Good piece from the John Hancock website below that illustrates one of the biggest risks facing retirees – sequence of returns. Market performance varies year to year, and during the years you are building your nest egg this is not as much a concern since you can afford to wait out the cycles. However, this can be potentially devastating to retirees because they usually need to take money out of their accounts for income regardless of what the market is doing. In poor performing markets this acts as a double whammy to savings and can really throw the best laid retirement plans off track...

Some concerning statistics for American women when it comes to retirement readiness were released by BlackRock last week.  In nearly all instances, women lag behind their male counterparts in savings, and further exacerbate the issue by their conservative approach to investing...

A crucial factor of retirement planning is your assumption on inflation. While $5,000 a month in today’s dollars may be sufficient for your needs now, if you have no way of increasing that income to account for future inflation you may find it harder and harder to afford your everyday needs.

Earlier this year I mentioned that one of the most powerful tools in an investor's kit is the miracle of compound interest. Well here's another reason why you want to start saving sooner rather than later.