Retirement Planning
Bob Carlson shares miscellaneous advice on retirement and related topics
Found 29 Articles.
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Sell or Rent the Old Home?
When you no longer plan to use a house, is it better to sell or rent that residence or second home? The question faces many retirees, and even many pre-retirees. Of course, not everyone has this choice. They need to sell the former residence or second home in order to buy the new house and […]
The Rising Cost of Retirement
The standard retirement planning advice is to plan on spending 65% to 85% of your pre-retirement income each year of retirement. Unfortunately, that is a fallacy. Following that advice could diminish your retirement. Proof is in the latest Retirement Replacement Ratio Study, sponsored by Aon, a financial services company, and conducted by professors at Georgia […]
How to Beat Higher Property Taxes
Real estate values are climbing, and local property taxes are soaring with them. If the real estate tax rate stays the same and your home appreciates, your real estate tax bill rises at the same rate as the appreciation. In my recent trip to Naples, Fla., I learned that the prices of most residences there […]
Owner-Employees Dodged a Bullet
Owners of small corporations had their personal financial planning saved by a recent Supreme Court decision. A federal appeals court had ruled that an owner of an incorporated small business was an employer and not an employee. Therefore, the owner was not eligible to participate in the pension plan. The case came up in a […]
7 Action Steps to Rebuild Your Retirement Plan
A Retirement plan is a work in progress. You begin the plan with certain assumptions about your spending, inflation, taxes, investment returns, and other factors. Reality won’t match your assumptions as the years roll on. That’s why every few years, the plan needs to be adjusted. Once you are in or near retirement, you should […]