Retirement Watch Weekly
Retired at 30
Apparently there’s a guy in Colorado who, along with his wife, retired by the time he was 30. He also has a blog that attracted a fair amount of attention. You can read his story in this article. His story supports a conversation I’ve had many times. Someone will ask me, “When can I retire.” […]
Medicare’s Dumping a Program That Works
Though the federal government’s various medical payment programs are regimented and uniform, they do allow various pilot or test programs. The pilot programs start small and sometimes expand when they really work. Yet, here’s a report that Medicare is phasing out a pilot program that has fantastic results. The program is directed at people with […]
Handling Changes in Variable Annuities
Tax planning is less of a guessing game these days with the tax law settled, at least until Congress decides to push some kind of tax reform. In the wake of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, we need to revise and rethink some strategies about Roth IRAs, especially about converting traditional IRAs to […]
May 2013
May 31, 2013 04:30 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review This was a very volatile week in the markets, and it looked like investors were looking for excuses to take profits in some assets that did well in recent months. Japanese stocks took a big dive on Tuesday and again on Friday. This came […]
Estate Planning Tax Law Changes Investors Must Understand
A revolution is underway in Estate Planning. You know about the 2012 changes to the law (see our February 2013 issue). They require fresh approaches and strategies. Many believe the new law means estate planning is unimportant. That’s a mistake. A result of the 2012 law is that for most people income taxes are a […]
Managing Portfolios for Higher After-Tax Returns
Taxes on investments in-creased for 2013, and there’s a good probability they’ll increase again at least for some of you. Some tax increases are direct, such as the increase in the rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends to 20% from 15%. Others are indirect, such as the Medicare premium surtax on higher incomes. […]
Estimating Taxes Safely
Estimated tax payments are a traditional trap for many retirees. Most were employees during their careers and had income taxes withheld from their paychecks. They never had to deal with the estimated tax rules and are surprised by the process in retirement. If you expect to owe more than $1,000 in federal taxes that will […]
Stop Overpaying and Underinsuring
Successful Americans are paying too much for insurance yet don’t have enough cover-age. Those are the findings of a recent survey from ACE Pri-vate Risk Services. The problem actually is worse than the 2010 survey. It’s easy to see how the situation developed. Most successful people didn’t start that way. In their young adult years […]
