Retirement Watch Weekly
IRAs: A Quick Reference Guide Q & A
The Investment Company Institute (ICI) reported in June 2017 that total US retirement assets exceeded $26 trillion and accounted for 34% of all household financial assets as of March 31, 2017. The largest share of these retirements assets – 31% or $8.17 trillion – was allocated into Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). This is the first […]
Avoiding Guardianship
Your estate plan needs to designate who will handle your affairs when you aren’t able to. Ideally, you’ll begin transitioning things to this agent (or agents) before you really need the help. That’s because the alternative often is that someone you don’t know petitions a court to be appointed your guardian. States have different rules […]
How to Make the Most of Your 401k Plan for a Wealthier Retirement
Rollovers from 401(k) accounts are the main reason IRAs are among the most valuable assets many retirees own. When people leave a job, for either a new one or retirement, they often roll over the 401k balance to an IRA. To maximize the value of your IRAs in retirement, you need to maximize 401k account […]
Inside TIAA’s Retirement Services
Once known as TIAA-CREF, TIAA provides retirement services primarily to employees of governments and nonprofits. It was begun as an organization devoted to helping teachers have decent retirement incomes. But the organization’s changed over the decades. This article reports allegations from lawsuits filed by former employees, confidential whistleblower reports, and other sources. It argues that […]
International Markets Still Set the Pace
U.S. stocks beat most international markets recently, but non-U.S. stocks are likely to resume the outperformance they delivered for most of the last 18 months. U.S. stock indexes have been setting record highs all year and are on pace to establish a record for most new highs recorded in a calendar year. The S&P 500 […]
Risk Aversion and Aging
People tend to become more risk averse as they get older. This paper points out that when the average age of a society increases, the entire society becomes more risk averse. That can affect a number of factors, such as stock market returns, interest rates, foreign policy, and more. The empirical results indicate that willingness […]
A Primer on Investing in Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin is making a lot of headlines, primarily because it is up more than 6000% in 2017. But it’s also making headlines because some prominent people, such as Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase are critical of it and other cryptocurrencies. This article makes some comments in favor of cryptocurrencies with some details about how […]
Momentum, Growth Pushing Stocks Higher
What you don’t know about retirement can hurt you. In fact, just a few wrong decisions in your investments, taxes, or estate planning could completely derail your retirement plans. Worse yet, the rules of the game keep changing, making it harder to keep up. For these reasons, I’ve assembled all the key points – everything you need to know — into one comprehensive report. Click here today for free access. […]
