Retirement « Len Penzo dot Com

100 Words On: Why Tracking Your Net Worth Is So Overrated

By Len Penzo

Many people dream about reaching the million-dollar net worth milestone, as if that lofty benchmark somehow guarantees a strife-free financial life. Preposterous! Net worth — the value of your total assets minus your total liabilities — is overrated because it’s very misleading, as evidenced by many “paper millionaires” who struggle to make ends meet. Yes, net worth is a terrific indicator for estate planning, or identifying

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50 Good Personal Finance Habits Everyone Should Follow

By Len Penzo

I have a lot of bad habits. For example, I tend to bite my nails when I get stressed out. I also have a penchant for opening the cupboard to get a drinking glass — then walking away and leaving the door wide open. I know. I can’t explain it either, but it drives the Honeybee absolutely bonkers every time I do it.

Even so, I like to remind her that

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18 Fast Facts You Didn’t Know About Social Security Numbers

By Len Penzo

President Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act of 1935 in the Cabinet Room of the White House.

This weekend I was looking through the safe that holds all of my most important documents, like family birth certificates, insurance policies and the secret recipe for mom’s sauce, when I ran across my Social Security card.

Now I’ll wager that, if you poll a room full of people at a triple-keg

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If You Can’t Live on $40,000 Per Year, It’s Your Own Fault.

By Len Penzo

A couple weeks ago I shared with you ten characteristics of debt-free people of modest means.

In that article I specifically asked my readers to consider this question:

“Why is it that there are families out there with household incomes under $40,000 comfortably making ends meet and saving for retirement with no debt on the books – or at worst, a single mortgage payment – while others who make millions per year

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This article was written on September 15th, 2010 | 186 comments

10 Key Characteristics of Debt-Free People (of Modest Means)

By Len Penzo

The other day a friend and I were discussing why some people manage to live their lives in complete control of their finances, while others are constantly trying to get out of debt fast – and usually in hock up to their eyeballs no matter how much money they make.

I’ve preached that financial freedom can be achieved by anybody regardless of their income level more times than I care to
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This article was written on August 30th, 2010 | 94 comments

Walking the Walk: My $114,000 Challenge to Uncle Sam

By Len Penzo

I have been a proud, full-time, member of the American workforce since 1988.

As of the end of 2009 I have earned $1,548,291 in base salary – excluding bonuses, stock option cash-outs, and other income streams. It also excludes the money I earned working part time while I was in school.

Since 1981 when I took my first part time job as a 16-year-old kid, I have paid over $91,000 in
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This article was written on August 9th, 2010 | 44 comments

19 Things Your Suburban Millionaire Neighbor Won’t Tell You

By Len Penzo

That’s right. Although having a million bucks isn’t as impressive as it once was, it’s still nothing to sneeze at.

In fact, Reuters reports that in 2009 there were 7.8 million millionaires in the United States.

That’s a lot of people, people. And the odds are one or two of them are living near you.

Heck, one of them might even be your neighbor. In fact, the odds are very good that it
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This article was written on May 27th, 2010 | 109 comments

Retirement Savings: Why My Kids Shouldn’t Plan on Receiving an Inheritance From Me

By Len Penzo

I know. A lot of you wish you could retire now, looking for reasons to retire early.

However, before that can become reality, it’s important to understand our magic number; that magic number, of course, is the amount of money we’ll need to have accumulated by a certain age in order to not outlive our savings.

Now I am of the opinion that one can most certainly save too much for retirement.

After
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This article was written on February 23rd, 2010 | 29 comments

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