A refrain that best describes estate planning is that it’s not about the years you have left, it’s about the years you have lived. As an AT&T employee or retiree, you’ve likely earned a variety of valuable retirement benefits, such as your AT&T pension and your 401(k) savings. Although thinking about life after you’re gone can be difficult, it becomes easier when you reframe it as planning how to successfully manage all you’ve worked hard for.
If all goes according to plan. Those are the rose-colored words people commonly say when they think they’ve got retirement fully covered. If all goes according to plan, I’m all set for retirement. They are often spoken by people who expect to retire with a sizeable pension or some kind of financial windfall, such as from selling a business.
A steak dinner and guaranteed money for life. Who could say no? As AT&T employees near retirement age, they are often invited to seminars – dinner included! – to learn about something that can supposedly allay all their retirement fears. That something is annuities.
According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s latest Retirement Confidence Survey, two-thirds of workers are confident they have enough to live comfortably in retirement. The same number of workers surveyed are confident they are doing a good job saving for retirement and know how much they will need. But, only four in 10 workers have actually tried to calculate how much they need, which can be a costly mistake.
Planning for retirement doesn’t come naturally. It is very much an educational process. So, how can AT&T employees get a head start on learning what it takes to retire from AT&T? We’ve created this A-to-Z glossary to share with you the most important pieces of information that have helped our clients retire from AT&T.
What would happen to your loved ones – spouse, kids, etc. – if you passed away at this very moment?
Contrary to popular belief, early retirement is relatively common. According to a Transamerica survey, 56% of retirees said they retired earlier than planned. (Early retirement is defined as age 55 or younger.)
With a 30+-year history of helping AT&T employees, we consider ourselves experts on all things related to AT&T’s retirement benefits. We even wrote the book on it! Every week, people from across the country contact us with questions about retiring from the company.
According to internal documents obtained by the online magazine Motherboard, AT&T is preparing for a significant round of layoffs in the coming months. I hope the company can retain as many jobs as possible and provide employees that are impacted with enough time and resources for an easy transition. Unfortunately, companies rarely give employees much advance notice. So, what should you do if you find yourself suddenly laid off?
A common mistake we see when helping AT&T employees plan for the future is an excessive amount of their retirement savings invested in AT&T stock. While it can be rewarding to own a share of a respected company like AT&T, it is risky from a retirement planning perspective.
