Reitrement Roundup: A digest of timely information and insight about finance, investing, and retirement

The retirement risk that no one wants to talk about | Time-Money

For Americans heading into retirement, the main focus is on building up enough savings to last a lifetime. But there’s another major risk to plan for: cognitive decline later in life. More than half of older Americans develop cognitive impairment or dementia by their late 80s, according to a new report by Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research.

Trump has signed an order that could roll back a rule intended to protect Main Street’s retirement money | Business Insider

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on the Obama administration’s landmark retirement savings rule, setting in motion a potential repeal of a recently passed standard that would have made it harder for financial advisers to give conflicted advice.

The so-called fiduciary rule, which is slated to go into effect in April and will likely now be delayed, requires advisers to put their clients’ interests ahead of theirs. The rule has long drawn rebuke from Wall Streeters and some of those who are close to Trump.

Read more about the fiduciary rule.

Visualizing retirement goals will help in reaching them | USA Today

Visualizing a goal is key to accomplishing it. But visualizing retirement as day off after day off for 30 years is difficult. An image of sitting on an airplane with a one-way ticket and an ink-filled ticket is easier to see. Visualization isn’t like dreaming about winning the lottery – it should inform action. Paying off a house, funding health care, and creating a specific income retirement stream are specific goals that a technique like visualization can help achieve. It might all sound cheesy, but the alternative seems miserable.

Retirees have limited control over health care inflation | PlanSponsor

A new analysis out from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) suggests projected savings targets needed to cover health care in retirement went up last year, after several decades of decline. Health care cost projections for retirees indicate major challenges ahead, but they are actually generally lower than they were five years ago, EBRI explains.

EBRI’s analysis does not factor in the savings needed to cover such things as long-term care expenses, retirement earlier than becoming eligible for Medicare, and higher Medicare premiums related to higher income, meaning that many individuals will need more than the amounts cited in their report.

Pension plans in peril | The Washington Post

For an increasing number of retirees in the private and public sector, the pension guarantee – that earning a benefit will provide a steady stream of income in retirement – is in jeopardy. A lot of pension plans are in peril.

How to save America’s broken retirement system, according to the man who revolutionized investing for Main Street | Business Insider

America is facing a retirement crisis. Over the past few decades, employers have slowly shifted responsibility for saving to employees rather than managing money directly for them and guaranteeing a payout in retirement. Many Americans don’t know how much they need to save or the best ways to go about it. And about 60 percent of Americans have no savings in retirement accounts like 401(k)s or IRAs, according to a 2016 government study.

John C. Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, which transformed investing after it introduced the world’s first index fund in 1976, says the US retirement problem isn’t just related to the types of investing available to Americans – it’s also structural.