People who retire at 67 need to have banked roughly eight times their annual salary to have adequate finances for their retirement, Fidelity Investments said Wednesday.

In order to reach that level by 67, younger workers need to have saved an amount equal to their annual salary by age 35, three times their annual salary by age 45, and five times their annual salary by age 55, said Fidelity, a Boston-based financial services company whose specialties include retirement savings products.

If people have amassed an amount equal to eight times their annual salary in their final year of work, they can likely count on replacing 85-percent of their annual income for a 25-year period, according to this calculus.

Fidelity cautioned that its guidance is strictly a rule of thumb. The savings and spending habits of people vary widely, and so it is hard to devise a one-size-fits-all solution.

For retirement planning, it is useful to know approximately how much you will receive monthly from Social Security when you stop working. The Social Security Quick Calculator estimates your monthly benefit when you retire based on your age and employment earnings history. The calculator allows you to adjust for early or late retirement. The Social Security Retirement Estimator gives you an estimate of Social Security monthly benefits based on your your actual Social Security earnings record. 

Go to the Social Security Quick Calculator
Go to the Social Security Retirement Estimator 

Put a pile of money on the table before thousands of retirees from two major carmakers. Will they grab it or skip it and stick with a regular monthly check?

A group of white-collar General Motors retirees have until July 20 to decide if they want a payout of $300,000 or $500,000 or so. Some even are staring at $1 million. Some experts say offers to blue-collar retirees could be next.

The trade-off is that if they take the lump sum, they'll give up a steady, monthly check. “The downside is you can run out of money,” says Marilyn Capelli Dimitroff, president of Capelli Financial Services.

A lump sum might offer some individuals more flexibility — and certainly being able to roll over $300,000 or more into your own IRA sounds attractive. But it's not something for everyone — and the uproar among auto salaried retirees from the two carmakers shows that people aren't exactly comfortable with a choice.

GM and Ford Motor want to unload billions of dollars in pension obligations — and the automakers are presenting pension buyouts or changes to about 216,000 retirees, surviving spouses and some former white-collar employees

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.66% from 3.71% last week. It's the lowest rate since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

The average rate on the 15-year mortgage, a popular refinancing option, declined to 2.95%. That's down from 2.98% last week and just above the record 2.94% of two weeks ago.

If you work for a hospital, school, college or non-profit, they may offer a 403b retirement plan.  A 403b is very similar to a 401k plan and has the same contibution limits, often they do have higher fees and have annuities as investment options.  Make sure and exaimine the investments they offer:

These teacher-retirement plans often limit their offerings to insurance products, such as annuities, and they charge much higher fees than 401(k)s. But the biggest difference is the way 403(b) plans are sold. Instead of a menu of funds -- with easy access to information about fees and perform­ance -- many school systems just hand out a list of sales reps. 

Some hospitals and colleges match 403(b) contributions, but most K-12 public schools do not. If your employer matches your 403(b) contributions, invest at least enough to get the full match -- that's free money. But before you put all your retirement money into a 403(b), do a little digging:

Compare investment choices and fees. The range can be huge. Some plans have fees as high as 2.42% per year -- for the investments and annuity charge -- and have a surrender charge if you cash out before eight years.   But others, such as Vanguard, may offer a target-date fund (a diversified portfolio that gradually gets more conservative as your retirement date draws near) with a 0.20% fee and no surrender charge. TIAA-CREF charges from 0.42% to 0.92% for its funds, and 50 cents on a $10,000 account for its annuity expenses, with no surrender charge.

Kiplinger Offers 403b Tips

The folks at PBS have a new website.

 Next Avenue is a virtual ‘life coach' for Baby Boomers, informing, inspiring, engaging and connecting the nation's largest segment of the adult population. It will also challenge them to see the opportunities life holds after 45,” said Next Avenue CEO Jim Pagliarini. “We intend for Next Avenue to be a truly interactive venture, designed not merely to entertain and inform but to provoke thought and action. And we plan to provide a rich arena for user-generated content, feedback and interaction.” 

PBS Next Avenue

"Wow..a lot of great information"...Wise Owl

AARP provides some helpful information:

Under Social Security law, when a person who has worked and paid Social Security taxes dies, certain members of that person's family may be eligible for survivor benefits based on the earnings records of their deceased spouses. Benefits also go to many children of deceased workers.

Below is a partial list of who may be eligible to receive survivor benefits. Please be aware that the rules are complicated and the best source for personal information is Social Security at 1-800-772-1213 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Widows and widowers

• Widows and widowers who have reached full retirement age generally receive 100 percent of the spouse's benefit.
• They can take reduced survivor benefits as early as age 60-- or age 50 if disabled.
• If they are under full retirement age, they receive about 71.5 to 99 percent of the worker's benefit.
• They can receive benefits at any age if they take care of the deceased's child if the child is under age 16 or disabled. The individual caring for the child receives 75 percent of the worker's benefit.

As public investments go, this one looked like a roll of the dice.

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) wanted a big win, so it put $100 million into the buyout of a Las Vegas gaming company called Station Casinos.

The company went bankrupt, and like many an unlucky jackpot-chaser, the state’s largest pension fund walked away a loser. More than $99 million of Texas teachers’ retirement money had vanished

TRS is the nation’s fifth-largest public pension provider, with current assets of $110 billion. It serves 1.3 million public education employees, about one-fourth of whom are retired.

Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest 401(k) administrator, said the average balance among its nearly 12 million accountholders was $74,600 at the end of March. That's up from $69,100 at the end of 2011.

Fidelity's 401(k) participants set aside an average $5,810 through paycheck deductions for the 12-month period ended March 31, and employers kicked an additional $3,360. Both numbers are slightly higher than they were a year ago.

The Roth is coming to the Thrift Savings Plan.

The Roth TSP feature will give federal government employees greater flexibility in the tax treatment of their accounts. Roth contributions are tax-free when withdrawn; their earnings are also tax-free when withdrawn (as long as certain IRS requirements are met). Participants should check with their agencies or services to find out when they will be ready to participate in the Roth TSP.