Luis Alvarez Investing is a young person’s game. I mean, I can understand the argument for ignoring short-term market dives when it’ll be decades before you need to actually touch the money. But what about retirees who need income today? Should retirees and near-retirees be cashing out of stocks on fears that a worldwide pandemic
Personal finance
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin arrives to testify during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing about the Fiscal Year 2021 budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 3, 2020. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images If coronavirus is keeping you from filing your tax return in a timely fashion, it just
Hero Images | Hero Images | Getty Images A payroll tax cut is one idea President Donald Trump is considering in response to the negative effects of coronavirus on the U.S. economy. Experts say such a move would not necessarily be a magic bullet. One reason why: It could impair funding to Medicare and Social
As a personal finance reporter at CNBC, when the stock market drops, as it has from the coronavirus outbreak, I write stories reminding our readers to remain focused on their long-term goals and to resist panic. Beneath that advice, however, I usually have a nagging feeling – a wish that I was more worried by the latest
Ngampol Thongsai / EyeEm Americans’ health may not be the only thing at stake as the coronavirus continues its unrelenting spread in the U.S. The virus could also prove financially crippling for many individuals. “There are all kinds of pathways for people to be financially affected by this,” said John Graves, an associate professor of
Moyo Studio | E+ | Getty Images This week’s markets may be giving some investors flashbacks to 2008, when stocks hit a turbulent stretch and the financial crisis began. However, fearful investors should take heart: The factors at play in this market are very different than they were then, executives from Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
As the stock market cratered again due to crashing oil prices and coronavirus fears, many investors grappled with pulling money out of equities and stock funds and moving it to safer investments, including bond funds, money market accounts — and cash. It’s been an ongoing quandary as investors were already skittish after a roller-coaster first
Jim McGuire | Getty Images As the market hits the skids, experts are warning that you shouldn’t make rash moves with your portfolio. And that includes one retirement income source you might turn to for safety: your Social Security benefits. A recent survey from SimplyWise, a retirement income technology provider, found that 1 in 4
GSO Images When the stock market goes haywire, gold often becomes the “gold” standard in the eyes of everyday investors. True to form, gold is coming off its best week since 2016, as fears around the global spread of the coronavirus led to a sharp selloff in the stock market and nudged investors to retreat to what they perceived
Getty Images Recent wild market swings have led some 401(k) investors to clamber into safer assets. However, you may want to press pause before you increase your exposure to bonds or cash-type funds. Net trading activity in 401(k) saving plans was higher in the last week of February than all of the combined activity in
Tetra Images Like millions of American women, I’ve experienced widowhood. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2019, there were almost 15 million widows and widowers in the country. About 77% of these individuals, or 11.4 million, were women. (Some widowed people later remarry, so the total number of individuals experiencing widowhood is actually
Think twice before celebrating that large refund check from Uncle Sam. The IRS had doled out 45.5 million refunds as of Feb. 28, with the average refund check totaling $3,064. That amount is just $4 less than last year’s average refund. Filers have reasons to celebrate their small windfall. Most have ambitious plans for their
If you’ve been considering overseas retirement spots, the rapid spread of the new coronavirus around the globe might be giving you pause. That may not be a bad thing, say some experts. While it’s tricky to predict where and when any contagion — whether this coronavirus or another pathogen — will emerge, a key consideration
Damircudic | Getty Images When it comes to saving for retirement, many working women are falling short. Almost one-fifth, or 19%, of working women have nothing saved for retirement, according to a new CNBC/SurveyMonkey Women at Work Survey. The poll surveyed 1,068 working women in the U.S. from Feb. 10-14. “It’s not because women don’t
The recent stock market meltdown may have dented Americans’ retirement savings, but there’s a silver lining: The downturn made one common retirement strategy less costly for investors. The strategy, known as a Roth IRA conversion, involves changing a traditional, pre-tax retirement account — such as a 401(k) plan or a qualified individual retirement account — to an
No pain, no gain … no risk, no reward. As with most platitudes, you’ve likely heard those lines so many times that by now they’ve lost their meaning. Most of us understand that to amass enough savings to buy a first home, send a child to college or retire before 70, we have to surrender
golero | Getty Images Longevity. Leaving work to care for kids or parents. Earning less. These are the headwinds most talked about among women when it comes to the retirement challenges many of them face. Women have retirement balances that are half the size of men’s, according to data from the Vanguard Center for Investor Research.
US President Donald Trump makes his way to board Marine One before departing from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC on March 2, 2020. Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images President Donald Trump is giving away part of his salary to help stop coronavirus, and he just might be able
sturti | Getty Images If your phone rings and someone says it’s the Social Security Administration, it probably isn’t. By now, you may have received one of those calls, or know someone who has. And because these scams, which try to dupe unsuspecting individuals into coughing up money are becoming more prevalent, the government is
Having $1 million in the bank has often been considered the gold standard of retirement savings. In some places, that kind of stash can stretch over 40 years. But in higher-priced cities, it may only last a decade — or less. Considering that Americans, as a whole, aren’t saving nearly enough for retirement, GoBankingRates measured how far $1