Economic Status: This 43-year-old man has worked at the FDA for 15 years. He makes $82,000 a year, has saved $130,000 in a government retirement plan and has more than $3,000 in checking and savings accounts. His wife is a stay-at-home mother to their two children - ages seven and three.
Financial Considerations: Planning for retirement, saving for college education, and paying all of the bills, as the sole breadwinner.
Goals: Focus on retirement first, says Linda Stratton of Stratton Advisors in Arizona. There are student loans and other assistance plans to help students with college tuition, she says, but "there's no program to help you pay for retirement." He can retire with more than one million dollars in 20 years, says Stratton by maximizing contributions to his Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the federal employee's 401(k). Put about $4,000 a year into low-cost Roth IRA as part of his retirement ...
