Worried about retirement? Online calculators can help

Q: Can you recommend any online retirement calculators?

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A: Mountaineers plan to scale Mount Everest. Runners train for a marathon. But for investors, retirement is the big long term goal.

Few financial goals are more important than making sure you have enough money when you are elderly. Do the math wrong and you might wind up eating dog food when you're 90 years old. But not only is calculating how much you need to retire very important, it's extraordinarily complex. There are many variables that go into measuring how much you need to retire.

Making things even more complicated is the fact your retirement will likely span several decades. Not only do you have to make sure you have enough when you retire at age 65 you also don't want the money to run out, even if you're retired for 30 or more years. You must plan for tremendous economic disruptions, given that your portfolio may be invested for more than 30 years.

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  STORY:How much money is really enough to retire on?

  
  


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  STORY:4 tips to help plan for retirement health care costs

  
  


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  MORE:Ask Matt column index

  
  

Don't, though, let the enormity of the task of retirement planning scare you into inaction. There are a number of useful online retirement that can help you start to think through all the variables that go into retirement planning.

Let's be clear. None of the online retirement planning calculators are perfect. It's a bad idea to take the results of just one online calculator and consider that to be the magic number. It's a good idea to run your numbers through several of these calculators and compare and contrast the results. By evaluating the results of several calculators, you will get a good idea of what your plan should be. If you still feel uncertain, you might want to meet with a professional financial planner who might be able to work through your individual situation in more detail.

With all that said, a few of the online retirement calculators worth checking out include:

•T. Rowe Price's Retirement Income Calculator. T. Rowe's retirement calculator takes you through all the key areas when it comes to retirement. You indicate the basics like your age and how much you've saved so far. You can then enter how much you're saving each year and indicate how much your employer is helping you save. Next, you input into the calculator how you're invested right now, by telling the calculator how much of your portfolio is in bonds and how much in stocks. You can also indicate if you expect to receive any Social Security benefits, or not.

After entering all the information, the site steps you through a presentation of how you're looking for retirement and if you have enough. If your plan works, good for you. If not, you can then tweak the assumptions until it does.

•Fidelity retirement tools. Fidelity provides a series of four retirement centers on its site, depending on whether you're looking to plan for retirement, getting back on track for planning for retirement, gearing up for your retirement or trying to make your money last through retirement. All these tools are available at Fidelity's Retirement Planning, Guidance, and Tools site.

Fidelity's myPlan Snapshot tool asks just five questions to help you see how retirement is going. You tell the tool how old you are, how much you earn a year, how much you've saved so far and your monthly savings and investment style. The tool then gives you a basic estimate of how much you need to save. Fidelity also offers a tool that helps you design a financial plan that will help you reach multiple financial goals, including retirement.

•Mint.com.Mint.com is best known for helping people track how much they're spending and monitor their financial accounts. But the site also offers a useful retirement planning tool in its "Goals" section. The "Save for Retirement" tool asks you your age, retirement age goal, annual income wanted in retirement and investment style. The tool then gives you a ballpark figure on how much you need to retire. You can then use the site to help you budget money so you can reach your goal. Mint.com is free to use, but you must register first.

•Choose to Save Ballpark Estimate. This tool from the Employee Benefit Research Institute attempts to incorporate several variables you might overlook, including your inflation expectations and any income you might get from pensions.

•USATODAY.com personal financial calculators. USATODAY.com provides a variety of financial tools, including some to help you plan for retirement. All the tools are available at calculators.usatoday.com.

One of the tools in the Retirement pulldown is a Retirement Planner calculator. It requires you to enter your age and other financial basics about yourself. But this tool is useful because you can estimate what you think your investment returns will be ahead of retirement and also in retirement.

But again, as good as some of these tools are, don't rely on just one for something as important as retirement. Use them all and then size up the results next to each other. Doing this should give you a good idea of what you'll need.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies and Fundamental Analysis for Dummies. He answers a different reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, e-mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at: twitter.com/mattkrantz

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Nick's new 'Monkey Quest' offers fab online romp for kids

Savvy online kids may be ditching their penguin waddle for a monkey jump.

• 

  Nickelodeon, Gannett

  
  

  Kids may want to swing over to "Monkey Quest," Nickelodeon's new massively multiplayer online game, MMO, for kids. It looks and plays like a console-quality game, no easy task in the world of MMOs.

Nickelodeon, Gannett

Kids may want to swing over to "Monkey Quest," Nickelodeon's new massively multiplayer online game, MMO, for kids. It looks and plays like a console-quality game, no easy task in the world of MMOs.

As kids tire of "Club Penguin," they may want to swing over to "Monkey Quest," Nickelodeon's new massively multiplayer online game (MMO) for kids, which launched on April 2.

"Monkey Quest" is an outstanding online game, in part because it looks and plays like a console-quality game — no easy task in the world of MMOs. Kids will experience "Mario"-type game play as they go on side-scrolling platform adventures.

For parents who are unfamiliar with MMOs, these are online games where a player enters as an avatar and interacts with other players' avatars which are visible on the screen along with yours. There are also other non-player characters (NPCs) that populate these worlds and provide guidance and help. Most MMOs are quest-based, and "Monkey Quest" is no exception. But what is so clever about MMOs is that the game can manage thousands of kids playing at the same time, each with their own avatar and set of goals.

Kids enter the free online world of "Monkey Quest" by creating a monkey avatar. Whether your primate is fuchsia, turquoise or brown, it is all up to you.

You'll discover that your monkey lives in the World of Ook, a magical place with many different habitats ranging from lush rainforests to floating islands in the sky to cold snowy mountains. This world was once ruled by the all-powerful Monkey King, but he disappeared after defeating the evil Shadow Master Ka and his invading minions of Shadow Creatures. Ook is now run by five Monkey Tribes.

The problem is that evil Shadow Creatures are starting to reappear in this world. You are tasked with eliminating this evil and making this world safe again.

As you run, jump and swing from vine to vine, you will encounter NPCs who offer you quests. Quests can vary greatly, but most can be classified into search and find, craft or create, or fight evil creatures. For example, you may be tasked with traveling to a specific destination to check out a rumor of a purple shard. Another quest might involve collecting enough bananas (the currency of this world) to buy a recipe to make a special hat to protect your head and then finding those ingredients.

You have some choice about which of the hundreds of quests you want to take on, and they vary in regard to what you'll earn once you have completed them. All offer you "experience points," which make you a stronger monkey. As you accumulate experience points, you gain rank in terms of a level designation. As you move up in levels, more equipment, protective clothing, special supplies (like healing potions) and weapons (slingshots, magical fire blasters, etc.) become available to you.

Cleverly, the quests tie into the ongoing story line about an evil growing in this world. When you encounter some evil creatures, you will need to become invisible. Luckily, you can earn an Invisibility Sphere on one of your quests that will do the trick. And depending on what route you take through the story and with which Monkey Tribes you align, you can grow your powers for stealth or your abilities to fight.

Some of the quests require that you team up with up to three others. It is easy to reach out to other monkey avatars around you to form a team. And the game builds in fun, silly things to do with others, including using another's head as a trampoline.

"Monkey Quest" is an exciting, funny and intriguing world to explore. Displayed in 3-D, the game gives you the ability to play in both the foreground and the background of this world. As you quest to the many cities, highways and trails, you will run, jump, swim, glide and slide through this vast world. Portals provide an easy way to transport your monkey over long distances.

This is a game made with children in mind. The chat between kids can limited to drop down messages or, if parents allow, live chat that is filtered and monitored. While the monkeys can be attacked by the shadow monsters or natural predators, combat is very cartoony and your monkey never dies. You may run out of juice and have to be revived, but if so, you simply return to a nearby checkpoint. Plus, the game provides you with lots of help, including arrows showing you the way, and a backpack full of useful things like your inventory, your quest log, a map and a friends' log.

While it is possible to play this game for free, some of the deeper content costs money. Families wanting to explore the premium game have two choices: pay a monthly fee of $9.95 per month or invest in Nick Cash and buy-as-you-go.

This is a great game for families to explore together. It gives them the ability to jointly enter a visually rich environment, solve puzzles as a team, become heroes and save the world together.

Score: 4 stars (out of 4)

Rating: E (mild cartoon violence)

Best for ages 8 and up

Publisher: Nickelodeon, www.monkeyquest.com

Platform: Win/Mac

Price: Free, with premium content costing $9.95 per month, $24.95 for 3 months, or $79.95 per year.

Gudmundsen is the editor of Computing With Kids magazine. Contact her at C1Tech@gannett.com.

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Nick's new 'Monkey Quest' offers fab online romp for kids

Savvy online kids may be ditching their penguin waddle for a monkey jump.

• 

  Nickelodeon, Gannett

  
  

  Kids may want to swing over to "Monkey Quest," Nickelodeon's new massively multiplayer online game, MMO, for kids. It looks and plays like a console-quality game, no easy task in the world of MMOs.

Nickelodeon, Gannett

Kids may want to swing over to "Monkey Quest," Nickelodeon's new massively multiplayer online game, MMO, for kids. It looks and plays like a console-quality game, no easy task in the world of MMOs.

As kids tire of "Club Penguin," they may want to swing over to "Monkey Quest," Nickelodeon's new massively multiplayer online game (MMO) for kids, which launched on April 2.

"Monkey Quest" is an outstanding online game, in part because it looks and plays like a console-quality game — no easy task in the world of MMOs. Kids will experience "Mario"-type game play as they go on side-scrolling platform adventures.

For parents who are unfamiliar with MMOs, these are online games where a player enters as an avatar and interacts with other players' avatars which are visible on the screen along with yours. There are also other non-player characters (NPCs) that populate these worlds and provide guidance and help. Most MMOs are quest-based, and "Monkey Quest" is no exception. But what is so clever about MMOs is that the game can manage thousands of kids playing at the same time, each with their own avatar and set of goals.

Kids enter the free online world of "Monkey Quest" by creating a monkey avatar. Whether your primate is fuchsia, turquoise or brown, it is all up to you.

You'll discover that your monkey lives in the World of Ook, a magical place with many different habitats ranging from lush rainforests to floating islands in the sky to cold snowy mountains. This world was once ruled by the all-powerful Monkey King, but he disappeared after defeating the evil Shadow Master Ka and his invading minions of Shadow Creatures. Ook is now run by five Monkey Tribes.

The problem is that evil Shadow Creatures are starting to reappear in this world. You are tasked with eliminating this evil and making this world safe again.

As you run, jump and swing from vine to vine, you will encounter NPCs who offer you quests. Quests can vary greatly, but most can be classified into search and find, craft or create, or fight evil creatures. For example, you may be tasked with traveling to a specific destination to check out a rumor of a purple shard. Another quest might involve collecting enough bananas (the currency of this world) to buy a recipe to make a special hat to protect your head and then finding those ingredients.

You have some choice about which of the hundreds of quests you want to take on, and they vary in regard to what you'll earn once you have completed them. All offer you "experience points," which make you a stronger monkey. As you accumulate experience points, you gain rank in terms of a level designation. As you move up in levels, more equipment, protective clothing, special supplies (like healing potions) and weapons (slingshots, magical fire blasters, etc.) become available to you.

Cleverly, the quests tie into the ongoing story line about an evil growing in this world. When you encounter some evil creatures, you will need to become invisible. Luckily, you can earn an Invisibility Sphere on one of your quests that will do the trick. And depending on what route you take through the story and with which Monkey Tribes you align, you can grow your powers for stealth or your abilities to fight.

Some of the quests require that you team up with up to three others. It is easy to reach out to other monkey avatars around you to form a team. And the game builds in fun, silly things to do with others, including using another's head as a trampoline.

"Monkey Quest" is an exciting, funny and intriguing world to explore. Displayed in 3-D, the game gives you the ability to play in both the foreground and the background of this world. As you quest to the many cities, highways and trails, you will run, jump, swim, glide and slide through this vast world. Portals provide an easy way to transport your monkey over long distances.

This is a game made with children in mind. The chat between kids can limited to drop down messages or, if parents allow, live chat that is filtered and monitored. While the monkeys can be attacked by the shadow monsters or natural predators, combat is very cartoony and your monkey never dies. You may run out of juice and have to be revived, but if so, you simply return to a nearby checkpoint. Plus, the game provides you with lots of help, including arrows showing you the way, and a backpack full of useful things like your inventory, your quest log, a map and a friends' log.

While it is possible to play this game for free, some of the deeper content costs money. Families wanting to explore the premium game have two choices: pay a monthly fee of $9.95 per month or invest in Nick Cash and buy-as-you-go.

This is a great game for families to explore together. It gives them the ability to jointly enter a visually rich environment, solve puzzles as a team, become heroes and save the world together.

Score: 4 stars (out of 4)

Rating: E (mild cartoon violence)

Best for ages 8 and up

Publisher: Nickelodeon, www.monkeyquest.com

Platform: Win/Mac

Price: Free, with premium content costing $9.95 per month, $24.95 for 3 months, or $79.95 per year.

Gudmundsen is the editor of Computing With Kids magazine. Contact her at C1Tech@gannett.com.

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Take control of your online reputation

Your age and marital status. Your home's value and your estimated annual income. Intimate details of your social life.

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  By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

  
  

  The LinkedIn logo.

By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

The LinkedIn logo.

Stalkers, nosy neighbors and potential employers can find this data and more. All it takes is a quick Web search.

As more of your life moves online, you need to manage your online reputation. Foil stalkers and snoops by limiting the available information. At the same time, you want to present your best side to employers and business associates.

This isn't easy. With a little know-how and persistence, you can do it. Find direct links to sites mentioned at www.komando.com/news.

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  STORY: Tech tips from Ask Kim

  
  

Remove unflattering and sensitive information

The first step is to see what information is available. Start with Google, Yahoo and Bing. Search for variations of your name; if you have a common name, add qualifiers like your city. Results near the top matter the most. However, unflattering details may appear on subsequent pages. Make a list of content to change or remove. Make a second list of content to promote.

Next, list online accounts you no longer use. Old dating profiles and social-networking pages can come back to haunt you. Privacy rules for these sites can also change. Close old accounts.

Your data also appears on people search sites and online databases. This is trickier to remove and often reveals sensitive financial details. These sites pull data from public records; they'll sell a complete file on you to anyone with cash. Each has different removal instructions; you must request removal from each site individually.

Requesting removal won't necessarily keep your data safe. Many sites make it difficult or impossible to remove data. Because this information comes from public records, it may reappear later.

I've posted a list of data brokers and people search sites at www.komando.com/news. You'll also find removal instructions for big sites like Spokeo and MyLife.

You should also review your Facebook account. Limit sensitive information like your full birth date and home address to close friends and family. Remove or hide embarrassing posts.

There's a chance that unflattering information may appear on other sites. This can prove difficult to remove, particularly if it is factually correct. Your best bet is to write the site owner a polite letter making your case. Be sure to highlight any inaccuracies.

If the posts seem intentionally malicious, contact Google. In some cases, it removes links from searches. You may also consider contacting an attorney.

Promote the positive

It can take weeks to clean up your online reputation. Simply trying to remove data may not do enough. You may need to create content to push down unflattering search results. This gives you the ability to control what people see.

Several things will help. Create a profile on Linked In highlighting your professional accomplishments. Create a Google Profile. Use it to direct people to information you want them to see. Link to positive stories about you. Include links to other carefully selected sites.

Start a free blog with Blogger or WordPress. Cover your personal or professional interests and showcase your abilities. Others online will likely have your same name. This can be potentially embarrassing. In that case, create a post with links to others that share your name. It's a direct way to distinguish yourself.

Finally, you may not be able to control your online reputation yourself. Fortunately, there are companies that can help. Reputation.com and Reputation Hawk specialize in online reputation management. Prices start at around $100 and can run into the thousands.

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Kim Komando hosts the nation's largest talk radio show about computers and the Internet. To get the podcast or find the station nearest you, visit: www.komando.com/listen. To subscribe to Kim's free e-mail newsletters, sign up at: www.komando.com/newsletters. Contact her at C1Tech@gannett.com.

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