Retirement

By Arlene Weintraub, Next Avenue Only 58% of Americans age 65 or older have broadband internet access at home, which means 22 million people that age lack it, according to the nonprofit Older Adult Technology Services (OATS). This became especially problematic during the pandemic, when so many people needed to get on the internet for telehealth

If you haven’t filed your 2020 tax return, are you still dealing with complexities created when RMDs (required minimum distributions) were waived for 2020? RMDs are mandated distributions (withdrawals) from tax-deferred accounts, such as IRAs. Doing your taxes for 2020 can be confusing, given that RMDs were suspended for 2020 in March by the CARES

According to the National Retail Federation Mother’s Day spending is expected to total a record $28.1 billion this year, up $1.4 billion from last year. Can you imagine if instead of splurging on flowers and gifts, that much money were to pour into women’s retirement accounts this month? Of course, that’s not going to happen.

Clutter is one thing. Lots of us have unneeded items in our homes. Books abound on how to de-clutter but these do not seem to apply to aging parents. It bothers the adult children when they see it and say something but the elders do not seem to want to change the situation. Or perhaps

Shocking that a movie about discarded older people could win an Oscar! And not just any Oscar — Best Picture! “Nomadland’s,” starring Frances McDormand and directed by Chloe Zhao, prize means millions more people will watch the movie and learn about Amazon’s “CamperForce program” and the roaming ‘nomads’ who work there, especially older workers. McDormand’s

The labor market is barely and apparently very slowly starting to recover and employers are already claiming that they cannot find enough workers. The Washington Post reports of anecdotal evidence that employers in the restaurant industry, among others, supposedly cannot find enough people to work for them. Most of the labor market data, especially a

If passed, the ‘Secure Act 2.0’ would significantly alter the retirement landscape. Officially called the Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021, the bill is essentially a follow up to the 2019 Secure Act. After passing the House Ways and Means Committee yesterday, the proposed legislation is now going to the House. If voted into

The Roth IRA is one of the largest gifts ever bestowed upon the American taxpayers by congress. While many people ignore the Roth IRA, it has been around for more than 20 years. Even small contributions over time can grow into a substantial amount of tax-free income in retirement. Sadly, the Roth IRA is often

Pre-retirees and retirees have been trying to squeeze out extra yield on fixed income investments for many years in the current low-interest environment. And lately the pickings have been pretty slim. However, if you broaden your goal from simply earning more interest on your savings to reliably increasing your financial security in retirement, you might

Rules of thumb are common in financial literature. Who can disagree with “buy low, sell high” or “decrease your risk exposure by diversifying your portfolio”? Author and retirement planner Dana Anspach, CFP®, RMA®, observes that these kinds of rules of thumb can be useful to point the way, but beyond that, may lose their value. In

Let’s talk stimulus. First, let’s talk about someone who normally does not file an income tax return, then someone who does. Then, we’ll discuss what you can do if your stimulus payment got lost. Don’t Owe Taxes? The first two rounds of Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) were, according to the IRS, “advance payments of the

Back last month, I observed that supporters of greater federal government funding of child and eldercare, in the form of the American Jobs Plan spending, had taken to calling this “infrastructure spending” by redefining infrastructure away from referring to basic physical systems such as roads, electric or water systems, to a new meaning of “job-enabling

Early retirement is a very common goal, but how exactly do you define “early?” For most people, “early” means stopping work before the availability of benefits that are used by retirees like Social Security and Medicare. Uncertainty over whether retirement savings can last without these programs is often the reason people put off retirement. If

A new public opinion survey shows broad bipartisan backing for more public support for long-term care, especially at home, even as congressional Republicans appear to be lining up against the idea. According a  new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 63 percent of respondents say government should support programs to help

One third of adults over 65 still have never used the internet, and half don’t even have internet access at home. In San Francisco, “the epicenter of tech,” 40% of older adults do not have basic digital literacy skills. Today, millions are disconnected to culture, but also opportunity. Before we can worry about the intricacies

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Editor Odds are, you want to age in place — living in your home later in life, rather than in a long-term care establishment. There are three ways to make that dream more likely to be a reality. My “Friends Talk Money” podcast co-hosts and I, plus “Retirement Secrets” author Kim

Economic growth accelerated sharply in the first three months of 2021. The economy expanded by an annualized inflation-adjusted rate of 6.4% in the first three months of 2021, accelerating growth from the prior three months and thus extending growth for the third quarter in a row. As a result, the economy was 0.4% larger than

The Federal Reserve says not to worry about the 2.6% jump in the CPI. But the bond market is skeptical and it may be time to get yourself some protection. In the past year: —house prices have gone up 12%. —lumber prices have tripled. —shares of mediocre companies like The New York Times, American Water

By David Robinson, Next Avenue Earlier this year saw a frenzy in “meme stocks” like GameStop GME . You’ll remember: speculators — many of them in their 20s and 30s — clamored to buy shares, sometimes with borrowed funds, based on tips they’d heard, only to see those stocks plummet after soaring. More recently, we’ve seen

Your pension board (and pensions worldwide) is doing the exact opposite of what legendary investor Warren Buffett has told it to do—with predictably disastrous results. To protect your retirement security, you need to regularly remind the people managing your pension to follow Buffett’s expert advice and give up trying to outsmart him. In case you’ve