Retirement Articles
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Why Grandparents Should Like 529 Savings Plans
Grandparents are contributing more to their grandkids’ educations than in the past, and the best way to do this is through a section 529 college savings plan. Even when it isn’t clear a grandchild will attend college, 529 savings plans are good estate and financial planning tools to implement. A number of factors cause grandparents […]
Best Paying Annuities Today
Annuities are a frequent topic in our monthly visits. One question I’m asked regularly is: Which annuity pays the most today? To answer that question, I turned to my annuity expert, Todd Phillips of Phillips Financial Services. Todd scoured the annuity market and prepared the tables that follow. You won’t find this information elsewhere, because […]
Overcoming Hurdles to Stretch IRAs
Making IRAs last a long time, especially for heirs, is a prime goal of many IRA owners. Hurdles stand in the way. Required mini-mum distributions after age 70½ force them to withdraw more from their IRAs each year than they need or want to. The forced distributions trigger higher income taxes. Then, the heirs can […]
Medicare Looking Better; Social Security Slightly Worse
The annual report of the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare is out. The report really is from the actuaries. It presents the financial condition of the “trust funds” based on current assumptions. The headline from the report almost always is the changes in the dates when the funds are estimated to be exhausted. In […]
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Avoiding the Fraud of Collectibles Investing
I’ve always believed that collectibles aren’t investments. Collectibles are items such as wine, art, antiques, cars, and the like. Periodically there are news reports that a particular collectible is a great investment because it has appreciated so much in recent years. There’s considerably less publicity when the price of that collectible declines are flattens out. […]
Social Security’s Low-Ball Estimates
It appears that for some reason Social Security deliberately underestimates the value of future retirement benefits. A few weeks back I came across an item that argued when SSA estimates future benefits it deliberately uses a low inflation or growth forecast. This item argues that SSA also understates the percentage of income that will be […]
More Stock Market Myths
People, especially investors, tend to believe things that aren’t true. They hear rules of thumb or assertions from others and latch on to them instead of looking at the research and thinking things through. Here’s a quick summary of seven market myths that Cullen Roche believes you should ignore. 3. You should focus either on […]
Changing Medicare
Traditional Medicare still rules the roost, and the current administration wants to keep it that way. But more and more beneficiaries prefer the Medicare Advantage alternative. When they have a choice older Americans prefer these more structured plans, often with greater benefits, than the more chaotic traditional Medicare. Read more here. Today, 30 percent of […]
