Retirement Watch Weekly
Two Ways to Avoid IRA RMDs with No Out-of-Pocket Cost
We’ve been in the vanguard of showing owners of traditional IRAs how to maximize the after-tax value of the IRAs left to heirs. We do that by minimizing or avoiding required minimum distributions (RMDs) and searching for ways to turn IRAs into tax-free, guaranteed money. In the past, I’ve shown you several strategies that achieve […]
Managing the Trade-Offs in Today’s Markets
It is more critical than usual to include two important steps in your investment decision making. Too many investors overlook these steps, causing them to miss opportunities and to take too much risk. The first step is to focus on the trade-off between risk and return when evaluating investments, whether you are thinking of buying […]
Avoiding Dangerous IRA Investments
We addressed the Checkbook IRA last month that lets you own nontraditional assets in your individual retirement account (IRA). Set it up properly, and your IRA isn’t restricted to the usual mutual funds and publicly listed stocks and bonds. There are quite a few investments you can own through the Checkbook IRA (also known as […]
Don’t Let Your Estate Become Like a Reality TV Show
Have you followed the recent turmoil surrounding Sumner Redstone, majority owner of Paramount, CBS and Viacom? A few years ago, did you notice the events involving Donald Sterling, once the owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers? In each case, family, associates and others argued about whether the principal person was mentally competent to make […]
Aging and Anxieties
This article discusses how long-term anxieties often ruin retirement. It says that many people are able to cope with or hide them for most of their adult years. Also, researchers now believe that anxieties might become worse as we age. It says many people let anxieties ruin their retirements, because they don’t recognize them or […]
How Will the Election Affect Your Investments?
Next week I’m going to be traveling to the MoneyShow San Francisco, so I probably won’t send an email report or post a Bob’s Journal. Now that all the political parties have selected their nominees for president and vice president, we’re starting to see financial publications and websites speculating about what will happen to the […]
The Current State of Stock Rotation: Which Sectors are Hot?
Here’s another sign that the U.S. stock is resuming some normal historic patterns. In normal times, there are rolling bear markets and bull markets within the sectors of the indexes. Some sectors are doing well while others are doing poorly, regardless of what the market indexes are doing. That’s happened since 2014, when the Fed […]
The Prescription Epidemic
A growing concern about the health of today’s older Americans is the consequences that flow from having a lot of prescription medications. It’s not unusual for older people to see several different doctors in different specialties. This article explains that this is leading to severe health problems. The patients don’t have a central listing of […]
