Mutual Funds

The sandwich generation, those who are parents and also have aging parents, face many responsibilities. One of the most important may be checking that their parents are paying Medicare premiums. Here are two examples that demonstrate what can go wrong.  Bart, my friend, lives in Illinois. His parents have resided in Florida for over 20

On November 7, 2019, the IRS proposed doing something that it had not done in nearly two decades…update the life expectancy tables used to calculate required minimum distributions by IRA, 401(k), other retirement account owners and many beneficiaries. More than a year later, on November 12, 2020, the IRS finalized those changes, and released updated

It’s no secret that many pre-retirees and retirees have meager retirement resources, and they might struggle financially during their retirement. Perhaps one of today’s hottest workplace trends—the Great Resignation—offers a solution.  During the past two years, employers have been losing younger workers in droves and can’t seem to find enough interested applicants to fill their

By Harry S. Margolis, Next Avenue Beginning this year, workers in Washington state must pay 58 cents of every $100 they earn into the Washington Cares Fund to help pay their long-term care costs in the future. Those with qualifying long-term care insurance can be eligible for an exemption. Beginning in 2025, those Washington residents who have paid

By Jennifer Nelson, Next Avenue Traditional financial advice like the kind you got from your parents is often true but even experienced investors might rely on maxims that are outdated and no longer serving your financial well-being. In fact, quite the opposite, as sticking to adages like “cash is king” (money is more valuable than other

By Leida Snow, Next Avenue Midlife freelancers and entrepreneurs often get stuck wondering how to build their businesses; they might want to tune into the wisdom of marketing gurus Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk, as I did via #webcreators2021, a live Zoom event held last year. Godin, called the godfather of modern marketing, brags that he

At Wall Street’s casino, it’s heads you break even, tails you lose. “I am a recent retiree and my financial advisor recommended that I invest in structured investments that pay 8% but are risky. I am also on the investment committee of my temple and am wondering whether these would be good alternative to the

One of the high hurdles when it comes to preparing for retirement is access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Unfortunately, retirement coverage is not universal in the U.S., and only about half of workers participate in either a defined benefit plan or a 401(k) account according to the Boston College Center for Retirement Research. This

Sometimes individuals who speculate in stock are like gamblers in a casino. They tend to overinflate their wins and minimize their losses. The pain of loss may be acute, but they quickly forget all about it because they’re sure the next big win is around the corner. They believe their optimism is justified.  After all,

Over just the past few decades, the life expectancy of people with Down Syndrome (DS) has increased from less than 30 years to nearly 60. But for many, that remarkable advancement comes at a high price. As they live longer,  up to ninety percent of people with DS will have Alzheimer’s Disease. It is, in

Some Taxpayers’ Max QCDs Will Be Reduced Recall that QCDs (qualified charitable distributions) are limited to $100,000 per year? That $100,000 maximum is not available to everyone. If an individual makes deductible contributions to his or her tax-deferred IRA (individual retirement account), the max is reduced. How so? The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement

Working for a company that’s just been acquired by another firm can cause great anxiety for a lot of reasons. If you’re in this situation, you might be concerned about any number of things from losing your office to losing your job. Should you also be worried about losing your 401(k) plan? What might happen

Universal life (UL) insurance policies became popular a few decades ago, when they were touted as being more flexible and modern than traditional life insurance policies. The trouble is, they have features that need attention by policyholders as they near the end of their lives.  Another problem is that these policies were sold as tax-effective

Older Americans are doing better than they ever have, Joint Economic Committee Ranking Republican from Utah and American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Andrew Biggs asserted at a JEC hearing on economic security for seniors Wednesday. Seniors have are doing remarkably well, they have never saved more for retirement, and they are more confident about their

We made it. It’s 2022. The holiday season is over and now we have… debt? While we all get back to work to pay off our generous gifting, it is a perfect time to start thinking about ways we can better plan our budget in the new year. There are a lot of expenses that,

Your Answer Could Change the Course of Your Future – Here’s How to Make the Most of Social Security Benefits for You Most articles address the question of whether you should file for benefits early or late, and that is a great question. The focus of this article is what you need to do before you

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about how Social Security spousal benefits are calculated, whether it’s necessary to file in January to get a given year’s COLA and what effects of benefits rates not paying taxes can have. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic

It’s no surprise that divorce rates spiked during the COVID-19 crisis. Being stuck at home with a spouse made many people reevaluate their relationships. Throw in the stress of raising children, financial uncertainty and the staggering number of deaths, and it is no wonder that even more people did not get divorced. The pandemic showed

Banking decisions aren’t always front and center in wealth planning, but they should be part of the conversation. Family wealth plans are typically focused on long-term investments or complex tax strategies. Banking solutions don’t often get a lot of attention, but it is important when viewing both sides of the balance sheet and how lending

The stock market volatility in January and the first week in February this year may be causing some jittery nerves with retired investors. If you want to feel more confident that a stock market crash won’t ruin your life in retirement, it’s a good idea to develop a careful strategy for investing and drawing down

America’s largest banks echoed the U.S. economy in 2021, rebounding to a strong position following the upheaval and disruption of Covid-19 that continues to spread but with less disruptions to daily life. Coming out of pandemic shutdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the virus served as a resiliency test for the sector, the likes

In my prior article, I laid out the Illinois General Assembly’s repeated unanimous, near-unanimous or strong bipartisan majority support for a series of bills increasing pension benefits for public employees from 1989 – 2000. But what more can we learn from what the senators and representatives themselves said about the bills? Their comments are quite

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue For a look into the present, and possible future, of living to 100, meet the Rarey family, featured in the first episode of the excellent new “Century Lives” podcast series from the Stanford Center on Longevity. Patriarch Dick Rarey, who turned 100 in 2021, is a former landscape architect and WWII vet, now

By Sally Abrahms, Next Avenue Linda Helfet, 78, and her husband Bill Hilliker, 86, always thought they would grow old in their beloved Watertown, Mass., condo just outside Boston. But with one son living in Oregon and the other in Georgia, they’ve begun to worry. “What’s going to happen when either Bill or I are gone?”

In a low-bracket year you could have either a long-term gain or a Roth conversion. One will save you more money. “My wife and I plan to retire on my 65th birthday in 2025; we will delay taking Social Security until age 70.  With required distributions from IRAs beginning in 2032, we have seven years to harvest

By Erin Flynn Jay, Next Avenue Sue Ronnenkamp, 64, worked in health care and aging services for over 40 years. Her last job was with a start-up company focused on the Medicare Plus market in Pennsylvania, but she lost that position in a lay-off. Ronnenkamp made the decision to shift to homesharing when she decided to leave

“The stock market is poised to lose 20%. No, wait, it could lose 30%. Or it could even crash by 50%!” If you keep up with the news, you’ve most likely read similar “the sky is falling” headlines—the market’s sharp drop in January prompted a rash of such pronouncements. So should you panic if you’re

Imagine that your aging mother had to go to the hospital and is now going to be discharged. The discharge coordinator tells you that your aging parent must get rehab and go to a facility to receive it, as the hospital won’t provide that now. She needs physical and occupational therapy, you’re told. The discharge

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about taking spousal benefits early before delayed retirement benefits, whether conversion to childhood disability benefits is automatic and switching to spousal benefits after taking early retirement benefits. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See more

With nursing homes and other long-term care facilities desperately short of nurses and aides, it is more important than ever for consumers to know about staffing levels, quality, and turnover. But it has been difficult to get some key information. Now, the government has taken a modest step to help. In January, the Centers for