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

Retirement planning: What happens after saving? | Forbes
For most of us, retirement is something we dream about for many decades. And hopefully, we accompany those dreaming years with the discipline to save as much as we can for when the time finally arrives. But no matter how large our investment portfolio may be when it’s time to retire, there’s one additional step we should possibly consider: holding on to the budgeting approach that may have worked so well during our working years.

This growing problem threatens to delay your retirement | CNBC
Americans today are more likely to reach retirement in debt than ever before. That’s the takeaway from a new study that appeared last month in the American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings. The researchers compared debt levels among different generations when they were between the ages of 56 and 61 to learn how the financial standing of people bracing to exit the workforce has changed over time, and how much the Great Recession is to blame.

Not prepared for retirement? Here’s a solution: Don’t retire | Bloomberg
Lots of people around the world aren’t prepared for retirement, as Suzanne Woolley of Bloomberg News ably explained recently. There’s one obvious solution to that problem: Postpone your retirement. A recent academic study called The Power of Working Longer, cited in The New York Times, finds that working just three to six months longer can raise your retirement income as much as increasing your savings by 1 percent every year for the last 30 years of your career.

Your retirement may be saved by a side hustle | Washington Post
For those heading into retirement or already retired, a side hustle in the gig economy may just be what you need to boost your savings. In the “gig economy,” people work as freelancers, contractors or temps. Often the paychecks are steady and retirement benefits don’t come with the gig. Yet, it’s this way of working that can help boost an anemic retirement account or increase the income of a retiree. By 2020, more than 40 percent of the workforce will consist of people working in the gig economy, according to a report from Intuit.

Reality check: Here’s what the average retiree spends every month | MarketWatch
The gray-haired couple sipping champagne on a beach at sunset. Grandpa teaching the grandkids how to fish at the family lake house. Are these scenes of carefree times in retirement based on financial reality? According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which is based on 2016 figures, “older households” — defined as those run by someone 65 and older — spend an average of $45,756 a year, or roughly $3,800 a month. That’s about $1,000 less than the monthly average spent by all U.S. households combined.

Looking to retire abroad? How to choose a location | TD Ameritrade
Do you dream of living in that cute little mountain town you visited on a trip to Tuscany, or perhaps spending your retirement on the beaches of the Caribbean or Bali? While some Americans may think about retiring to a place like Florida — one of the top places to retire in the U.S. — some of the best places to retire aren’t in the U.S. at all. In fact, some of the most affordable places to retire are abroad.