Recessions are difficult to predict, but it is a good idea to know how a recession might impact your investment portfolio and your retirement plan.

There's a generally accepted way of withdrawing from investment accounts in retirement. Sometimes there are reasons to handle those withdrawals differently, such as when using a bucket strategy.

A general rule of thumb when it comes to taking money out of qualified tax-deferred retirement accounts, such as regular IRAs and 401(k) plans, is this: Postpone withdrawing from them as long as you can. In other words, if you have other sources of retirement income or investment principal you can use, you should almost always use that first.

There's legislation wending its way through congress that could have a big effect on savers and retirees. One of the changes proposed is to make it easier for annuities to be part of an employer's retirement plan options (its 401(k) plan, usually).

The pace of increase in health care expenses is slowing for now, which is good news. But the trend is definitely still upward, and the uncertainty surrounding the topic isn't going away.

Believe it or not, we might have a bipartisan bill pass through Congress that would likely signed by the president. This one involves saving for retirement. It is becoming widely recognized that most people are not prepared to retire at a reasonable age. In fact, many people in this country will have to work pretty much their entire lives.

Phased retirement, rather than traditional, stop-work-entirely-at-a-certain-date retirement, is a common way to ease into retirement. We discuss how to model it here.

Deferred compensation plans are becoming more popular for higher-income earners. These types of plan are non-qualified tax-deferred plans, which means that they are allowed to grow tax-free before the money is withdrawn. When the money is withdrawn, it is taxed at the owner’s income tax rate.

Volatility is back and it can really change your retirement situation. You've probably heard of Monte Carlo simulations. Some people don't like Monte Carlo because it mostly relies on the past just as so many other tools we use to forecast the future. We understand that concern, but we still like it as one of the tools in the toolbox.

This is a family of five in North Carolina. The couple are in their late thirties and have effectively stopped working full time--and plan to keep it that way. They earn income from their web site and a few other sources, but it’s nothing like the 9-to-5 office-job money they used to make. In typical FIRE fashion, they worked hard at high-paying jobs for a short period of time (about 10 years), saving a huge portion of their income, and then . . . stopped. And started blogging about it and attracting media attention.

We're conflicted about FIRE. On the one hand, frugality is an underappreciated and powerful thing. A movement that inspires people to save money, consume less, and lead a more conscious life--what could be bad about that? Getting off the hamster wheel and spending more time living? That sounds pretty good.

Because the cost of living varies so much across the country, retirement savings will go a lot farther in some places than in others.

The savings picture for Americans continues to look grim. Although the average American household has over $175,000 saved, this figure is skewed by the very wealthy in this country. The median savings number is much important and it tells a different story.

Many who worked for the local or state government over the past few decades were certain they could retire in their 50s with a large pension and gold-plated health benefits. This is what they were promised. But it turns out, most of these promises were nothing but Ponzi schemes where the payments coming in would eventually not be enough to cover the payments going out.

Historically speaking, a flattening yield curve that turns into an inverted yield curve has been a pretty good predictor of recessions. Under normal circumstances, with an economy humming along the way ours has, long-term rates will be significantly higher than short-term ones, creating an upward sloping curve. The main idea here is that bond investors demand higher yields in the longer term to account for the risk of inflation, which would eat away at their returns the same way it eats away at your purchasing power.

Many of us know by now that the Social Security fund will not be able to pay out full benefits within 15 years. But there is news today that for the first time since 1982, the cost of the Social Security program will be greater than its inflows. This means that Social Security will need to use part of its $3 trillion fund in order to pay out benefits.

So what makes for an actually useful retirement planner? Let's start with your actual, live investment account data, updated regularly. A free calculator is at best a snapshot in time, whereas a program like ours will keep track of your investment accounts' performance and holdings over longer periods. If your mutual funds and ETFs change up their portfolio holdings, their anticipated performance (based on the asset classes they hold) will be automatically handled in WealthTrace.

There is more than one right way to generate the income you need in retirement. That may be obvious, but it's good news, so it's worth stating and spelling out. Each source of income has its pros and cons--and various mixes of asset classes that generate that income have their pros and cons as well.

Be sure to get the free money at least--which is to say, what your employer matches. It might be a dollar-for-dollar match up to a certain amount, or something that vests over time.

We’re getting closer and closer to D-day for social security. In 2014 the Social Security Administration (SSA) reported that the reserves from the Social Security trust fund will run out in the year 2034.