target retirement fund

Tired of spending money on things you don’t use or get very little results out of? I’m referring to your gym membership. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of gyms and love going to them, but when they cost an average of $33 per person per month, it comes down to a combined [...]

An important factor in achieving financial success is setting good goals that you can work toward. Like traveling, you can get to where you want quicker if you know where you are going instead of wandering about aimlessly. However, you can’t just say that your goal is to retire rich someday. For a goal to [...]

“When should I take Social Security?” is the first question everyone faces when contemplating retirement. More than 50% of all men and women start taking benefits at 62. By age 66, well over 90% of all men and women are taking benefits according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

The Break Even Approach
The [...]

Should I get back into the stock market? You might be asking yourself this question if you had bailed out during the recent market downturn and watched it climbed almost 30% in March. I don’t blame you if you got out. Many people developed their investment strategy while the stock market was doing well, and [...]

As a new parent, I am sure you’re painfully aware of how expensive college is, and will be.  You may wonder how in the world are you going to save that huge sum needed for your child’s college education. This article is design to help you walk through each step — e.g., getting your finances [...]

I wrote about Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step 6: Pay Off Home Early about a year ago, and I’d like to revisit the question of “Should you pay off your mortgage early?” in light of today’s economic crisis.
In the Dave Ramsey article, I examined both the advantages and disadvantages of paying off your home loan early, [...]

In this Ask The Expert With Larry Swedroe article, the reader (Edward) is wondering what’s the best way to rebalance his investment portfolio and increase his fixed asset allocation.  Due to the stock market crash, he is reluctant to sell his beaten down stocks to increase his bonds allocation.  Is it better just to allocate [...]

When saving money for college education, you should be aware of your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). EFC is how much money your family is expected to contribute to your college education — the lower your EFC, the more financial aid you will receive.
A Brief Note From Plonkee
One of the great things about not having children [...]

My company made Vanguard Target Retirement Funds available for our 401k accounts about two years ago. However, I have not used them preferring to manually manage my own portfolio using traditional funds that include bond, large-cap, small-cap, international stock, and REIT funds. However, Target Retirement Funds are not without merits — in fact, I’ve been [...]

Asset allocation is an investing a strategy for maximizing gains while minimizing risks in your investment portfolio. It involves diversifying your assets among different broad categories of investments, such as equity, fixed income, and money market, etc.  By reducing your investment risks, you’re in a better position to meet your financial goals.
How Asset Allocation Works
The [...]