Retirement Watch Weekly
How to Reduce Asset Wastage In Your Estate Planning
Estate Planning is much more than tax planning, as I’ve said in past visits. One function of estate planning is to reduce the ‘leakage’ caused by costs and other expenses. There are steps you can take now to reduce the wasting of assets. Here’s my list of the key steps. Write it yourself. A lawyer […]
Things You Need to Know About Medicaid
Would you like free nursing home care? Almost everyone over age 65 has been exposed to seminars and other presentations promising just that. Adult children of older people, especially those already in nursing homes, get regular exposure to the ideas. Some elder law and estate planning attorneys make this promise a central part of their […]
Are Bonds Still Safe?
All eyes are on bonds these days. Seeking safety, investors poured money into bonds and bond funds. That lowered interest rates, generated capital gains, and attracted more investors to bonds. As treasury yields approached 40-year lows, yield chasers turned to high yield and corporate bond funds. Mutual funds attracted $11.8 billion of investments in March. […]
Bonds Or Bond Funds?
Yields are at four decade lows. Investors are looking for ways to increase income without increasing risk. The obvious way to increase yields is to reduce expenses on investments. The search for lower expenses revives the longtime debate over whether it is better to buy bond mutual funds, individual bonds, or the relatively new exchange […]
How to Beat The High Cost of Investing
Cutting the cost of investing is more important than it has been in years. Expenses didn’t matter much when the stock market returned over 20% annually and bonds yielded over 8%. In the next 10 years, however, I expect bonds won’t return more than their current yields, and the annual average return from stocks will […]
Ten Simple Estate Planning Strategies To Protect Assets
For the first time in years, I am hearing again from subscribers who seek to protect their assets from lawsuits and creditors. Those in the medical profession feel especially vulnerable. Other business owners and professionals are hurt by rising insurance costs or reductions in coverage. All are seeking other ways to protect themselves. In addition, […]
How to Re-Balance Your Portfolio
You can have a leg up on most investors, including those who are supposedly the most sophisticated. Most investors, even the largest pension funds, neglect to rebalance their portfolios. Yet, rebalancing is an excellent way to improve long-term returns and reduce risk. It is especially valuable with long-term holdings such as a Core Portfolio. If […]
Advice for Beginners to Investing in Stock Market
Getting a little older requires a few changes in behavior. I’ve long known the importance of warming up before vigorous exercise. In the last few years I’ve learned my muscles also don’t like to be thrown right into yard work. They like a gradual introduction. If I forget that lesson, they’ll spend the next day […]
