Skimm Money: Retirement, Financial Stress, and Tax Credits for Homeowners

Get answers straight from the career and finance pros.

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How do I know how much money I’ll need to save for retirement?

FEATURED EXPERT:

Kathy Entwistle

Certified financial planner and founder of The Money Date Box

Follow these steps: 1. Determine how many years you plan to live in retirement. Hint: It’s probably better to estimate more years rather than less. Let's use 30 years as an example. 2. Now, in today’s dollars, how much do you anticipate needing to spend per month in retirement? Let's estimate $5,000 per month in today's dollars. 3. Multiply that number by 12 to get your annual spending ($60,000 in our example), and 4. Multiply that number by 30 years to get the total retirement funds needed ($1,800,000 in this case) to cover you for all 30 years. 

That may be a scary number. Just remember you may have other sources of retirement income to help reduce what you need to save. Do you have a pension or an estimate of your social security? That will reduce the retirement funds you need to save. Let's say social security is $40,000 per year and your pension or retirement account generates $15,000 per year. Now you just need to come up with the difference. In our example, that’s $5,000 per year. Now consider how old you are and how many years you have to save. These are all important components in the equation to success. 

An inside look at how women are building wealth.

The money stories everyone’s talking about.

Feeling stressed about your finances?

It might be less about your bank account balance and more about your social media feed. 

If you gave your home an upgrade last year…

You could be eligible for these tax credits.

How much do prospective homebuyers need to earn to afford a house in this market?

Much more than they did before the pandemic, according to Zillow.

Which generation will likely be the richest soon? 

Millennials.

How to win at work, according to successful women.

Jamie Kern Lima is an entrepreneur and a cofounder of IT Cosmetics, which she started in her living room and eventually sold to L'Oréal for $1.2 billion. But before all that, she was a waitress at Denny’s. Lima is proof that anything is possible with grit, determination, belief, and self-worth, and she’s sharing the lessons she’s learned along the way in her new book, “Worthy.” Here, Lima discusses her go-to advice on anything your workday can throw at you.

Advice for what to do when you…

Feel stuck...

Become obsessed with building self-worth. We’re so often stuck because, deep down inside, we don’t actually believe we’re worthy of going for the thing or of “it” happening to us.

Want a confidence boost…

We often think we need more confidence, but what we often actually need is more self-worth. Our self-worth, or the deep knowing that we are worthy of love and belonging exactly as we are, is the one thing that changes everything. And we cannot chase success to increase our level of self-worth. In life, relationships, and our careers, we don’t become what we want, we become what we believe we’re worthy of. When you raise your self-worth, it changes everything.

Need to prep for an important meeting…

Make your intention about something greater than yourself, and fear goes away. 

Are nearing burnout…

Ask yourself if it’s a choice you’re making and if you want to make a different one. 

Need to focus...

Close every window on your screen except one, and turn all alerts off. Or think of your 90-year-old self and ask her what she would care about at this moment. 

theSkimm helps you tackle your to-do lists, whether you're refinancing your loans or choosing a daycare for the first time. We talk to experts and real women to empower you to make decisions faster and with more confidence. Check out our guides to get started.

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