Senior Survival Skills

Ideally, all your monthly debt, including your mortgage, should amount to no more than how much your gross income? What is a W-4? Two people save money in a tax-deferred Individual Retirement Account that earns 8% annually. Person A invests $3,000 a year from age 20 to 29, but then never saves another penny. Person B starts investing $3,000 a year at age 30 and saves that same amount annually for the rest of his life. Who has more money in the account at age 65?

These are questions I didn’t think much about as a college student, but were raised at an event put on for Rockhurst seniors who are close to getting that first real job.

Interestingly, this event—“Senior Survival Skills”—was hosted by Rockhurst business students. More specifically, it was planned and run by Delta Sigma Pi and the Dean’s Student Advisory Board. With the help of moderator Professor Turner White, the students were able to bring in three senior managers from EMBARQ, Creative Planning, Inc., and Northwestern Mutual to talk about such things as health insurance, retirement plans, budgeting, and taxes; things new workers must make decisions about upon entering the workforce.

In case you were wondering, the answers to the questions leading this post: 36%, the form you fill out to tell your employer how much tax to withhold from your paycheck, and Person A. Unfortunately I am more like person B -- so I drive inexpensive cars.