Social Security
Found 254 Articles.
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“Stealth Taxes” – How to Avoid Getting Taxed on Social Security Benefits
Have you heard of “stealth taxes?” I call them that because people often don’t know about the taxes before getting bitten by them. One of the worst stealth taxes for retirees is the income tax on Social Security retirement benefits. Some aren’t aware of the tax when they retire. Others are exempt from the tax […]
Should You Opt for Social Security Lump Sum Benefits?
Do you know there’s an option to receive up to six months of benefits in a lump sum when initiating Social Security retirement benefits? Not many people do, until they apply for benefits. While a nice option, too many people are surprised by it and don’t receive the benefit package that’s best for them because […]
Expecting Average Historic Returns
This article reports on a new survey conducted for Legg Mason. The survey says most investors expect that in the coming years they expect to earn the average long-term total return of about 8.5% from their portfolios. The article then reports that a large number of investment professionals believe that’s unrealistic and investors are setting […]
PIMCO’s Intermediate Stock Market and Economic Outlook
Every year PIMCO conducts what it calls a Secular Forum at which the firm’s staff plus invited outside speakers discuss broad economic and investment issues. At the end, PIMCO derives an outlook for the next three to five years and uses this outlook to influence investment decisions. The 2017 forum concluded a few weeks ago, […]
Worry About a Narrow Market – The Problem with Capitalization Weighted Indexes
It is the nature of capitalization-weighted indexes that a few large companies dominate the returns for the index. This becomes especially pronounced after long bullish runs. So, these days we hear a lot of talk about five to 10 stocks deceiving investors about the nature of the market. There’s some truth to that idea. But […]
The Stock Markets and Automated Trading
There’s a continuing debate about the role of technology in stock market movements. Many blamed the extent of the 1987 crash on program trading that kept triggering more selling as the previous sales pushed down market prices. In the latest episode, Paul Tudor Jones, a famous and successful hedge fund manager, said that forced trading […]
Why Investment Returns Should Decline
A number of investment firms have argued that investment returns, especially stock returns will be below the long-term averages over the next 10 years. The main reason is that Federal Reserve policies after the financial crisis artificially boosted stock returns the last few years. Here’s another argument for lower investment returns over time. This argument […]
The Cut in Social Security Benefits
The full retirement age for Social Security rose to 66 a few years ago. Going forward, it is going to increase steadily for new retirees. This article explains how an increase in the full retirement age is a benefit reduction for most retirees. It also provides some basic background on Social Security, such as how […]
