Do you think Americans are saving more money or less money in the time of Covid? We’ll tell you what analysts are seeing in saving habits among Americans … Plus, there are several reasons why you could see your taxes increase under the Biden Administration.

How many times have you heard this before? it’s not what you make, it’s what you keep that counts. It’s less about the number of dollars you’ve saved, and more about strategies you use with your savings. Your money should be moving in the same direction for a singular purpose: your retirement

Financial experts say there are behavioral factors that could influence our financial decisions. Let me translate that for you: sometimes we act weird when it comes to our money!

We could be irrational and sometimes we make decisions we later regret. So, we want to talk about how our behavior could have a potential impact on our money over time, and what we can do to stop acting weird with our money.

The year is coming to an end (Hallelujah!) and now is when we often take stock on our achievements and the goals that we fell short from. Now we know Covid-19 changed our plans in 2020, but this short-term disruption shouldn’t change your long-term planning. So, if you want to do something that can help improve your finances that doesn’t require too much of your time as long as you put in the early effort – get ahead on planning your taxes.

When we were growing up, we heard about Santa’s Naughty or Nice list. Santa would write your name deciding if you’ve been Naughty or Nice. And admit it. Your behavior improved as the calendar got closer to Christmas. So today, [ADVISOR] is our Retirement Santa. What retirement scenarios could fall under Naughty or Nice? Let’s find out…

Interest rates are near record low levels. They’re so low, it may seem like you might as well just stuff your money under your mattress or stash it away in a cardboard box since it’s hardly earning anything. But a Missouri man learned the hard way that there’s another risk with stashing cash around your home – mice (literally) ate some of his savings. His bank was ultimately able to reassemble the bills so he could be reimbursed by the U. S. Mint for about $1,000.

Victor and Guy get questions each and every week about all things retirement. Let’s open our Common Sense Retirement Show mailbag and go over some common retirement questions.

Blogger Financial Samurai raised some eyebrows when he laid out some stark numbers about retirement. He wrote that in order to retire, you need to multiply your desired annual expenses by 200. So … if you do the math … planning for $40,000 per year would mean you need to accumulate $8 million for retirement. $8 million! That sounds pretty crazy. Do we really need to aim that high?