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

Your retirement under President Trump | Bloomberg

As a candidate, Donald Trump barely mentioned America’s retirement crisis. As president, he will have enormous power over the issue, bolstered by Republican control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. From Social Security to rules impacting financial advisors to new proposals to reform 401(k)s, there are many ways Trump’s presidency could influence your retirement.

I knew it was responsible to plan for my old age. So why did I keep crying? | STAT

A woman of a certain age, fearful of growing old and dying alone, had taken every ounce of courage to acknowledge that she wouldn’t be able to live on her own forever. But it was the responsible thing to do.

We have a retirement savings problem. Politicians can help. | The New York Times

It should be easier to save for retirement. But about half of all Americans who work in the private sector do not have access to an employer-based retirement plan like a 401(k). Federal legislation to increase those numbers has not amounted to much. A requirement that employers siphon money out of every employee’s paycheck and put it into a retirement savings plan (unless the worker opts out) would both promote self-reliance and create a foundation for a safety net.

You risk a ragged retirement if you’re counting on these numbers | Bloomberg

If you’re relying blindly on hallowed personal finance averages – planning for 40 years of work, saving 15 percent of salary – you could be in for a rocky retirement. Retirement advice is made to be tailored to our needs and the times. People often sit down to figure out how much they will need and assume they’ll spend 40 years in the workforce, from age 25 to age 65, more or less. That’s an outdated assumption, and women in particular need to look out.

Why your 401(k) fees aren’t lower | The Wall Street Journal

With investing, avoiding mistakes often wins the day. If you cut fees to the bone, avoid complicated products and stick to a basic asset allocation through thick and thin, you’ll do better than most. Happily, it’s getting easier to take that simple approach. But low fees aren’t commonly associated with the go-to investment vehicle for millions of Americans – the 401(k) retirement plan. Indeed, 401(k)s and their menus of funds are so complex that employees investing in them incur administrative, record-keeping and adviser fees. [Read about PERA’s low-cost supplemental savings 401(k) and 457 plans.]

Wyoming retirement education on point | Squared Away Blog

Wyoming government has brought some 535 employees of the state’s executive, legislative and judicial branches into its retirement savings plan since July 2015 under a new policy of automatically enrolling each new hire. They are free to withdraw from the plan at any time, but only 15 of the 535 have done so. This technique, borrowed from behavioral economics, addresses the inertia that prevents many people from ever signing up to save in their employer’s plan. So why wait for them to join? Instead, Wyoming uses inertia to benefit state workers: when people are automatically enrolled, research shows, they tend to stay put and save. [Read more about behavioral finance and how inertia can help – or hurt – your retirement savings.]