Divorce Advice for Men | Fathers Rights Divorce | Child Custody

Financial adviser Dan Danford, CFP®, CRSP®, MBA, spent 15 years advising employers how to invest their 401(k) and retirement plans.

So Danford is uniquely qualified to answer this question from a Money Made Easy viewer about what to do when dissatisfied with your 401(k) funds:

I want to shift my money to different funds within the plan. When making this decision, which do you think I should focus on more: the funds' expenses or the returns the funds have earned?

Danford explains why you should focus on expenses first, but there is an important caveat when it comes to ensuring you are comparing apples to apples with different 401(k) funds.

Question:

At the time of my divorce I was not disabled, but I now receive disability benefits and my retirement pay has thus been reduced.

My ex-wife had a clause entered in the decree stating that I could not claim disability and reduce my retired pay.

Must I pay her the money that was reduced because of my disability?

By Jennifer M. Paine

Michigan Divorce Lawyer

My previous divorce article ("Should I Stop Contributing To My Retirement Account Before Divorce?") addressed the pros and cons of contributing to your retirement account if a divorce is looming.

You need to be mindful of contributing too much, though. Do not pour every dollar into your retirement account in an effort to avoid paying alimony or child support.

The divorce court may, and often does, assume that you are upping the contributions to avoid a support obligation and will treat you as if you still have the dollars in your pocket.

By Jennifer M. Paine

Michigan Divorce Lawyer

Should I stop contributing to my retirement account since we’re getting divorced?

If this question has ever crossed your mind, don’t feel like you’re being sneaky. You’re not alone – nearly every guy who comes to a Cordell & Cordell office asks this question.

If your divorce court has not already issued an order restraining either spouse from changing retirement contributions, which many do at the outset of the case, then you do have options. If you are not yet divorcing, you have even more.

Here are three common, universal pros and cons to changing retirement contributions:

Forget rules of thumb when it comes to determining your aggressiveness in investing, according to financial adviser Dan Danford, CFP®, CRSP®, MBA.

A reader submitted a Money Made Easy question to Danford asking if the rule of thumb of limiting your stock percentage to 110 less your age makes sense if you don't want to risk giving up potential gains.

In the video below, Danford offers his reasons for ignoring that oft-used financial expression and why answers to retirement questions and portfolio diversity depend on what your retirement time horizon is.