South Shore Retirement Services Blog

Explore why the traditional 4% rule might not suit modern retirement needs and discover alternative strategies that might help your financial future.

Discover how to help protect and potentially grow your retirement savings even when financial markets are unpredictable.

Understanding Market Volatility and Retirement Funds

As you edge closer to retirement, understanding the nature of market volatility becomes imperative. Market fluctuations are a normal...

Death is a harsh reality of life. It’s the worst part of my line of work. Unfortunately, since I’ve been doing this for a long time, I’ve had a number of clients who became good friends pass away. It’s awful. It’s hard. And it’s unavoidable. The least we can do is help make that transition as smooth as...

Questions. Retirement is chockful of questions and knowing the right ones to ask is half the battle. Also of importance: knowing where to turn, whom to trust, and when to act (and how). It can be daunting, to say the least.

As time marches on, I can’t help but think of our lives at the end of 2020. We were all in semi-lockdown planning for a bizarre holiday season. While our global timeout had more than its share of drawbacks, it also provided us with a merciful sneak peek of what our retirement could be, and an opportunity to...

In a time when everyone is an “expert,” it’s hard to distinguish between fact and fiction.

Opinions can be helpful, but when they are delivered as fact, that’s when things get dangerous. 

When we’re in our 20s and 30s, and even 40s, we’re not exactly captivated by visions of our retirement years. We prefer to spend our money and time planning our next vacation. But one day, maybe around 50, you’re on vacation, relaxing on some tropical beach somewhere, and Louis Armstrong is crooning in the...

It may sound hard to believe, but I frequently help clients find money that they didn’t know existed (or just plain forgot about.) The majority of this “found money” is sitting in retirement plans with former employers. And, not surprisingly, these former employers aren’t going to beat down your door to...

Saving for retirement is hard enough but practicing proper tax-efficient strategies—before and after retirement—is just as important. 

A common financial misconception in the world is that only people with loads of money need a financial advisor. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. While getting a professional’s advice is important in any field, it’s especially relevant when it comes to your financial well-being and confidence. For...

Every year on the coldest day of winter, I get a call from a group of clients in Florida. This flock of “snowbirds” (retirees who migrate south for the winter) gleefully calls to report they’re enjoying afternoon cocktails at a tiki bar, while I’m trying to keep warm in frosty New England. 

We’re all familiar with the idea of “milestone birthdays.” In your younger years, you look forward to finally becoming a teenager at 13, getting your license at sweet 16, or (in America) toasting turning 21 with a glass of champagne. Once you get beyond 21, however, the milestone birthdays are less varied...

I was recently chatting with a friend about the pros and cons of moving to more tax-friendly states upon retirement. She wanted to know which state was the most popular with my relocating clients and what prompted them to move. Now, I’ve been in this business for almost 25 years and I can say for certain...

It’s no secret that in the last six months we’ve noticed a significant hit to our budgets by way of inflation. The annual inflation rate for 2021 spiked to 7% in December from the same month a year earlier, the fastest climb we’ve seen in the last 40 years. You didn’t even need to read the headlines to know...

After the chaos of the pandemic, most of us are eager for normalcy to return to our lives and getting back to the routine of seeing our families, having dinner with friends, traveling, etc. But as many companies return to the office or rollout plans to return soon, some workers are saying “not so much.”...