A digest of timely information and insight about finance, investing, and retirement.

Five things you must do before you retire | CNN Money
If you’re looking forward to retirement, you’re not alone. Countless workers dream of leaving their jobs behind and enjoying the freedom of unstructured days. But before you pull the trigger on retirement, be sure to tackle five critical steps so you don’t come to regret your decision later on.

A decade after the financial crisis, this retirement dilemma still hasn’t been solved | CNBC
When it comes to how individual investors have fared since the financial crisis, it’s still largely a tale of the haves and have-nots. To see evidence of this, look no further than where individuals are when it comes to the biggest financial goal of all: retirement. As news of 401(k) plan millionaires hits the headlines, other individuals are still left picking up the pieces after the last decade’s precipitous market drop decimated their nest egg or a job loss led to them to raid their retirement funds.

Many savers missing out on the HSA’s benefits for retirement | CBS MoneyWatch
One of the best places to accumulate assets for retirement is a health savings account, or HSA. But many Americans aren’t getting the message. HSA account holders have accumulated over $51 billion in these special saving plans – a 20.4 percent increase since last year. And the number of HSAs has grown over 11 percent, totaling 23.4 million accounts, according to the 2018 Midyear Devenir HSA Market Survey. But most people use their HSA as a pass-through and are getting only the advantage of a tax-free way to pay for out-of-pocket medical costs. So they are missing out on these accounts’ most valuable feature: tax-free growth of invested HSA assets over long periods of time.

Even people with pensions work into their retirement years | MarketWatch
Having guaranteed income for retirement in the form of a pension is a dream for many workers, but workers may still change jobs or prolong their working years before they retire. Transitioning into retirement — the actual act of moving away from the workforce — isn’t all that different among public and private sector workers. Even though many public workers get guaranteed income in the form of a pension during retirement, they still tend to take another job or reduce their hours to part-time before fully embracing retirement. Private workers, on the other hand, similarly work into their retirement years, though they may not have the option if they haven’t saved enough for their retirement.

The 25 best cities for retirement | BenefitNews
There might be one fairly simple and smart way to ensure employees have enough money in retirement: Relocating to a city that has a lower cost of living and can stretch post-career savings. WalletHub, an online personal finance site, researched the Best & Worst Places to Retire by comparing 46metrics across more than 180 cities, including cost of health care, affordability, things to do and quality of life. (Spoiler: Denver is #4!)

Study: Social Security doesn’t stretch far in Colorado | Denver Post
Social Security recipients collect $1,295 a month on average, but that payment won’t cover basic living costs in any state, including Colorado, according to a survey from HowMuch.net and GoBankingRates. That monthly payment covers only 36.3 percent of basic living costs in Colorado, ranking the state 11th worst for coming up short. Hawaii, California, Massachusetts, Alaska and New York are the toughest states for those trying to get buy on just Social Security, while Arkansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi are where payments go the furthest.