The 4 Biggest Financial Threats to Your Retirement

If you ask most retirees what their biggest concern is about retirement, the cost of healthcare is likely to be at the top of their list. You might not realize that medical expenses are only one of several large financial stressors you can expect when you retire. If you fail to prepare for these other common threats, your retirement plan could fall apart when you least expect it.

You can't escape taxes, even once you've retired. Any taxable income that you receive from retirement savings accounts, Social Security benefits, or other sources will compel you to pay a chunk of that money to the federal government (and possibly your state as well). If you don't factor taxes into your retirement plans, you'll likely find yourself painfully short on money after you retire.

The best way to deal with the retirement tax burden is to find sources of income that won't be taxed. Since income tax rates are based on your total taxable income for the year, and higher-income taxpayers pay a higher percentage, having only a small amount of taxable income makes for big savings. And the tax status of your Social Security benefits depends on how much other taxable income you have, so that's yet another benefit to focusing on nontaxable income.

Source: Fool.com