Retirement planning becomes a little more complicated when you are a married couple as there will be double the financial considerations to be made and your values and priorities may diverge at a period of time in the future and all of these can affect your retirement plan. It is very important that you identify a retirement calculator that enables you to account for each of you as individual beings.
Some questions that you may have in mind:
A good retirement calculator should allow you to input information of you and your partner separately. Topics like age, birth date, current income, and gender provides an estimate of the lifespan of the individual and helps to calculate the retirement income.
How a retirement calculator actually helps?
A retirement calculator can in fact help you to have a important talk about your investments in a systematized and undemonstrative way. The good calculators will ask you essential questions and escort you through the process. Some retirement calculators allow you to save your data so that you can easily log in and look over the results and then improvise your plan by editing.
A goal must be set!
Before planning, it is important for you to have a goal in mind. For example, after retirement, you would wish to live in a new place or spend your time doing something that you love, how much money you would wish to spend, how much money you would keep aside to tackle the healthcare expenses, etc. This type of goal must be set as a couple and not as an individual.
Some concerns
Retirement planning involves more than money and your lifestyle decisions which can have an impact on the health of your investment. It is beneficial to use calculators that help you assess your social security and consider factors like age, healthcare decisions, etc.
Married couples have higher benefits in terms of social security than people who are single wage earners. Another important thing to remember is that these calculators are mainly introduced to you as self-help tools, only to ease your retirement income estimation process. Their applicability and accuracy are generally not guaranteed by any organization. Effective retirement planning can be done with the help of retirement calculators along with financial experts who can help you develop a customized plan that fits your situation. Choose a calculator and plan your future financial output for days after retirement.
There are companies that work on collecting and maintaining credit information of consumers. These are known as credit reporting agencies (CRAs). There are three such major CRAs in the country, namely Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Apart from these, there are other smaller-scale agencies too that specialize at the job. If you’re worried about “where to get my credit score?,” the larger CRAs are the most reliable bets.
These major CRAs obtain information from companies that you hold business and transactions with. People or companies that lend you money regularly report to these CRAs on your repaying status. There is also detailed information on the amount you are indebted and whether you have ever defaulted on your payments. Aside from the reports obtained from lenders, these companies also tally your general records based on certain other aspects. Some of these aspects are your public records from the local and state judiciary. These include your tax records and bankruptcy information. This information makes up an important chunk of your credit score and its report.
Equifax
Present in 24 countries, Equifax is an agency that offers consumers protection against identity theft and credit fraudulence. They also sell credit reports and credit monitoring assistance to businesses.
Experian
Experian started off in London and is now a trusted agency in 39 different countries. It provides you with a credit score, credit report, and even credit tracker on subscription. The agency uses FICO 8 system of credit score calculation. Experian was a part of Forbes’ “World’s Most Innovative Companies” in 2018.
TransUnion
Based across 30 countries with a database of over 1 billion consumers, TransUnion is another CRA giant. The agency, like the other ones, will provide you with your credit score and your credit reports. In case you decide to freeze your TransUnion credit report, it will also go the extra mile to notify Equifax and Experian, which frankly is a big help especially in case of identity theft and credit fraud.
So, the next time you are sat wondering “where to get my credit score?,” think of these three giants that provide you with an annual credit score and credit report for free once each year. However, if you are looking for more frequent updates, you can subscribe to their services and receive your monthly updates.
Did you know that you have more than a single credit score? Agencies calculate your credit score based on the data in your credit reports. If you are wondering, “where to get my credit score?,” there are three main credit reporting agencies. These can have different credit scores for you if your information on each of their credit reports is different. Also, these agencies charge a fee to reveal your credit score.
Recently, it has become easier to track and get hold of your credit score without paying any fees. You can get it from your credit card company, your loan provider, and even from a non-profit counselor. Here are a few tips you can use to check your score.