Personal finance is an exercise in mistake management more than the pursuit of perfection. Indeed, the best financial plans are those written in pencil, where numerous erasures are visible. They are novels that remain forever in draft form, in which the author continues to build on the narrative, charting out a series of compelling contingencies
Retirement
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of the S&P 500 sectors began trading on December 22, 1998. ETFs have revolutionized investing. Among other effects, they allow an investor to slice and dice the major indexes, underweighting and overweighting the sectors according to the outlook of the investor. Recently, the Bespoke Investment Group published a study of how the
Once again demonstrating the Ohio Retirement Study Council’s apparent inability to provide intended legislative oversight of the five state pension systems in Ohio, the Council recently—following years of growing public outcry—finally commissioned a long-overdue fiduciary performance audit of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. The last fiduciary audit of the pension in 2006, took
By Kerry Hannon, Next Avenue This caught my eye: More than twice as many middle-income U.S. boomer women than men said they’ve been able to save more for retirement than expected during Covid-19. That’s new survey data from CNO Financial Group CNO , which sells health and life insurance and retirement products. Its survey captured insights
By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Managing Editor These are complicated times for the U.S. economy, which means they’re complicated for our personal finances, too. So my “Friends Talk Money” podcast co-hosts Terry Savage and Pam Krueger and I just released an episode to offer some timely, apolitical guidance on saving, borrowing, investing and taxes. I
By Sally Benford, Next Avenue Tere Dillard, of Decatur, Ill., has gotten used to taking her 89-year-old father Jim Lee to what she considers pointless tests ordered by his primary care doctor. One was a CT scan for mild dizziness. As caregiver for her dad and his wife Lenora, who’s 88, it’s not the only
By now, if you’ve been paying attention, you know the many reasons that explain the sudden surge in inflation. What you don’t know—what nobody knows—is whether this surge will sustain itself for the long term or whether it will evaporate just as quickly as it came about. Maybe you don’t need to know that answer.
Average life expectancy in the U.S. declined by 1.5 years in 2020, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is believed to be the largest one-year decline in life expectancy since at least World War II. Life expectancy was 77.3 years in 2020, about the same level as
A friend died last week. We had been friends for over 30 years. While we plan for our financial security in retirement, her passing caused me to question whether we are planning with equal intent and investment for our social wellbeing in older age. For those that began their careers in the 1980s, you will
Isn’t it odd, but no matter how long you’ve been in business, you know if you want to continue your success you must continue to ask seemingly simple questions? Why? Because the answer to the same question evolves over time. To choose a culinary metaphor, consider the answer to the question “How long will it
On July 13, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published the Consumer Price index for June of 2021. The results were not surprising to people who buy cars or drive them: used cars prices were through the roof (up 10.5% for the month) and gasoline prices were up 2.5% for the month. Overall, the all
The McKinsey Consulting Group launched their “American Opportunity Survey” in May 2021 and concluded the results “put a spotlight on how Americans view their economic opportunity, the obstacles they face, and the path ahead to create a more inclusive economy.” McKinsey used opinion-polling firm Ipsos to survey 25,000 Americans in the spring of 2021. Their
The HECM reverse mortgage – a product designed for those 62 and older – is by far the most complex financial instrument that homeowners are likely to encounter in their lifetimes, and they must deal with it after many have passed their intellectual prime. Shopping for HECMs on lender web sites is an exercise in
For many people reading this, Social Security is your largest retirement asset. For decades you have likely seen payroll taxes debited from each paycheck. Here are a few things everyone should know about Social Security benefits. Marital Status Could Impact Your Benefits Those who are married should coordinate with your spouse as to when you
In the United States, medical care costs, especially for surgical procedures requiring one or more overnight hospital stays, have skyrocketed over the past 20 years. As a result, more and more Americans are traveling across the border or across an ocean to receive their medical care. Obviously, if you are in crisis in a hospital and
Should you be worrying right now? Are we about to go back to the future where economic malaise brings a sorrowful stew of high inflation and rising interest rates? Or is this just a temporary temporal anomaly caused by a fixable mix of bad luck and bad decision making? You might have noticed inflation hitting
Having money for those rainy-day events is crucial for Americans and their financial situations. But most Americans have a hard time funding an emergency expense. A recent GOBankingRates survey found that 57.4% of Americans have less than $1,000 saved for emergencies. A separate Bankrate.com survey found that 39% of adults in the U.S. wouldn’t be
Before my wife and I got married we had the “money talk”. Since we were relatively young, and neither of us had that much money, the talk was pretty short. We discussed how much we were making, our projected future income, and how we would handle the small nest eggs we had each accumulated before
Your aging parent may have demanded something from you long ago: “Promise you’ll never put me in a home!” And you may have promised that. Perhaps you never thought through the implications. For elders who saw what healthcare was like before Medicare in 1965, their fears are founded in what things looked like then: unregulated
The fields of behavioral finance and economics have been around for decades. They represent bodies of knowledge that have been applied, for better and for worse, by many. But they’re only now entering the mainstream. The oversimplified lesson could be summarized as the following: You’re all a bunch of irrational dummies. But at least one