Retirement

getty Readers, I have been remiss. I have been watching reports of major pension funds overseas divesting from fossil fuel corporations, and have been placing the topic on my to-do list, intending to share this development with readers “someday.” Last year in Norway, for instance, the $1.6 trillion Government Pension Fund Global will divest from
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Look under the hood of your retirement income portfolio! getty Many older workers don’t really know if their savings and Social Security are enough to support themselves in retirement. That’s because they haven’t taken the time to “look under the hood” and learn how much retirement income they might receive from Social Security and their
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Medicare Announces Costs for 2021. Getty Working with your advisor to update your financial plan for next year? Maybe, sitting down to do your budget? Here are Medicare’s 2021 costs. Prepare to spend more.  Costs that apply to any Medicare beneficiary There are some costs that everyone who has Medicare for healthcare coverage must pay. 
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getty Reformers have long bemoaned the manner in which poor workers pay too high a “marginal tax rate” when both “regular” taxes and government benefit phase-outs are combined together. A recent article at Accounting Today summarized the situation: “About a quarter of lower-income workers effectively face marginal tax rates of more than 70 percent when
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Millennials are staying single longer and having children later – that has implications for … [+] caregiving and life in retirement. getty “One may be the loneliest number that you will ever do.” Despite the lyrical lament by the 1970’s rock band Three Dog Night, it appears that more people than ever are choosing singlehood.
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IRS announced the retirement contribution limits for 2021. getty The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced some adjustments to the income limitations on retirement account contributions for 2021. These changes were in the works regardless of who won the 2020 presidential election. President-elect Joe Biden has laid out ambitious plans to improve retirement savings rates,
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Fixed index annuities can be complex financial products, and I will conclude this chapter* by discussing some of the other various features one may come across when investigating FIAs. We begin with surrender charges or, more formally, contingent deferred sales charges. FIAs are meant to serve as long-term tools and surrender charges help the insurance
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When it comes to Medicare, not all vaccines are the same. getty While we await the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, it’s a good time to learn about Medicare’s coverage of vaccinations. For example: Sally lives in a small, rural community and sees the one doctor in town. She got her pneumonia vaccination during her first
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Economic Security Planning, Inc. Today’s column addresses questions about when a person can receive spousal benefits, whether it’s possible to receive widow’s benefits on the record of a spouse with substantial income who died 11 months after marriage and when divorced spousal benefits can be paid. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston
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