The key to good financial decisions is knowing how to sort through the flood of information out there. How do you do that? Ask the right questions. Specifically, these five. Thanks to new technologies, investing is more accessible than ever. You can buy stocks, bonds and mutual funds with a click of a mouse, or even with an app on …

Your risk tolerance can be boiled down into three words: capacity, attitude and need. Getting a grip on those concepts is the key to designing an appropriate portfolio for your retirement. “In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” So says investment adviser to PIMCO, Robert Arnott. While there’s certainly truth to this, most investors would be wise to consider just …

First off, do the math to find out if you have enough saved to actually retire. It’s no mystery that building a successful retirement requires planning. What can be mysterious, however, is what the process actually looks like, leaving many aspiring retirees to guess, hope and essentially throw darts and pray a few land at least near the bull’s-eye. This …

If part of your estate plan is to leave a hefty IRA to your children or anyone else other than your spouse, you may want to start thinking about backup strategies now. Finding a way to leave a legacy to your loved ones without increasing their tax burden has always been a complicated matter. And, unfortunately for those planning to …

Preparing yourself for these potential pitfalls can help ensure that you’re able to afford the life you want after you retire. Everyone considers, at one time or another, what it would be like to know the future—optimistic that knowing would enable them to make good decisions and avoid common pitfalls along the way. In retirement planning, this is especially true. …