Retirement Watch Weekly
8 Key Retirement Questions
Economist James Poterba of MIT, whom I’ve quoted in the past, recently made a presentation at a conference on the key questions everyone should ask before retirement. This post from Forbes reviews the questions and some information you should have before answering the questions. As for Social Security, it remains (at least this election year) […]
Paying the Reverse Mortgage
Most people know generally about reverse mortgages. But not much attention is paid to what happens at the end of a reverse mortgage. This story purports to tell the story, but it raises a lot of questions for me. A reverse mortgage allows a senior adult or couple to tap their home equity while remaining […]
Coping with Lower Long-Term Stock Market Returns
Much of Bill Gross’s latest monthly essay is devoted to a eulogy for his recently-deceased pet cat. After this touching section is the meat of the essay. Gross states that returns from assets (all assets, not only stocks) are likely to be lower in the relevant future than they have been over the course of […]
Beat the Flash Traders
Let’s revisit high-frequency trading and the stir caused by Michael Lewis’s new book, “Flash Boys.” Lewis says high frequency trading means the market is “rigged” against the little guy. This post says that’s always been the case. For a host of reasons, independent individual investors never have had a chance to trade better than the […]
Diving into High Frequency Trading
You’ve probably seen a fair amount of publicity about Michael Lewis’s new book about high frequency trading, Flash Boys. Lewis is an excellent writer, but his previous books often were criticized for focusing more on story telling and being attractive to readers instead of presenting the full picture. It’s the same with this book. Lewis […]
Medicare Cuts Delayed
In what has become an annual charade, Congress voted to defer until next year the reductions in reimbursements to doctors and hospitals under Medicare. The cuts, slated to be 24%, are used to seem to reduce Medicare spending. But each year they are deferred or changed because doctors and hospitals point out that they would […]
Surprising Facts About Social Security
Over the years, from time to time I wrote about maximizing Social Security retirement benefits. Those pieces didn’t receive much of a reaction. More recently, Social Security strategies draw a lot of attention, presumably because of the large number of people now at or approaching traditional retirement age. There are recurring questions and issues that […]
The New Focus of Estate Planning and Estate Taxes
Estate Planning’s been in turmoil for more than a decade, but the tax law is settled and the new rules and strategies are clearer. The turmoil began with the 2001 tax law that made multiple changes over 10 years and then scheduled a reversion to the 2000 law. Then, a 2010 deal temporarily eliminated the […]
