Retirement Watch Weekly
How “Livable” Is Your Community?
The AARP, through its Public Policy Institute, issued an online tool called the Livability Index. Plug in the name of your community, or one you are considering moving to, and you’ll see a numerical score and a showing of where the community ranks on the AARP scale. You also can see the different categories used […]
The Dark Side of Art Collecting
Bloomberg.com’s been running a series of articles on different aspects of the art collecting market. The latest installment shows the dangers of art collecting, especially for those who engage in private market transactions and rely on brokers and agents for their information. In this installment, a Russian billionaire decides that his dealer was overstating the […]
Running Out of Money in Retirement
About 25% of those who die at age 85 or later pass away with less than $10,000, including the value of their homes, according to a new study by the Employee Benefits Research Institute. It is consistent with work done previously by economists. The study shows that many people simply don’t understand the increase in […]
Art Collectors and the Tax Code
There’s a lot of money involved in art, and the tax code works to keep the money in art. It turns out that when you hear about a sale of art at a high price, the art wasn’t really sold. It was exchanged for other art so that the “seller” doesn’t have to pay capital […]
A National Retirement Policy
The U.S. has an atrocious national retirement policy. Social Security is expensive and redistributes income. It also isn’t properly funded. The private savings system works for only a few people. There are examples of good national retirement policies. This article describes Australia’s, but there also are good models in Chile and Denmark. It’s too late […]
The New Medicare Changes
Congress recently passed, and the President said he will sign, a new law containing what’ known as “the doc fix.” Some years ago Congress decided to save money on Medicare and Medicaid by setting up a schedule that reduced the amounts that would be paid to doctors. The reimbursement schedule was unrealistically low, often paying […]
Medicare’s Problem Overpaying Hospitals
Medicare started releasing detailed data fairly recently, and some outsiders have been studying the data closely for anomalies, overcharging, and other problems. Leading the way has been The Wall Street Journal with a series of articles pointing to problems and inconsistencies. The latest study (subscription might be required) shows how Medicare might be overpaying some […]
The Case for Investing in Energy
Oil prices declined a lot in 2014. That caused a lot of people to liquidate oil investments. It also caused some other people to wonder when would be a good time to buy some energy assets cheaply, anticipating a rebound in prices. Don’t waste your time trying to identify “the bottom.” You’ll know it only […]
