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My wife and I have made some big financial decisions over our 38-year marriage, but the most consequential was staying together.

Few things savage your personal finances more than divorce. The closer you are to retirement, the worse the damage.

Youve got a couple that planned their whole retirement to look one way, says Nancy Hetrick of Phoenix, a divorce financial analyst, and now the same money that was going to do one retirement has to do two of them.

The divorce rate for Americans over 50 began climbing in the early 1990s and has remained above historical norms while the rates for other age groups has declined.

About 1% of married Americans over age 50 get divorced each year, says Susan Brown, a sociology professor at Bowling Green State University who has published research on divorce. The picture is pretty grim, Dr. Brown says.

Especially in a gray divorce, you have only one shot to get it right.

Especially in a gray divorce, you have only one shot to get it right, says Diane Pappas, a divorce financial analyst in the Boston area. The husband and wife have to understand their expenses. The only way to live within their means is to understand what theyre spending and how much income they will have.Whats more, women are disproportionately affected financially by divorces: The average woman sees her standard of living decline by 45% after a split; the average man sees it go down 21%.

Why do women fare so much worse? Carol Lee Roberts, president of the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts, which trains people in divorce financial planning, has seen many splits where the man takes the retirement account and the woman gets the house. The result is the man receives assets to help fund his retirement and the woman is saddled with the maintenance costs and property taxes of a house.

Often keeping a house, or any large asset that isnt giving you an income stream, isnt the best idea, Roberts says.

Women who stay home to raise children also often pay a Social Security penalty in retirement. If they didnt work enough to qualify for benefits on their own, they receive half the Social Security benefits of their husband if married 10 years or more.

Another big area of impact when couples split: Many people receive employer-sponsored health coverage through their spouses employer, and they often lose it in divorce.

The No. 1 issue that keeps people up at night is health insurance, says Jennifer Failla, an Austin, Texas, divorce financial analyst. People losing employer-sponsored insurance can get coverage for up to three years through a federal program called Cobra, but it is expensive.

Failla helps clients find private health coverage to save money but says they typically end up paying $500 to $800 a month for worse coverage than they had previously with the employee-sponsored plan.

Even upscale couples feel the pinch in a split-up. Justin Reckers, a divorce financial analyst in San Diego, handled a case where the main source of income, the husband, earned more than $500,000 a year. The 54-year-old wife had quit working seven years earlier to raise their children. She received roughly $3 million in assets as part of the divorce settlement, enough to give her $7,000 a month for life after taxes, but that pales in comparison to the $15,000 or more a month the couple was spending before the divorce.

Hetrick, the Phoenix divorce financial analyst, encounters a lot of couples where the romance died a long time ago but they are staying together because they think they cant afford separate houses. They dont hate each other, she says. Theyre just kind of roommates and have been for a long time.

When a couple comes in preparing for divorce, planners generally make two lists. One has all their income; the other all their expenses. Especially in a gray divorce, you have only one shot to get it right, says Diane Pappas, a divorce financial analyst in the Boston area. The husband and wife have to understand their expenses. The only way to live within their means is to understand what theyre spending and how much income they will have.

Pappas sometimes counsels people who are still on the fence about divorce. She recently talked to a couple in their late 60s who had amassed $3 million in assets, but the husband felt he didnt have enough to retire. That reluctance to retire was causing friction with his wife, who wanted to start enjoying life.

She told the husband he could afford to retire. So he did, and the couple is still together.

Questions? Comments? Write to us at retirement@barrons.com

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Divorce Is Costly. Divorce in Retirement Is Costly and Complicated. - Barron's

Go to any online newsfeed and you'll see a FIRE story, something about the "Financial Independence, Retire Early" movement. The stories go like this:

"I got tired of the rat race, saved like mad and quit my day job. Now I'm a happy blogger living like a king in Peru."

It makes for great lunch-break escape reading.

The hard part is figuring out if, when and where you can actually take early retirement. When you sit down and do the analysis, the decision turns on some key factors that have absolutely nothing to do with saving and investing.

Think of these four factors as gates, each one crucial to achieving FIRE.

Health insurance. If you are going to live in the United States, it's probably best not to retire before 65. That's when you are eligible for Medicare and a dramatically lower cost of health insurance and health care. If you have a modest income, you might be able to retire earlier by getting subsidized health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Premiums are based on your modified adjusted gross income. Your MAGI includes investment income as well as earned income. The more modest your income from all sources, the lower the out-of-pocket cost of your policy.

While there is a lot of public support for the Affordable Care Act particularly the elimination of pre-existing conditions efforts are still being made to get rid of it. That adds big-time risks to an early retirement. It's also why many, perhaps most, early retirees choose to live in other countries. In most of the industrialized world, health care isn't a financial hazard.

Empty nest or no children. Most of the FIRE stories I've read are about people who never had children or who are old enough that their kids are young adults on their own. Kids are expensive, so many FIRE couples tend to be empty-nesters in their 50s.

The U.S. birth rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reached a 32-year low in 2018. The total fertility rate continued to be lower than the "replacement rate" necessary to maintain our population level. These figures tell us that more individuals and couples are candidates for the FIRE lifestyle.

Still, not having children is far from mainstream.

Cost-conscious living. Making very deliberate decisions about how we spend our money is the bedrock of FIRE. This isn't a new idea. We can go back to Henry David Thoreau. But the most recent source is most likely traced to Duane Elgin, who wrote Voluntary Simplicityin the 1970s, and Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, who wrote Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independencein the 1990s.

But to follow this route requires that you learn how to swim against the flood tide of advertising and the acquired conditioning of our consumer culture. Most people are willing to talk about how they invest their money. Few are willing to talk about how they spend their money.

Why is that? Simple. Most people don't know how they spend their money. Instead, they discover how they spent it on a credit card statement.

That's not hyperbole. It's what I've learned from talking with a multitude of people over the past 40 years.

FIRE isn't about intense saving and brilliant investing. It's about deliberate spending decisions. The big opportunity here is that the American standard of living is so high, it is entirely possible to live very nicely on amounts that are far less than princely once you master marching to a different drummer.

Geographic arbitrage. One of the most repeated themes for FIRE candidates is using the power of money from here in the U.S. to buy a higher standard of living somewhere else. Think Mexico, Panama, Belize or Costa Rica in our part of the world. Think Portugal in Europe, or Thailand in Asia. Wherever it is, shelter is cheap to rent, medical services are affordable, and it's easy to live simply because everyone else does it, too.

Use these four gates well, and the money part is a lot easier.

Scott Burns is the creator of Couch Potato investing and a longtime personal finance columnist for The Dallas Morning News.

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Want to retire early? It's more about spending than saving - The Dallas Morning News

As I often mention to my clients, a successful retirement plan is one that must be not only created and written but also revisited annually to account for changes we can and cannot control. There are three pending proposals being considered in Congress that may change the landscape of retirement savings and distributions. The goals are to increase the flexibility of retirement savings, correct the Social Security solvency, and added protection for those receiving pensions. There are many advantages and a few drawbacks that will come at a cost to the working class, small business owners, and beneficiaries.

It's important to keep an eye on the progression of these bills so that you will have adequate time to adjust your cash flow in your personal retirement plan and determine the impact on your projected retirement date and savings.

It's important to keep an eye on the progression of these bills so that you will have adequate time to adjust your cash flow in your personal retirement plan and determine the impact on your projected retirement date and savings. There will also be considerations for revised tax and estate planning for non-spouse inheritances of retirement plans.

The SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act)

The first bill passed earlier this year in the U.S. House of Representatives with a 417-3 vote.There has been little progress in the Senate since then. The main objective for this Tax Act is to expand an individual's access to their retirement savings. Here is a summary of the key provisions:

Retirees Required minimum distributions (RMDs) will change from 70 1/2 to age 72 for mandatory distributions from your IRAs, 401(k), 403(b) and other employer-sponsored retirement plans. This can be helpful when you don't need the additional income. It also allows for tax-efficiency planning during the lower income years in retirement, which can range from age 60 to age 72. Consider making Roth IRA conversions during this 1 1/2 year time frame, collecting your distributions to fund life insurance, and pursuing planned charitable giving options.

Employees It will allow an inclusion of annuities and other lifetime income options to 401(k) plan participants. This can advantageous where there continues to be a reduction of employer-provided pensions, resulting in the need to create your own personal pension. Another change will allow qualified contributions to individual retirement accounts beyond age 70 1/2. Traditional IRAs will become like Roth IRAs without an age restriction. In order to make qualified contributions, other IRS requirements must be met and remain unchanged at this time.

Employers Some of the extended provisions will also cost business owners, with additional matching contributions and increased professional fees for revisions in the plan documents, to maintain compliance with federal and state laws.

Increased tax credits will be available for startup costs up to 50% of a small business's new retirement plan. This increases from $500 annually to $5,000 maximum tax credit.

Beneficiaries The bill proposed a major change in reducing the ability for an inherited stretch IRA for beneficiaries, which can be a disadvantage for estate planning. There will be a 10-year time limit for a non-spouse beneficiary to defer the distributions and income taxes on an inherited IRA. It will force taxation of retirement plans that are inherited in the first year or no later than 10 years from the inheritance. There are exceptions for non-spouse beneficiaries who are disabled, a minor, or chronically ill. Distributions for these exceptions would be over their life expectancy, although the exception for minors would end once they reach the age of majority with the final distribution to be taken within 10 years.

Spousal beneficiaries continue to be able to stretch and delay the inherited account's required minimum distributions (RMDs) until the end of the 72nd year of the deceased spouse. The delay was allowed until age 70 1/2 before this new proposed law.

Social Security 2100 Act

This new bill was introduced by Rep. Larson, D-Conn., in July 2019 and the objective of this tax act is to fix the solvency of the Social Security program into the next century. If no changes are made, it is projected that in 2035, the trust funds of Social Security will run out. If this happens, the promised amounts to be paid are 80% of current benefits. This would have an adverse lifelong impact on the retirement income of Americans, many of whom rely solely or partially on Social Security retirement benefits to cover their necessary living expenses.

Employees and Employers The bill requires raising payroll taxes to pay for the solvency correction. Increased Social Security taxes will be paid by current workers and the employers. The Social Security rates currently paid by an employee and matching paid by an employer is 6.2% up to maximum earnings each year of $132,900. The proposed increase is 7.4% for employees and employers up to a maximum annual salary of $400,000. For example, if an employee is making $250,000 in wages, their additional Social Security taxes will increase by $10,260 annually. The employer's expense will increase by this same amount. The additional cost will likely result in lower wage increases and lower retirement plan contributions by employees.

Social Security Recipients Those currently receiving Social Security benefits may receive a reduction in federal taxes paid on their Social Security income. Currently, taxation of up to 85% of Social Security benefits begins when non-Social Security income exceeds $25,000 for individuals and $32,000 for couples. The amounts would increase under this proposed bill to $50,000 for individuals and $100,000 for couples.

Rehabilitation for Multi-Employer Pensions Act

This bill passed in the House of Representatives on July 24, 2019, in a 264-169 vote. The objective of this new bill is to allow pension plans to borrow money in order to remain solvent and continue paying retirees. If passed, the new legislation would create a trust fund that lends money to the pension plans as financial solvency remains to be an issue with many private and public pension plans.

If any of these three pending proposals pass, there could be many positive changes for employees, employers, and retirees. The costs of the SECURE Act, Social Security 2100 Act, and Rehabilitation for Multi-Employer Pensions Act will be paid by the working class, small business owners, and beneficiaries. Monitoring the progression of these bills and the ever-changing tax code will be important to allow for timely planning and revisions necessary in your personal retirement plan, tax plan, and estate plan.

Investment advisory services offered through Retirement Wealth Advisors, Inc. (RWA), an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Campbell & Company and RWA are not affiliated. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. No investment strategy can guarantee a profit or protect against loss in periods of declining values. Opinions expressed are subject to change without notice and are not intended as investment advice or to predict future performance. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Consult your financial professional before making any investment decision. This information is designed to provide general information on the subjects covered. It is not, however, intended to provide specific legal or tax advice and cannot be used to avoid tax penalties or to promote, market, or recommend any tax plan or arrangement. Jackie Campbell, CPA and Campbell and Company, Certified Public Accountants and Financial Advisors are able to provide tax services. However, you are not obligated to work with Campbell and Company, Certified Public Accountants and Financial Advisors and Jackie Campbell, CPA for any tax services. You are encouraged to consult your tax advisor or attorney.

Insurance and annuities offered through Jacquelyn Campbell, FL Insurance License #W101492.

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3 New Retirement Rules That May Change Retirement As We Know It - Forbes

Saving for retirement is complicated and confusing, and there are dozens of factors to consider when creating your retirement plan. How much should you save? What age do you plan to retire? How much will healthcare costs affect your budget?

One factor in particular that can have a major impact on your retirement is Social Security, and yet most workers don't fully understand how the program works. In fact, a whopping 77% of workers incorrectly believe Social Security benefits won't be available to them once they retire, according to areport from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.

While it's true that the Social Security program is facing some cash shortage issues, the problem isn't as bad as you may think. And not understanding what you can expect from Social Security can make it much harder to plan your retirement.

Image source: Getty Images.

There are plenty of startling headlines about the future collapse of Social Security, but it's not quite as grim as it seems. The program itself isn't going anywhere, because as long as people continue paying their taxes, there will always be at least some money to pay out in benefits. However, there is a chance that benefits could be cut in the next couple of decades.

Right now, as baby boomers retire in droves and life expectancies continue to climb, there's more money being paid out in benefits than is coming in from taxes. To bridge the gap, the Social Security Administration has dipped into its trust fund reserves to continue paying out benefits in full. Those trust funds are expected to run dry by 2035, though, at which point the only money that will be available to pay out in benefits is what comes in from taxpayers. Currently, the Social Security Administration predicts that tax money will only be enough to cover around three-quarters of expected benefits after 2035.

Of course, this is assuming Congress doesn't come up with a solution to fix the problem before then, most likely in the form of tax bumps or increasing the retirement age. While most workers won't like either of these solutions, if the government doesn't do anything, retirees may only receive around 75% of their expected benefits.

So what does this mean for you? In short, it means you should probably start preparing for a potential reduction in Social Security benefits. The government may figure out a solution before you retire, but if not, you could be in for a rude awakening if you're planning to rely on your benefits for a significant chunk of your retirement income.

Because the future of Social Security is in the government's hands, there's little the average worker can control. That said, there are a couple of things you can do to maximize your benefits and protect your retirement income.

One way to increase the amount you receive each month from Social Security is to delay claiming until after your full retirement age (FRA). Your FRA is either age 66, 66 and a few months, or 67, depending on the year you were born, and claiming at that age will ensure you receive the full amount you're entitled to. If you claim before that age (as early as age 62), your benefits will be reduced by up to 30%.

If the SSA is forced to cut benefits in the future, your checks could be reduced significantly if you claim before your FRA. But by waiting to claim until after your FRA (up to age 70), you'll receive extra money each month on top of your full amount. If your FRA is age 67, you'll receive a 24% boost each month by waiting until age 70 to claim, which can take the sting out of any potential benefit reductions.

Another way to increase your benefits is to work a few more years. Your basic benefit amount (or the amount you'll receive if you claim at your FRA) is based on an average of the 35 highest-earning years of your career. If you haven't worked a full 35 years, you'll have zeros in the equation for the years you haven't worked, lowering your average. Even if you have worked at least 35 years, you might choose to work longer so that some of your more current, higher-earning years can replace your lower-earning years from earlier in your career.

Keep in mind that although it's a good idea to maximize your benefits the best you can, at the end of the day, your monthly checks aren't designed to cover the majority of your retirement expenses. Your benefits are only intended to replace roughly 40% of your pre-retirement income, so you'll need a significant amount in personal savings as well to cover all your retirement costs.

Social Security is not on the brink of collapse, but there may be some changes in the coming years. Regardless of whether benefits are reduced or not, it's important to have a plan in place just in case you don't receive as much as you anticipate. The more you understand about how the future of Social Security affects your retirement plan, the more prepared you'll be.

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The 1 Thing Most People Get Wrong About Retirement - The Motley Fool

City population: 46,747

Share of population 65+: 14.4%

Cost of living for retirees: 19.2% above the national average*

Average income for population 65+: n/a

Community score: 59.8*

State's tax rating for retirees: Least Tax Friendly

Like much of the Northeast, Connecticut is known to be a high-cost area, and Middletown is no exception. But the Hartford metro area, of which Middletown is a part, is at least more affordable than other major metro areas in the state, including Stamford and New Haven, according to the Council for Community and Economic Research. And local residents tend to pull in high enough incomes to make it work. The city's average income for all households is $90,977 a year, and it's even better for the older population with incomes for residents age 60 and up averaging $92,851 a year.

Plus, being home to Wesleyan University, Middletown offers all the benefits of retiring to a college town, including numerous restaurants, shops and cultural attractions. You can also take advantage of the Wesleyan Institute for Lifelong Learning, which offers no-credit courses, lectures and other educational opportunities at minimal cost and is open to the entire community. And while the nearby city of Hartford has an alarmingly high crime ratewith 1,093.8 violent crimes per 100,000 residents reported, compared with the national rate of 473.2 for cities of similar sizeMiddletown is far safer with a mere 49 violent crimes total reported for the year.

*Data for the Hartford metropolitan statistical area, which includes Middletown.

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Expensive Places to Retire That Are Worth It 2019 - Kiplinger's Personal Finance

If you've been dreaming about retirement for decades, chances are you're itching to retire as soon as you can. However, more and more Americans find themselves working longer than they anticipated, sometimes working years past the traditional retirement age.

The average worker age 65 and older doesn't expect to be able to retire until age 72, a new survey from Provision Living found. Of those who are still working, 60% say the decision is a financial one. Nearly 4 in 10 say they simply can't afford to retire, and another quarter say they're still working to support their families.

While it's a good thing that workers aren't retiring before they're ready, centering your retirement plan around working as long as possible may not be the best idea.

Image source: Getty Images.

If your savings are falling short, you may simply choose to continue working into your 70s or beyond to make up for it. On the surface, this is a smart idea. Working even a few years longer can help you save thousands more for retirement, and because you're retiring later in life, you won't have to save quite so much.

That said, delaying retirement has its drawbacks -- particularly if life throws a wrench in your plans.

Close to half (43%) of retirees say they had to retire earlier than they had planned, a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found. Of those who were forced into an early retirement, the most common causes included health problems that prevented them from working and job loss due to company restructuring or downsizing.

These types of situations are out of your control and can crop up out of the blue, making them difficult (if not impossible) to plan for. However, if you're banking on the idea of being able to work forever, you're potentially putting your retirement at risk if things don't work out the way you'd planned.

Nobody wants to think about the possibility of health issues or layoffs ending their career early, but it's important to at least have that thought in the back of your mind if you're expecting to work past the traditional retirement age. More importantly, though, it's a good idea to have a backup plan in mind, just in case you're forced into an early retirement.

The easiest way to avoid letting an earlier-than-expected retirement catch you off guard is to simply save more when you're younger. That way, you can continue working if you'd like, but in the event that you have to leave your job sooner than you anticipated, you won't be left in the lurch with next to nothing saved.

That option is not always possible or realistic, though, especially if you're already in your 50s or 60s with little in savings. In that case, you'll need a different strategy to maximize your retirement income.

For example, you may choose to delay claiming Social Security benefits for as long as you can. Although you can begin claiming at age 62, for every year you wait to claim, you'll receive approximately 8% more per year until age 70. That could result in hundreds more per month for the rest of your life, which can go a long way if your savings are falling short.

Besides maximizing your income in retirement, it's also important to minimize your expenses. Establish a thorough budget and map out all your costs to ensure you're not overspending on unnecessary expenses, and try to cut back wherever you can. Depending on how far behind you are on your savings, you may even choose to take drastic measures such as downsizing your home or moving to a less expensive city.

Even if you don't think it could happen to you, it's always important to plan for the unexpected. You could be in excellent health and in good standing at your job, but that doesn't mean life won't throw curveballs at you in the future.

Be realistic when choosing a retirement age, and make sure you're thinking about any potential drawbacks of working as long as possible. You may very well be able to work for as long as you'd like, but it's smart to have a backup plan in mind just in case that strategy doesn't pan out. By expecting the unexpected, you can bolster your retirement plan and enjoy your golden years as comfortably as possible.

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This Is the Age When the Average Older American Expects to Retire - The Motley Fool

Dear Liz: What are your recommendations for a recent dental school graduate, now practicing in California, who has about $250,000 of dental school loans to pay off but who also knows the importance of starting to save for retirement?

Answer: If youre the graduate, congratulations. Your debt load is obviously significant, but so is your earning potential. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median pay for dentists nationwide is more than $150,000 a year. The range in California is typically $154,712 to $202,602, according to Salary.com.

Ideally, you wouldnt have borrowed more in total than you expected to earn your first year on the job. That would have made it possible to pay off the debt within 10 years without stinting on other goals. A more realistic plan now is to repay your loans over 20 years or so. That will lower your monthly payment to a more manageable level, although it will increase the total interest you pay. If you cant afford to make the payments right now on a 20-year plan, investigate income-based repayment plans, such as Pay As You Earn (PAYE) or Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), for your federal student loans.

Like other graduates, youd be wise to start saving for retirement now rather than waiting until your debt is gone. The longer you wait to start, the harder it is to catch up, and youll have missed all the tax breaks, company matches and tax-deferred compounding you could have earned.

Also be sure to buy long-term disability insurance, even though it may be expensive. Losing your livelihood would be catastrophic, since you would still owe the education debt, which typically cant be erased in bankruptcy.

Dear Liz: In a recent column, you mentioned that Medicare Part A is free, but that requires 40 quarters (or 10 years) of U.S. employment to qualify. There are, unfortunately, many of us with offshore employment who have found this out too late. Even if one has worked in a country with a tax treaty with the U.S. that allows you to transfer pension credits to Social Security, that will not allow you to qualify for Medicare. I think it would have been very helpful if I had known this about 10 years ago!

Answer: Medicare is typically premium-free, because the vast majority of people who get Medicare Part A either worked long enough to accrue the necessary quarters or have a spouse or ex-spouse who did. (Similar to Social Security, the marriage must have lasted at least 10 years for divorced spouses to have access to Medicare based on an ex-spouses record.)

But of course there are exceptions, and youre one of them. People who dont accrue the necessary quarters typically can pay premiums to get Part A coverage if they are age 65 or older and a citizen or permanent resident of the United States. The standard monthly premium for Part A is $437 for people who paid Medicare taxes for less than 30 quarters and $240 for those with 30 to 39 quarters.

Dear Liz: You recently indicated that restricted applications for Social Security spousal benefits are no longer available to people born on or after Jan. 2, 1954. Who is responsible for this change, and when was that enacted? Is there any way it can be reversed?

Answer: Congress is unlikely to revive what was widely seen as a loophole that allowed some people to take spousal benefits while their own benefits continued to grow.

Congress changed the rules with the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015. As is typical with Social Security, the change didnt affect people who were already at or near typical retirement age. So people who were 62 or older in 2015 are still allowed to file restricted applications when they reach their full retirement age of 66. They can collect spousal benefits while their own benefits accrue delayed retirement credits, as long as the other spouse is receiving his or her own retirement benefit. (Congress also ended file and suspend, which would have allowed one spouse to trigger benefits for the other without starting his or her own benefit.)

Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet. Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the Contact form at asklizweston.com.

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Should you pay off student loans or save for retirement? Both, and heres why - Los Angeles Times

Whats on your bucket list? Some people want to visit the Taj Mahal, float along the canals of Venice in a gondola or hike to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

All of those experiences sound wonderful, but I also have long had a more mundane item on my list: touring the Retirement Operations Center of the Office of Personnel Management in Boyers, Pennsylvania.

Earlier this month, I got to check that item off my list. I went with a colleague of mine, Joni Montroy of Key Retirement Solutions (who specializes in postal employee retirement issues), to visit the vast underground facility. The tour was led by Ken Zawodny, OPMs associate director for retirement services; Nicholas Ashenden, deputy associate director for retirement operations at Boyers; and Robert Lorish, deputy assistant director.

We traveled 220 feet beneath the earths surface on a golf cart to one of the most secure locations in the country. After we received our security badges, we met our escorts to begin our three-hour visit to a place that we had heard stories about for our entire careers as retirement specialists.

We wanted to see firsthand how retirement claims are processed and find out if the tales we had heard were true. For example, we had been told of a mysterious courier system in which a red truck full of retirement files regularly went from Boyers to Breezewood, Pennsylvania. There it was met by a different red truck that transported the files the rest of the way to Washington. It turned out there is indeed a courier system to transport files that runs several times a week, but it apparently relies on standard trucks, not special red vehicles.

We also learned that the office space is no longer a naturally cool 60 degrees, but has been upgraded with modern HVAC equipment to keep it a comfortable temperature for employees. We could leave our sweaters in the car.

Despite the fact that there were no hidden secrets revealed on our tour, we were fascinated to learn more about what goes on in this cavernous space.

We learned that this is a place where federal employees go to work every day in an office space with rugged walls of blasted limestone that have been painted a bright silver. The floors are lined with 22,000 file cabinets, stacked 10 high and organized into rows, holding 400 million civilian retirement records. Laid end to end, these file cabinets would extend for 26 miles. Stacked on top of each other, they would rise four times higher than Mount Everest.

The history of the processing center dates back to 1902, when U.S. Steel discovered this storehouse of limestone about an hour north of Pittsburgh and began mining it for use in the production of steel. By 1950, mining operations had ceased and the company began using the caverns it had created to protect corporate records. By 1954, space was being rented to businesses and the U.S. government for records storage. In 1960, federal retirement operations moved from the Pension Building (now the National Building Museum) in Washington to Boyers. Today, the space is owned by Iron Mountain, a data and records management company.

In 1960, the facility had 30,000 square feet of dedicated storage space with 42 employees mostly working in jobs related to file storage. Today, there is 221,000 square feet of space with more than 500 employees, now mostly focused on the operational work involved in retirement processing. There are an additional 150 employees who work in the nearby town of East Butler at the OPM call center. Another 300 employees work for Retirement Services at OPM headquarters in Washington.

The workload at the Retirement Operations Center is staggering. Here are a few statistics on its processing activities in fiscal 2018:

Retirees can use online services to to update their mailing addresses, change their federal and state income tax withholding designations, request a duplicate annuity booklet or print their Retirement Services ID card. The more retirees and their families turn to online services for basic needs, the quicker the team at Boyers can respond to more complex questions.

On our tour, we learned of many recent changes to improve the efficiency of the tedious process of retirement claims adjudication and responding to various other requests related to retirement benefits. Training sessions were underway in many areas we visited and retirement records were being maintained in an orderly and secure manner.

We returned from our trip with a renewed sense of optimism that federal employees retirement benefits are in good hands. Next week, Ill share what we learned about the step-by-step process of claims processing to help you understand what happens when you transition from a federal employee to a retiree.

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An Underground Journey to the Heart of Retirement Processing - GovExec.com

About six in 10 Americans (58%) think that $1 million will be enough for "a comfortable retirement." That's according to TD Ameritrade's 2019 Retirement Pulse Survey, which surveyed 1,015 U.S. adults ages 23 and older with at least $10,000 in investable assets.

Although $1 million is the oft-cited amount needed to retire comfortably, it might not be enough. "On average, a $1 million retirement nest egg will last 19 years," according to a 2019 report from personal finance site GOBankingRates. And depending on where you live, retirees could blow through $1 million in as little as a decade.

Of course, everyone's individual situation is different. It's certainly possible to retire with $1 million in savings and many Americans live on much less.

While the amount you need is highly personal and depends on your lifestyle and spending habits, there are a few basic guidelines to follow if you want to retire comfortably.

Many experts, including co-founder of AE Wealth Management David Bach, say that if you set aside at least 10% of your income in a retirement fund, you'll set yourself up to be fine. But more is always better, he adds.

Sallie Krawcheck, co-founder and CEO of Ellevest, recommends saving 20% of your income for your future self. That 20% includes retirement funds and saving for any major purchases, such as a home or car. "For a lot of folks that can be difficult to get to," Krawcheck says, "so start with 1%." Then, aim to gradually increase that amount over time.

You don't just want to save this money, she adds. You want to invest it and make it work for you. That means contributing to your employer's 401(k) plan if they offer one or saving in other retirement accounts, such as a Roth IRA or traditional IRA.

If you don't set aside money when you're young, you'll have to save more to make up for lost time. If you want to retire by 65, you should be setting aside 10-17% of your income if you start saving at 25, the Stanford Center on Longevity determined in a 2018 report. But if you wait until 35 to start, you have to save 15-20%.

Another rule of thumb, from retirement-plan provider Fidelity Investments, is that you should have 10 times your final salary in savings by 67 to last you through retirement.

"Our savings factors are based on the assumption that a person saves 15% of their income annually beginning at age 25, invests more than 50% on average of their savings in stocks over their lifetime, retires at age 67, and plans to maintain their preretirement lifestyle in retirement," Fidelity says.

Getting to 10 times your final salary "may seem ambitious," the report adds, "but you have many years to get there." Here's a timeline you could follow to see if you're on track to get there:

Most Americans, 62%, feel like they need to catch up on their retirement savings, TD Ameritrade reports. If you feel the same, there are strategies you can use like setting up automatic contributions or increasing your income that will help you get to, or nearer to, where you need to be.

First, enroll in your employer-sponsored 401(k) plan if you haven't already, says Katie Taylor, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity Investments. Next, find out if your company offers a 401(k) match. If they do, take full advantage of it, she tells CNBC Make It: "If there is a match that's 3%, make sure that you're saving at least 3%. Otherwise, you're leaving 'free' money on the table."

If you're one of the many Americans without access to a 401(k), don't stress. Most importantly, "don't let that be a deterrent for not saving for the future," says Taylor. "Whether or not you have access to a 401(k), at some point, you will want to retire and you will need to have money saved."

You have plenty of other options, including a traditional, Roth or SEP IRA; a health savings account (HSA) or a normal investment account. Read up on all of your options, choose an account to fund and start setting aside money for your future today.

"It's harder to catch up if you don't save," says Taylor. "If you spend the first half of your career not saving, you've got to do a lot of catching up later in your career and you don't have the time in the market to ride out any fluctuations. It's always a good idea to get started as early as possible."

Don't miss: How much money you need to save to retire by age 65, according to Stanford researchers

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Excerpt from:
Most Americans think $1 million will be enough for 'a comfortable retirement'here's how to figure out how much you need - CNBC

City population: 41,241

Share of population 65+: 11.0%

Cost of living for retirees: 4.4% below the national average

Average income for population 65+: n/a

Community score: n/a

State's tax rating for retirees: Least Tax Friendly

If the cold winters and equally harsh tax situation don't put you off of the North Star State, consider retiring in Mankato, about 90 miles southwest of the Twin Cities. It's still a small city, but development is on the rise, and the local economy is growing fast. Revitalization projects have added a nice mix of restaurants, shops, entertainment venues and more to the downtown area in recent years, and the city's five-year strategic plan aims to spread that level of development throughout the Minnesota River Valley. Some goals of the plan include adding housing, specifically within walking distance of where jobs and shops are; expanding Riverfront Park and other recreational land; and possibly building a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Minnesota River to North Mankato.

So far, all that growth has yet to push up living costs. While other metro areas in Minnesota come with above-average expenses, Mankato's cost of living for retirees (and others) remains below the national average. By comparison, Minneapolis has living costs for retirees 5.7% above the national average. Unfortunately, typical incomes in Mankato are also lower, with the overall annual income for residents with earnings at $62,776, on average, compared with $64,626 in Minneapolis. Still, the poverty rate for residents 65 and older is lower at 7.8% in Mankato, compared with 12.6% in Minneapolis and 9.3% in the whole U.S.

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Great Places to Retire in the Midwest 2019 - Kiplinger's Personal Finance