Retirement Watch Weekly
The Latest Investing Insights from Warren Buffett
The latest annual letter from Warren Buffett to shareholders of BerkshireHathaway was posted on Saturday. It was promoted in advance as being a special letter since it is the 50th such missive from Buffett. It does contain some interesting surprises such as Buffett’s unbridled optimism about the u.S. and the U.S. economy, chastising those who […]
March 2015
March 27, 2015 05:25 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review I’m going to be in Stamford, Connecticut making two free presentations on April 22. One presentation will be at 10:00 a.m. and the other will be at 5:30 p.m. The topic at each will be Retirement Planning: How to Create and Implement a Successful […]
What You Need to Know About Trusts for Your Estate Planning
You probably need at least one trust in your Estate Planning setup. It seems almost all estate planning has one these days. Many problems can be solved and goals achieved with the right trust. Trusts no longer are restricted to the very wealthy. Too many people are intimidated by talk of trusts. You don’t learn […]
Separating the Myths, Facts of Long-Term Care
Long-term care is a great American paradox. On the one hand, most people don’t want to talk about it. A recent survey found that 25% of adults would rather go to the dentist than discuss LTC. Fewer than 30% of adults have had a conversation about long-term care planning. Yet, paying for LTC and the […]
Navigating the RMD Minefield
IRAs seem simple at first. You make contributions and manage the investments. Over time, however, IRAs become more complicated and even inconvenient. IRAs become especially troublesome for people as they begin to take distributions and especially after they reach age 70½ and beyond, because of the required minimum distributions. The RMD rules are not what […]
RMDs: Burdens to Benefits
People in their late 70s and beyond often find that the RMDs increase over time and create higher income tax burdens for them. Fortunately, there are strategies for those who don’t want that steady increase of distributions during their lifetimes. l Take money out of the IRA before you are required to, and the earlier […]
Planning 2015-2016 With Your 2014 Tax Return
Don’t close your 2014 income tax return files just yet. You should use that tax return to plan for the rest of this year and next year. Tax planning should be a year-round activity these days, and last year’s tax return is the best place to start. The federal income tax return also is one […]
How the Fed Distorts the Stock Market, and Why You Should Beware
The Fed’s easy money and low interest rate policies might have saved the economy from severe depression since 2008. But it definitely has had other effects. One effect is to distort investment markets, especially the stock market. If you’ve been following headlines, you’ve seen that few active mutual fund managers have beaten the stock indexes […]
