Popular onchain analyst Willy Woo has predicted a potential bitcoin price surge to $650,000 at the bull market’s peak. His prediction hinges on spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors fully deploying their assets based on recommendations from asset managers. “These are very conservative numbers. Bitcoin will beat gold cap when ETFs have completed their role,” […]
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With $1 million in a 401(k) and no mortgage on a $500,000 home, retirement at 60 may, in fact, be possible. However, retiring before eligibility for Social Security and Medicare mean relying more on savings. So deciding to retire at 60 calls for careful planning around healthcare, taxes and more. At any age, deciding whether you can retire comes down to weighing your assets against your expenses.
Do you have questions about retirement planning? Speak with a financial advisor today.
The first step in deciding if you can retire at 60 is understanding your financial situation. Important factors include your assets like retirement accounts, other savings and home equity. Your expenses also matter, from basics like housing and food to discretionary costs for travel. Comparing your income sources to your costs reveals whether you need to adjust your savings rate or can retire comfortably.
It’s also key to understand how retirement age affects your future income and expenses. For instance, you aren’t eligible for Social Security until age 62. Also, while you can technically claim benefits at 62, waiting until your full retirement age of 67 or even until 70, boosts your monthly benefit significantly.
Retirement age also can greatly affect healthcare costs. That’s because retiring before 65 means paying for five years of private health insurance until Medicare eligibility.
American workers typically retire around ages 64-67. Retiring early at 60 requires diligent preparation, but isn’t impossible. First, understand the rules around retirement accounts.
With a 401(k), you can take penalty-free withdrawals starting at age 55 if you leave your employer. However, you’ll still owe income tax on withdrawals. It’s wise to delay drawing down retirement savings as long as possible, so your investments keep growing.
Second, realize you’ll need to self-fund healthcare until Medicare at 65. In turn, you’ll need to budget for five years of individual coverage or COBRA. If you have health issues, delaying retirement to keep work-based insurance may be safest.
Third, while you can claim Social Security at 62, your benefit will be permanently reduced versus waiting. If you delay until your full retirement age, your check will be approximately 30% higher. Waiting until 70 maximizes it even further to 132%. If you can afford to wait, many experts recommend doing so.
If you have a mortgage, consider paying it off before retiring at 60. If you’ve paid off your home, that’s one less expense to worry about after you’re living on a fixed income, notes Alec F. Root, CFA and research analyst at DBR & CO.
“Generally speaking, it is not imperative to pay off your mortgage in full before retirement, but it does make a difference,” Root said to SmartAsset. “The primary reason is that if you own your home outright, then you are eliminating an annual expense of $30,000 to 40,000 or more during retirement. Without this expense, there is less need to draw from your assets and/or income sources, which helps preserve your assets over the duration of your retirement.”
A hypothetical example can show how all this might work. Consider a married couple, both 55 years old, with $1 million in 401(k) accounts and a paid-off $500,000 home. They make $150,000 a year combined and spend $80,000 annually. They have 10 years until age 65 and Medicare eligibility, but would like to retire by age 60.
Using the 4% withdrawal rule, a common guideline, their $1 million 401(k) could safely provide $40,000 income annually before taxes. They could cover the resulting $40,000 shortfall by increasing their withdrawal rate to 8%. This would, however, increase the chances they’d run out of money in retirement.
Two years after retirement, at age 62, they could claim Social Security benefits. Assuming they each received the average benefit of about $1,800 monthly, their combined Social Security benefit would be $43,200. They could then reduce their 401(k) withdrawal to the 4% safe rate or slightly below.
They’d need to budget carefully for healthcare, likely buying an individual policy costing $1,000 per month for them both until Medicare eligibility at 65. Taxes will also take part of their income from withdrawals and Social Security, but early retirement appears feasible with their assets. They could also trim spending or earn income from part-time work.
Every individual retirement plan is different. Strategies for deciding if you can plan to retire early include:
No matter how well laid out your early retirement plan is, risks remain. For instance, retirement costs may exceed projections due to inflation or healthcare needs. Another possibility is that an extended period of underperformance could jeopardize portfolio sustainability. Surprise costs, such as unexpected home repairs, can strain budgets, Root notes.
“Some of the major costs to budget for after paying off a home include general maintenance and repairs, larger projects such as a new roof or new floors, or a bathroom or kitchen renovation, and property taxes,” he said.
While retiring at 60 takes diligent preparation, for some it can become reality. The key is understanding your income sources, estimating expenses accurately and planning for risks like healthcare costs pre-Medicare. Paying off your home before retirement also helps.
A financial advisor can help you build a retirement plan for the future. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
Photo credit: ©iStock.com/jacoblund, ©iStock.com/zamrznutitonovi
The post My Wife and I Have $1 Million in a 401(k) and Fully Own a $500k Home. Can I Retire in 5 Years at 60? appeared first on SmartReads by SmartAsset.
A deep dive into Bitcoin’s issuance reveals a fascinating trend as the next Bitcoin halving event approaches.
The current monthly issuance of Bitcoin stands at 27,000 BTC, calculated from 900 Bitcoin mined each day over 30 days. An analysis of various cohorts, along with exchanges and miners, unveils a significant absorption of this supply.
Indeed, the balance of the 27,000 BTC is being consumed overwhelmingly. The past month’s data shows ‘Shrimps’ accumulating 25,000 BTC and ‘Crabs’ by 2,265 BTC,
‘Fish’ decreased by 3,000 BTC, ‘Sharks’ by 37,000 BTC, ‘Whales’ by 18,800 BTC, and ‘Super Whales’ by 11,140 BTC.
Meanwhile, exchanges saw a balance decrease of 9,136 BTC, seen as a bullish sign, and miners increased their balance by 3,075 BTC. In total, these cohorts absorbed roughly 103,000 BTC.
With the impending halving event, the monthly Bitcoin supply will drop to 13,500 BTC. Assuming constant demand, this reduction in supply could trigger a bullish turn in the market—an event that may not yet be fully priced in.
The post Bitcoin supply absorption by various cohorts suggests impending halving event not fully priced in appeared first on CryptoSlate.
A year and a half after Ukraine was invaded by Russia, 84% of the nation’s companies are fully operational, according to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
The survey, conducted jointly with Chamber of Commerce member Citi Ukraine found that the remaining 16% of companies continue to operate partially. Some 72% of respondents gave an upbeat forecast on their companies’ financial health at the end of 2023, with 45% saying they will achieve planned financial results and 27% saying they will achieve more than was planned. Some 22% say they will fail to achieve planned financial results.
Respondents cited the safety and security of staff as the number one challenge to doing business over the next six months. Other key challenges are Russia’s missile attacks on vital infrastructure and business assets, employees’ health and mental well-being, economic and consumer recession, and access to electricity, water, mobile network, or heat supply.
Related: How Ukraine is planning to recover with help from Western companies
Some 127 CEOs and top managers of the chamber’s member companies took part in the survey, which was conducted between Sept. 6 and Sept. 15, 2023. Some 70% of the respondents are CEOs.
According to the respondents, the biggest opportunity to attract foreign direct investment in Ukraine is uncertainty that the country can win. Other opportunities cited were country-wide rebuilding and recovery; E.U. accession; public-private partnerships to attract funds and state programs to stimulate investments; and security guarantees or insurance for investments. In terms of sectors, companies said they see opportunities for foreign investment are security and defense, infrastructure and construction, agriculture, IT and technologies, energy and renewables, and high-tech production.
The respondents said that the most helpful services and products for companies to attract more investment in their industries post-war are demining, IT and digital solutions, infrastructure and logistics, financial services, manufacturing and construction.
Related: ‘Ukraine is open for business’: Western companies urged to be part of country’s recovery
“Ukraine is open for business, and we are getting this message across globally, as Ukraine creates opportunities that no ambitious investors should miss,” Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said in a statement.
The 600-plus members of the chamber include Boeing Co.
BA,
Cisco Systems Inc.
CSCO,
Citigroup Inc.
C,
Coca-Cola Co.
KO,
Delta Air Lines Inc.
DAL,
Alphabet Inc.’s
GOOG,
GOOGL,
Google, International Business Machines Corp.
IBM,
Lockheed Martin Corp.
LMT,
McDonald’s Corp.
MCD,
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
, Oracle Corp.
ORCL,
PepsiCo Inc.
PEP,
and Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
Ukraine’s GDP fell by 30.4% in 2022, according to the country’s Ministry of Economy.
Related: Unilever CEO vows to look at Russian operations with ‘fresh eyes’ as pressure to exit the country mounts
In March, the government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations reported that the estimated cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine has grown to $411 billion. Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery cost is 2.6 times the country’s estimated 2022 gross domestic product, according to those organizations.
Earlier this year Nestlé
NESN,
announced a $42.8 million investment in a new production site in Ukraine’s Volyn region. The investment will expand the Swiss food giant’s production of vermicelli and other food products in Ukraine.
In March consumer goods giant Unilever
UNA,
announced that it will invest €20million [equivalent to $21.4 million] in a new production facility in the Kyiv region. The factory, which will create around 100 jobs and manufacture personal care products, is expected to open in 2024.
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With its services now fully authorized in El Salvador, Binance has achieved its 18th regulatory approval, solidifying its position as the exchange with the most licenses and registrations worldwide.
Binance has achieved the status of being a fully licensed crypto exchange in El Salvador, thereby adding to the number of countries where it is operating under proper regulatory oversight.
The Central Reserve Bank has granted the exchange the Bitcoin Services Provider (BSP) license, along with a non-provisional Digital Assets Services Provider (DASP) License from the National Commission of Digital Assets.
Commenting on the achievement of getting a license in El Salvador, Min Lin, Head of Latin America at Binance, said:
“We are honored to have been granted this license, as Binance continues to collaborate with regulatory agencies worldwide to uphold global standards for the crypto and blockchain industry. This announcement follows months of dedicated effort from our team to provide comprehensive information and complete the necessary due diligence required by the agencies. This showcases our unwavering commitment to the Salvadoran market and our users.”
Binance is diligently pursuing regulatory licenses and permissions across various regions around the world. This approach enables the company to effectively cater to the unique needs of its customers in different parts of the globe. With its services now authorized in El Salvador, the exchange has achieved its 18th regulatory approval, solidifying its position as the exchange with the most licenses and registrations worldwide.
Daniel Acosta, Binance’s General Manager for Colombia, Central America, and the Caribbean, acknowledged the significance of the license in enhancing Binance’s ability to offer tailored services to clients. He stated:
“These licenses empower Binance to expand its range of products and services, including options customized to meet the requirements of our customers in El Salvador. Furthermore, this presents an excellent opportunity to work closely with government authorities to promote the adoption of crypto assets within the country, foster financial inclusion and innovation, and ensure customer protection.”
El Salvador has consistently displayed a positive outlook toward the crypto industry. In 2021, it made history by becoming the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Additionally, regulations were established concerning the issuance of other cryptocurrencies by both state and private entities.
The country also initiated the practice of acquiring 1 BTC per day starting in September 2021. As of April, reports indicated that El Salvador held more than 2,546 BTC. While the daily Bitcoin purchase news surprised many and raised questions about the project’s viability for the country, it did not deter the government’s faith in Bitcoin.
In April, Bitfinex also announced its status as a fully regulated digital asset exchange in El Salvador, having obtained the DASP license.
These and many more are pointers to the country’s belief in cryptocurrency projects and services.
next
Temitope is a writer with more than four years of experience writing across various niches. He has a special interest in the fintech and blockchain spaces and enjoy writing articles in those areas. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in linguistics. When not writing, he trades forex and plays video games.
More than 480 days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, 84% of the companies surveyed by the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine are fully operational.
The survey, which was conducted jointly with member company Ernst & Young Ukraine, found that 49% of respondents reported damage to factories, facilities, storehouses or offices as a result of Russia’s invasion. The research also found that 19% of members reported having some of their assets in areas under Russian occupation.
Some 56% of respondents said that all of their companies’ employees are safe. However, 32% of companies surveyed said employees had been killed and 27% said employees had been injured in the war.
Related: ‘Ukraine is open for business’: Western companies urged to be part of country’s recovery
Some 102 representatives of members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine participated in the survey. The 600-plus members of the chamber include Boeing Co.
BA,
Cisco Systems Inc.
CSCO,
Citigroup Inc.
C,
Coca-Cola Co.
KO,
Delta Air Lines Inc.
DAL,
Alphabet Inc.’s
GOOGL,
GOOG,
Google, International Business Machines Corp.
IBM,
Lockheed Martin Corp.
LMT,
McDonald’s Corp.
MCD,
Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
Oracle Corp.
ORCL,
PepsiCo Inc.
PEP,
and Pfizer Inc.
PFE,
The research also found that only 15% of respondents are currently considering requesting compensation from Russia for direct physical damage or lost profits as a result of the war, while 53% do not plan to request compensation and 32% have not decided yet.
“The majority of businesses in Ukraine don’t plan to make claims for war damages until proper compensation mechanisms are in place,” said Andy Hunder, president of the chamber. “It is important to have these clear mechanisms developed and eventually implemented.”
Related: Ukraine will still defeat Russia, even with a winter energy shortage, say members of Kyiv-based American Chamber of Commerce
In March, the government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations reported that the estimated cost of reconstruction and recovery in Ukraine has grown to $411 billion. Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery cost is 2.6 times the country’s estimated 2022 gross domestic product, according to those organizations.
Trends come and go but the latest craze to take Wall Street by storm is proving quite persistent. AI hype has been all the rage this year and stocks with exposure to generative AI and LLMs (large language models) have been reaping the benefits.
So much so, that Wall Street’s best analyst thinks it’s time to change tune on many of them. Surveying the SemiCap space, Needham analyst Quinn Bolton is confronted by a plethora of names boasting lofty valuations with little room left to run from here.
“With SemiCap stocks up meaningfully on the AI hype but with AI unlikely to drive a significant increase in WFE spending, we believe many SemiCap stocks are overbought in the near-term,” the 5-star analyst said. “In our opinion, investors will need to look out to 2025 and 2026 and the next WFE up cycle to determine if there is enough earnings power in the upturn to justify buying the stocks at current levels.”
Given the above, Bolton has downgraded the ratings of several SemiCap stocks. That said, not all SemiCap stocks are priced to perfection. Bolton, who boasts a 72% success rate on his stock recommendations and an average return of 39%, currently occupies the top spot amongst the Street’s analysts, so it’s fair to say he has a feel for this game. And he thinks two SemiCap equities, in particular, are still ripe for the picking. Let’s take a closer look.
ACM Research (ACMR)
The first stock we’ll look at is ACM Research, a leader in the advanced technology and manufacturing tools required by the chip industry in the production of silicon wafers. This is a deeper level of an essential industry, and ACM Research has lines of tools for wet processing, electrochemical plating, stress-free polishing, and other vital chip manufacturing processes. Put simply, the companies making the chips that power AI systems couldn’t even begin their work without ACM’s tools.
In addition to the high-tech tools, ACM Research also offers solid customer support, which is maintained through the lifetime of the company’s equipment products. ACM Research will help its customers install its machines, and then work with them to optimize systems and forestall problems, avoiding bottlenecks in chip production. The company’s support activities include software, apps, and spare parts and service, no matter where the customer is located.
The demand for silicon semiconductor chips has been beneficial for ACM Research, which is clearly visible in the company’s last quarterly report for 1Q23. At the top line, ACMR showed revenues of $74.26 million, marking a 76% year-over-year increase and surpassing the forecast by over $5.5 million. The firm’s bottom line earnings, of 15 cents per share by non-GAAP measures, came in 16 cents per share ahead of expectations. The company also stuck to its revenue guide for fiscal year 2023, calling for sales in the range between $515 million to $585 million. The consensus estimate was $540.58 million.
Quinn Bolton likes this company’s balance sheet, as he noted in his recent review of the shares. Setting up his stance on ACMR, he wrote: “As the fastest growing SemiCap stock in our coverage with ~$400MM in cash and very little debt, we believe a 12.5x multiple is more than fair. The stock is currently receiving little attention from investors due to its high-exposure to China. However, we believe this ACMR sentiment will change over time as its growth proves too difficult to ignore.”
Looking ahead, Bolton goes on to rate ACMR as a Buy, with an $18 price target implying a one-year upside potential of 59%.
Like Bolton, other analysts also take a bullish approach. ACMR’s Strong Buy consensus rating breaks down into 5 Buys and zero Holds or Sells. Given the $21.30 average price target, the upside potential lands at 86%. (See ACMR stock forecast)
Cohu, Inc. (COHU)
The second of Bolton’s picks that we’re looking at is Cohu, a leading producer of test and inspection equipment used in chip fabrication lines. The products offered by Cohu play a vital role in ensuring meticulous quality control throughout the chip manufacturing process.
Cohu has established itself as a key player in the chip-testing niche, with a broad portfolio of test equipment and services designed to meet the needs of backend semiconductor manufacturers. The company describes itself as a ‘one-stop shop’ for a wide range of testing solutions, including handling equipment, thermal subsystems, and vision inspection & metrology.
The company doesn’t stop with chip makers, however. Cohu has solidified its presence in the high-tech testing business by expanding its offerings, with test and quality control equipment for IoT, industrial & medical, mobility, automotive, computing & network, and consumer product applications. The company has come a long way from its 1947 founding.
Cohu’s last financial release, however, for 1Q23, showed some mixed results. The company’s revenue was down 9.3% y/y, to $179.37 million, and missed the forecast by $0.92 million. Cohu’s non-GAAP gross margin was up, however, from 46.1% in 1Q22 to 48.2% in 1Q23. This helped the bottom-line performance, as adj. EPS of $0.56 beat the forecast by $0.02.
The positive metrics attracted Bolton’s attention, and he wrote of the stock: “Cohu’s NG GM is showing resiliency even at a lower revenue level, and we continue to believe a strong GM will help support shares near current levels. Robust recurring revenue, expanding manufacturing in the Philippines, higher handler margins, and mix is enabling strong GM. Elevated costs had a 29bps impact on GM and will continue through 2023.”
“Notably,” the top analyst went on to add, “COHU received a multi-unit $5MM SiC order for test automation and inspection. COHU believes SiC will make up ~2.5% of sales in 2023. However, we believe COHU’s near and long-term opportunity in SiC is currently underappreciated. We expect COHU’s SiC revenue to grow faster than the top-line in coming years.”
Taking this optimistic stance forward, Bolton gives COHU stock a Buy rating and sets a $52 price target, indicating confidence in a 29% upside on the one-year time horizon.
Overall, the Wall Street consensus on COHU is a Strong Buy, based on 4 analyst reviews including 3 Buys and 1 Hold. The shares are selling for $40.12, and the average price target of $42.75 implies a one-year upside of 6.5% for the stock. (See COHU stock forecast)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
Members of Generation X may be getting close to retirement age, but they’re apparently not giving it too much thought. Only 19% of those in that cohort, who are now about 43 to 58 years old, think they will ever fully retire in the old-fashioned way that involves leaving their jobs and enjoying their golden years, according to a new survey from Prudential Financial.
So what are the other more than 80% planning to do? They are pretty evenly split between those who say they will keep working at least part time, basically forever, and those who say they haven’t thought about retirement yet. Only 2% say they intend to keep working because they like what they do and want to keep at it.
“Do you even call that retirement? I don’t know if that actually qualifies,” says Rob Falzon, vice chair of Prudential Financial, who oversaw the survey.
But the fact that so many Gen Xers plan to keep working could be seen as good news for this group. If they work longer, they may eventually save more — and with other recent retirement surveys showing that most Americans don’t have enough money saved for retirement, it’s likely many of them will need to do just that.
The 2023 Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that 1 in 5 Americans had less than $1,000 in savings and that retirement confidence had dropped by the most since 2008. Most of that drop is attributed to younger workers rather than older ones. But the Prudential survey found that 18% of Gen Xers had nothing at all saved for retirement, and 35% had less than $10,000.
On the other end of the spectrum, EBRI found that 36% have more than $250,000 saved, although that’s heavily skewed toward those who have access to workplace savings plans.
Generation X has had some bad luck when it comes to saving for retirement. It also often gets overlooked in data because it is much smaller than the enormous baby boomer generation that preceded it and the even more massive millennial generation that follows it.
“We have historically seen that older retirees are more confident. Millennials and Gen Xers are the least confident and the most concerned,” says Lisa Greenwald, chief executive of Greenwald Research, which worked on the EBRI report.
Most members of Generation X do not have access to pensions or other guaranteed income in retirement, yet they are also too old to have benefited from advances like automatic enrollment in workplace 401(k) plans and automatic increases in their contributions. Gen Xers also don’t expect to inherit much. Most of the massive $70 trillion wealth transfer that experts say is on the horizon is expected to flow from boomer parents to their millennial children.
Add to that the precarious future of Social Security, which is projected to run out of funds to pay full benefits when the oldest Gen Xers turn 69, and you have a potential disaster in the making.
“They received no education and have no concept of what amount of assets they would need on their own. They don’t know how to do that basic math,” says Falzon of Gen Xers. “By and large, they are not well prepared.”
For those who have fallen behind, working longer is one way to bolster savings — and even for those who have never participated in a workplace 401(k) plan, if they keep working, they are likely to contribute to one at some point, according to EBRI. “The group we worry about the most are those who have access to a retirement plan but do not participate,” says Craig Copeland, EBRI’s director of wealth benefits research. “They’re having more issues with debt. But over the long run, working gives them continued access to saving, which makes them more likely to end up in the confidence bucket.”
Another bright spot for Generation X is homeownership. Falzon says this age group has a large amount of equity built up in their homes. So while they might be short on invested retirement savings, they could potentially make up some ground later on by tapping into the value of their homes — even if the Prudential survey found that most Gen Xers don’t plan to do that yet.
“Home equity is a primary savings route for older generations. I imagine Generation X has less than baby boomers right now, but it’s still meaningful numbers,” says Falzon. “So things are not as bad as you might think.”