Retirement

A number of Forbes.com readers have some specific questions about Advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) payments, which are set to begin in mid-July. The IRS has some answers. New Arrival? Normally, the IRS would use a taxpayer’s 2020 or 2019 tax return to determine CTC eligibility, but what about a baby born in 2021? Readers

Once upon a time, in the (somewhat mythical) past of traditional defined benefit pensions, your employer protected you from the risk of outliving your money in retirement, by acting, more or less, as an insurance company providing an annuity. With that benefit receding into the past, many experts have been hoping that Americans with 401(k)

A popular retirement planning product, particularly for higher tax bracket individuals, is cash value life insurance. In addition to providing liquidity in the event of an unexpected death, the cash values represent additional lifetime protection. The funds can be used as a volatility buffer during down markets, plus they can be a source for tax-free

Millions of Americans have switched jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. Beyond that, some 12,000 baby boomers have been entering retirement every day, which has led to a flood of 401(k) rollovers. Along the way, many workers will make one or more of the following seven 401(k) rollover mistakes. The result of a 401(k)-rollover mistake can be

For almost two years now, those who help Medicare beneficiaries find plans have been using an updated Medicare Plan Finder, a tool that does not do all the things its predecessor, the Legacy Plan Finder, did. It appears the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) decided it was time to work that same magic on Physician Compare. 

A handful of the largest U.S. public pensions, such as CalPERS and STRS Ohio, facing increased public scrutiny claim that their compliance with voluntary standards developed for the money management industry—the Global Investment Performance Standards—enhances their integrity and transparency. Pension stakeholders should not be fooled. In 2018, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest

Every conversation I have with operators of senior living facilities and home care agencies quickly pivots to one issue: A desperate shortage of care workers. The problem isn’t new. Low pay, low status, and physically and emotionally demanding work has plagued the long-term care industry’s ability to hire for years. Highly restrictive Trump-era immigration policies

As you transition into retirement, it’s a good idea to adopt strategies that help protect you from significant financial losses in your later years due to mistakes, financial exploitation from unethical friends and relatives, and fraud.  The recently released “Thinking Ahead Roadmap” helps you select a financial advocate who can assist you in managing your money

The Great Resignation and the future of work is just one indicator of something larger happening in a post-pandemic society – we are undergoing a Great Reframing of life’s choices and behaviors redefining how we view work and everything else. Keith worked for the same real estate firm for many years. “I was their numbers

Now that we’ve celebrated our national Independence Day, it’s a good time to contemplate being able to celebrate your own Financial Independence Day. Financial independence is a state of being in which you don’t have to work to pay your living expenses. You may decide to retire or you may choose to work because you

Nice problem to have: a fat retirement account along with potentially taxable gains. This calculator tells you which asset to liquidate. You’re retired, and living off two piles of assets—a taxable brokerage account and a tax-deferred IRA. Which should be cashed in first? For a lot of people, the answer is simple: Use up the

Perfection in financial planning is impossible and its pursuit may actually be counterproductive. It may be better said that financial planning is fundamentally an exercise in mistake management and minimization. Much like major league batters in baseball, three-point shooters in basketball, and football quarterbacks in pursuit of completing passes, you may well fall short more

In case you hadn’t noticed, here in the U.S. we have a lot of diversity among the governing bodies we call states. Some of this diversity is pretty obvious, like climate, population, terrain, and size. We also have tremendous diversity in political philosophy and governance policies.  So, it shouldn’t be surprising that our united states don’t

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Editor When most of us (and retirement experts) think about how prepared we’ll be for a financially comfortable retirement, it’s typically about how much money has been saved for it. But University of Massachusetts Boston professor Jan Mutchler says there’s another way to look at it: Will you have enough income

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Editor As we’ve all noticed, inflation has been on the rise lately — the Consumer Price Index rose from 1.6% at the end of the first quarter of 2021 to about 3.4% for the second quarter. And that has major implications for how you should be managing your money: your savings,

New Jersey, the only state to have a pension funded status worse than Illinois’s (according to Pew’s 2020 compilation based on 2018 data), is quite pleased with itself because, as the state announced in a recent press release, “State Treasurer Elizabeth Maher Muoio announced that the Treasury Department today kicked off the start of the

By Barbara Field, Next Avenue The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported last summer that female-owned small businesses were “disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic and corresponding economic crisis.” The prediction for growth and revenue looked depressing. But these three women, all over 50, bucked the statistics by embracing digital technology and pivoting their businesses. During the

Retirement plan design can make or break an employee’s ability to maintain their standard of living in retirement. Over the past several decades, many private sector companies implemented a complete overhaul in retirement plan design, shifting from defined benefit pensions to 401(k)-style defined contribution accounts.  Originally designed to supplement rather than replace pensions, 401(k) plans

Rep Tom Suozzi (D-NY) has introduced a bill to create a public, catastrophic, long-term care insurance program. The monthly cash benefit, initially about $3,600 and indexed for inflation, would be funded with a modest increase in the payroll tax of 0.3 percent for workers and 0.3 percent for employers, or roughly $300-a-year for a median

Goal-based financial planning isn’t a new concept. Neither is diversification.  We know that we’ve historically used life insurance as a risk management tool that helps with income replacement during your working years. But life insurance also plays an important role in a diversified and comprehensive financial plan. It’s important to first establish your goals, then