Americans are living much longer. Some are running out of money before their death and need additional assistance from the Federal Government, which puts more strain on a system that’s bringing in less money than it’s paying retirees. On January 1, 2020, the SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up...
Call it a gift. Call it crazy.
Call it whatever you want. But it’s good news. The IRS will let you put more
money into your 401(k) account in 2020.
The maximum contribution
to a 401(k) this year is $19,500, up from $19,000 in 2019. If you are age 50 or
older, you can...
Retirement is supposed to be the time of carefree living; the reward for a lifetime of hard work, saving, and sacrifice. But it seems that may be more utopian pipe dream than reality. The wealth gap in the United States is getting wider, which in turn increases the financial...
Financial attitudes are changing with America’s young adults. For decades, parents have taught their kids that part of proper planning included saving for retirement. Saving could be accomplished with investment accounts, individual retirement accounts or any one of a litany of employer-sponsored retirement plans, including the 401(k). But there’s...
I’m a Baby Boomer—in the
middle of the Boomer pack. Talk to almost anyone of my generation and they’ll
tell you stories of what retirement looked like for workers when we were
growing up. Back then it was common for someone to work for only one company,
starting at age 18 and retiring...
I was having a
conversation about retirement health insurance with an acquaintance of mine who
just retired. He’s a former corporate executive—an analytical person—who’s
always done his homework to avoid as many surprises as possible in the business
world. He’s done the same thing with healthcare and decided that a Medigap
policy is best...
You’ve been working on
your retirement plan for years, making adjustments here and there so retirement
will be everything you’ve dreamed of. But have you planned for surprises? Oh,
yes. There can be surprises. Some of them the result of government regulations.
Others because Americans are living longer than ever before.
Whether you’re retired,...
As I sit
here Monday evening with the Dow having closed down 2000 points and the 10-year
Treasury yield around 0.5%, the title of this update seems utterly ridiculous.
With the new coronavirus still spreading and a collapse in oil prices
threatening the entire shale oil industry, recession is now the expected
outcome. Most...