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Retirement Investing

Bob Carlson offers his expert opinion on where to invest your money so that you can get through retirement safely and securely

Found 845 Articles.
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The New Rules for 529 College Savings Plans & K-12 Tuition

February 4, 2019

The last tax reform law provided a tool that’s such a good way to help pay for a family member’s education… Many states are worried it will break their budgets! You’re probably familiar with 529 college savings plans. These are sort of like Roth IRAs for college savings. They were created in the 1990s, and […]

Bob’s Journal 1/31/2019

January 31, 2019

Most investors are focused on U.S. markets, but this is a good time to take a look at emerging markets. While U.S. markets were outpacing the world from the second half of 2016 through the first three quarters of 2018, emerging markets lumbered through another bear market during much of that time. We sold our […]

Will the Fed Pause Too Late to Help the Economy?

January 24, 2019

The Fed will continue to tighten monetary policy, the economy will continue to slow and earnings growth will continue to decline. The real question is, “By how much?” I warned last spring that we were in the late stage of the economic cycle, and for  several months have said we’re past peak growth. Investors began […]

Bob’s Journal for 1/24/19

January 24, 2019

Is all the bad news reflected in the markets, or are the markets still too optimistic? It is early in earnings season, and we’ve received a mixed message so far. Last Tuesday, the stock indexes had nice rebounds following positive earnings reports from IBM, Procter & Gamble and United Technologies. The gains, however, were mostly […]

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How to Invest Your Cash Today

January 23, 2019

For the first time in years, investors have some reasonable choices for investing their cash. The Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary policies following the financial crisis kept interest rates on traditional cash investments near zero. Investors either had to accept these low rates or take more risk to earn higher yields on their cash. The situation […]

6 Ways You Can End the Confusion, Inconvenience of RMDs

January 23, 2019

IRA required minimum distributions (RMDs) mess up the financial plans of many IRA owners and create a new set of problems for them. But you can overcome these problems. While the tax code requires IRA owners to begin minimum annual distributions after age 70½, most IRA owners don’t need the money to pay their living […]

Bob’s Journal Update for 1/17

January 17, 2019

We’ll soon know if the recent rally in the markets will continue, because fourth-quarter earnings reports are being rolled out. Most markets had a dismal fourth quarter of 2018. But markets turned a corner after Christmas and the subsequent rallies are impressive. While the S&P 500 still is down 4.28% for the last three months, […]

How to Generate Guaranteed Lifetime Income (Second Social Security Check)

January 11, 2019

Lifetime income security is what everyone wants in retirement, but it is increasingly a challenge to achieve. Low interest rates and investment returns, longer life spans, inflation, long-term care expense, medical expenses, higher taxes and more are major obstacles to achieving financial security in retirement. Everyone wants what I call the “Second Social Security Check.” […]

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