important expenses - can feel overwhelming.

Although it’s true there’s really no bad time to start investing, it can be tricky to figure out how to siphon off funds from other areas of your budget and redirect them to your future needs.

How much is enough?

If you follow the news at all, you probably know that saving for retirement is something of a crisis for a significant portion of our country's population. So how much do you need to save?

Women are the lifestyle leaders inventing the future of retirement. For a variety of reasons, women are generally better at aging than men. They are more dynamic, take on more roles and duties, and are more clear-sighted in regard to the new frontier of longevity—and they also live longer. 

Many Americans do not have an accurate understanding of their finances. For example, research from Mint shows that three out of five Americans didn’t know the amount of money they spent the previous month.

What goes up must also come down. That’s true of Newton’s apples, your favorite wooden roller coaster, and — inevitably — the stock market.

Of course, different investors handle market ups and downs differently. Some are up for riding the drops like a coaster aficionado while others cling to the handlebars, wishing for a smoother ride.

Your 40s may not seem like the time to buckle down and get serious about retirement. But if your savings are nonexistent, it means you have plenty of work to do.

Though many of us will face a significant unexpected expense at some point during our lives, more than half of Americans don’t have the cash or savings on hand* to cover a financial emergency requiring $1,000 or more to resolve.

Having children means taking on the responsibility of guiding impressionable little humans through the world. As a parent, it's your job to teach your kids good values and useful life skills — and money management is one of them.

Last year, most of us started with the same basic financial goals that are common in every new year: build an emergency fund, pay off debt, continue contributing to a retirement fund and maybe increase income. 

The prospect of growing your family may fill your heart with butterflies, excitement, nervousness—or, most likely, all of the above.

If you're not following a budget, you're not managing your money correctly. Without a budget, you really have no way of knowing how much you're spending each month, and how much room for savings your expenses and income allow for.

Let's start by admitting that no two real-life spending and saving timelines are the same. That being said, there is a "classic timeline" - a general framework - that you can use as a starting point.

You have an array of choices for putting money away for future purposes.

There are investments, annuities, bank deposits and much more. Your decision should be driven by your circumstances including:

There are reasons to invest conservatively – market volatility, preserving the funds you have, just to name a couple. But there is also a trade-off between risk and reward: More risk, more reward potential; less risk, less reward potential. 

For many of us, setting aside the recommended six months’ worth of expenses in an emergency savings account to protect ourselves and our loved ones can feel daunting.

When it comes to amazing credit card perks, many of us often feel as if we’re on the outside looking in — but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Have you ever wondered how, exactly, that forward-thinking friend manages to book free trips to exotic destinations using credit card rewards?

If you’re similar to the average person, you probably have a budget that you made years ago sitting in an excel spreadsheet somewhere untouched. 

When you secure a student loan, the money is all but gift-wrapped. It’s delivered to your school, and it might entirely cover your next tuition bill.

Life has a way of throwing expensive surprises our way, whether it involves vehicles breaking down or air conditioners malfunctioning at home. When these unplanned bills pop up, the importance of savings becomes evident. 

Balancing repaying your student loans with savings is a challenge. This is especially true if you’re on an income-driven repayment plan.

It’s always good to think about your goals and build a plan to reach them. Take stock of your personal finances and money strategies so you can ensure that your short- and long-term financial objectives are on track.

A good vacation is about so much more than taking a break from work. Travel can help us learn about new cultures, see new things and broaden our horizons. People with wanderlust know that when the urge to travel hits, it can be hard to ignore.

Many people might not realize that their will does not control who inherits all of their assets when they die. Many assets pass by beneficiary designation — which is the ability to fill out a form with the financial company holding the asset and name who will inherit the asset upon your death.

Though college graduates are statistically likely to out-earn their nongraduate counterparts, many diploma holders inevitably come to regret the decision to pursue a degree, namely because of the level of debt they accrue in the process.

If you’re among the 65% of college graduates in the United States working to pay down student loan debt1, you likely already know how challenging it can be to simultaneously save for retirement.

Though there can be significant professional and financial benefits to earning an advanced degree, covering the tuition while simultaneously trying to save for retirement can be a challenge.

Without Social Security benefits, 22 million Americans would be poor — per a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 

If better financial planning has been a long-term goal for you, you’ve probably run into some common issues along the way: deciding how much you need to save for retirement, balancing debt and long-term goals, and simply covering day-to-day expenses are all common challenges most Americans face.

Small saving moves now can significantly impact early retirement outcomes.

A large influx of funds—an annual bonus, inheritance or capital gains from a property sale—can move the early retirement savings needle, but it’s everyday savings habits that can have the biggest impact.