Retirement

Hidekazu Yokoyama has spent three decades building a thriving logistics business on Japan’s snowy northern island of Hokkaido, an area that provides much of the country’s milk. Last year, he decided to give it all away. It was a radical solution for a problem that has become increasingly common in Japan, the world’s grayest society.

The Secure 2.0 Act provides for direct government contributions to retirement accounts for low- and moderate-income workers, though that won’t start until 2027. Gig economy workers lag behind those with traditional jobs in saving for retirement, but parts of a new federal law can help them catch up. Nontraditional workers — like contractors, freelancers and

Across East Asia, populations are graying faster than anywhere else in the world, and while younger generations shrink, older workers are often toiling well into their 70s and beyond. TOKYO — All Yoshihito Oonami wants to do is retire and give his worn body a rest. Instead, every morning at 1:30, Mr. Oonami, 73, wakes

The offspring of many East Asian immigrants are raised to support their elders in their later years. That gives a segment of Americans challenges others don’t face. A few months ago, I texted my mother to let her know that I had paid her electric bill (as I do every month), and that it was

A measure to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62 is expected to expose more people to age discrimination: “Companies in France won’t hire them.” During her 38-year career as a sales and marketing manager, Christine Jagueneau rarely thought about retirement. But when her job at a French industrial company was eliminated just before

Countries and companies are facing an aging crisis, and experts say policymakers and business leaders need to rethink how they deal with older workers. Aging workers of the world unite.Charly Triballeau/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The long-life paradox Today’s 5-year-olds have it even better than you think. In the wealthiest nations, more than half of

Most employers allow you to take funds out of your retirement account, but the withdrawals come with significant downsides. Our columnist discusses other options. Hardship withdrawals from workplace retirement accounts are edging upward — another sign, along with rising credit card debt, that Americans have been feeling financial pain from inflation. “Their budgets are stretched

Younger investors who are navigating market volatility and trying to save for retirement are finding that roboadvisers lack the personal touch. Breana Jones started investing in 2014, building up her retirement savings and putting aside money to buy a house. “I have youth on my side,” said Ms. Jones, a 32-year-old Los Angeles resident and

Several provisions in the spending bill outline new ways employers can help workers save for retirement. The federal spending package unveiled on Tuesday includes new provisions that would alter how millions of Americans save for retirement, including older people who want to stash away extra money before they stop working and those struggling under the

Want to transfer money from a 529 plan to a Roth I.R.A. or get an after-tax employee match in your Roth 401(k)? You may be in luck. The $1.7 trillion federal spending bill that President Biden is expected to sign in the coming days includes dozens of changes to retirement plans. It makes it easier

Right-wing officials are attacking BlackRock for overstepping. Those on the left say the world’s biggest asset manager is not doing enough. It was a clarion call to chief executives everywhere. In 2018, Laurence D. Fink, the longtime chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, urged corporate leaders to assess the societal impact of

If you get a raise, you may not end up in a higher tax bracket. But more of your income may be subject to Social Security taxes. And you’ll probably pay more for health care. You already know that inflation is taking a bigger and bigger bite out of your wallet. Now, it’s going to

The I.R.S. announced one of its largest increases in decades to caps on retirement contributions, allowing workers with access to the plans to save more. Americans saving for retirement through a 401(k) account will be able to increase their maximum contributions of pretax wages into it by almost 10 percent in 2023, thanks to a

Collecting the retiree benefit while earning income gets complicated. Here are some key things to remember. After a long career in marketing for an engineering firm, Jim Keller retired at 63. It wasn’t an abrupt halt — he had the opportunity to phase out of full-time work, and took some consulting gigs. Yet a little

As one of the longest-living yet lowest-earning groups in America, Hispanic women have challenges ensuring that their later years are secure. But things are changing. Before Lupita Uribe married in 2020, she told her husband-to-be that a wedding wasn’t in her future unless he was OK with two promises she had made herself. One: She

Al ser uno de los grupos más longevos pero con los ingresos más bajos en el país, las mujeres hispanas enfrentan grandes desafíos para garantizar sus últimos años. Sin embargo, las cosas están cambiando. Antes de que Lupita Uribe se casara en 2020, le dijo a su futuro esposo que una boda no estaba en

Annual automatic cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients Note: Between 1975 and 1982, beneficiaries received adjustments in July. After 1982, beneficiaries received them in January. Source: Social Security Administration By The New York Times The first automatic annual adjustment to Social Security benefits was paid in 1975, the result of legislation passed by Congress in

The labor market appears hot, but the share of people who are either working or actively looking for a job still hasn’t quite recovered. As the United States emerges from the pandemic, employers have been desperate to hire. But while demand for goods and services has rebounded, the supply of labor has fallen short, holding

Most Americans finance their retirement with a certain amount of faith: Investing will help their savings keep pace with inflation, institutions will continue to work as they always have, it will all work out in the end. It’s challenging to maintain that optimism in moments like these, when it seems just about everything is at

Women break into their savings to cover all kinds of expenses: home down payments, repairs, medical bills. That can hurt them years later. Vickie Elisa was already playing catch-up with her retirement fund when she withdrew $17,000 to fix a plumbing disaster in her Atlanta-area home. The bleeding from that Roth individual retirement account had