Kailey Hagen

3 weeks ago | fool.com | Kailey Hagen

Early retirement is appealing because it gives you more years to spend your time the way you want rather than being chained to a desk. But it also means you need a lot more money if you want to live comfortably. That's not always easy to pull off on your own. It leaves many early retirees wondering if they're better off applying for Social Security now so they can get help covering their expenses earlier or if they should hold out in the hope of maximizing their lifetime benefit.

3 weeks ago | fool.com | Kailey Hagen

Several reasons may prompt you to consider retiring abroad. Maybe you want a different climate or a chance to experience a different culture. Maybe you hope to travel to all the cities you never got a chance to visit when you were younger. Or maybe you hope that by moving elsewhere, you'll be able to stretch the savings you have a little bit further. That last one is more common than you think.

3 weeks ago | fool.com | Kailey Hagen

Though it's hard to believe, we're nearly halfway through 2025. You may have let your New Year's resolution to save more for retirement fall by the wayside, but it's OK. You've still got time to turn things around. Making regular contributions to your retirement account is key, but you also need to stay aware of changes that affect how your accounts work and how much you can contribute.

3 weeks ago | fool.com | Kailey Hagen

If you don't want to spend the next several decades tied to a desk, you might find the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement appealing. The whole idea is to save aggressively while you're young so you can build up a large nest egg and retire much earlier than the average person -- sometimes even in your 30s or 40s. But as the FIRE movement has grown, it's also come to mean different things to different people.

3 weeks ago | fool.com | Kailey Hagen

You may already know that the government bases your Social Security benefit on the income you've paid Social Security taxes on throughout your career. Generally speaking, the more you earn during your working years, the larger your benefit is in retirement. But that doesn't mean billionaires are raking in multimillion-dollar Social Security checks. A ceiling limits how much the wealthiest Americans receive from the program, and it's lower than you might imagine.