Retirement

Change Concept, Road Sign theme. Getty The SECURE Act of 2019 has passed. This bill is the product of bipartisan effort, which should give thinking Americans a lead-in-the-gut realization about the sorry state of retirement preparedness and the importance of this issue. If the two sides of the aisle are working together, it might be

CLEVELAND, OH – NOVEMBER 13 – Birds flock around the Manistee, a “Maritimer” class bulk freighter, … [+] as it is towed down The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio on November 13, 2014. The Seafarers International Union, Atlantic, Gulf, Lakes, and Inland Waters multi-employer pension plan is 143% funded. (Photo by Angelo Merendino/Corbis via Getty

Photo: Getty Let’s briefly think back to 2008, when the world was “falling apart” at the hands of the latest devastating (albeit temporary) market correction. The S&P 500 ended that year down roughly 38.5%. The uncomfortable joke around many offices was that a “401(k) is now a 201(k)” as the markets pillaged all those who

The Capitol building in downtown Washington D.C. Getty On April 3, 2019, I wrote an article titled, “Will The SECURE Act Make Your Retirement More Secure?”, providing a summary of the key provisions of this bill, which had just been passed by the House Ways and Means Committee. The provisions of the bill were not

Income may not have the sizzle of selecting stocks, but many experts recommend maintaining a balance between equities and fixed-income. Several income specialists, and contributors to MoneyShow.com, offer their top ideas among some lesser-known income vehicles, including municipal bonds, convertibles, preferreds, and floating rate securities. Marvin Appel, Signalert’s Systems & Forecasts I believe that corporate

Getty Imagine, you’re ready to transition into retirement, financially secure, barely having planned for it. Is that even possible without winning the lottery, receiving a large inheritance or having an old-fashioned pension plan? As more employers add automatic features to their 401(k) retirement plans, one day this could be possible. Some pieces of the puzzle

Getty This is part one of a two part series on expatriating to save taxes. The other day I got a call from a client who was concerned about the threat of tax increases if Democrats win the presidency and a Senate majority in 2020. He was particularly worried about the wealth tax proposed by

Getty The (mostly) ups and downs of the 2019 market taught retirement savers invaluable lessons. But many may have missed the most important lesson. As 2019 approaches its conclusion, the stock market continues to reach all-time highs. It’s almost enough to forget what happened last summer. But you should remember how you felt when the

Santa Claus putting a lump of coal in Congress’s Christmas stocking. Getty The House of Representatives earlier this afternoon passed two bills to provide $1.4 trillion in funding for defense and non-defense spending programs that must be appropriated on an annual basis. As is often the case with must-pass legislation at the end of the

Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin Holidays are a notorious time for financial fraud. Scammers capitalize on the generosity of their targets, particularly seniors. What can families do to give their older loved ones, especially aging parents a greater measure of financial safety? The World Health Organization estimates that one in six

©relif – stock.adobe.com How to use a simple hedge fund technique to your benefit I am not a tax advisor, and this is not tax advice per se. However, I am a portfolio manager. And, my core approach is similar to what the early hedge funds did, before the term “hedge fund” became an oxymoron.

Struggling workers need more help from Social Security. Getty Many older workers struggle financially as they approach retirement. They often have little saved to supplement their Social Security benefits. Worse, many of those who have few savings also face obstacles in finding good jobs at older ages or they deal with declining health that makes

The secret to growing your 401(k) Getty The Secret To A 9.5% Return: Your Clock Is Ticking There is a secret to getting a 9.5% return, and it has to do with time.  Time allows anyone to achieve those returns through the math of compounding.  It can be done with a short funding period, as

Getty When you’re closing in on retirement, the big financial question shifts from “How much should I be saving?” to “How can I make my money last?” Steve Vernon, a research scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity and author of Retirement Game-Changers, offers a few smart answers in the new Friends Talk Money podcast

Happy Holidays! Steve Chen Happy holidays – give yourself the gift of tax savings As we head into the holiday season and New Years it can pay big dividends to spend a little time seeing if any year end moves can help you save a lot on taxes or improve your financial situation.  This month

Getty A lot of people these days believe they’ll receive little or nothing from Social Security. They’ll hear otherwise from Social Security, which will provide statements of estimated benefits to those who request. Most workers who are age 60 or over are mailed the statements each year, whether they ask for them or not. Beginning

This survey of high-payout funds will steer you to the bargains and warn you of the pitfalls. How to pay for it? Getty Stocks and bonds yield 2% these days. That’s problematic if you had in mind withdrawing 4% a year from your savings. Wall Street’s answer to this predicament: a rich menu of exchange-traded

By Michele Wojciechowski, Next Avenue Contributor Getty It’s the most wonderful time of the year — unless you get scammed. “In this season of generosity, people let down their guards and tend not to be as skeptical as they would be the rest of the year,” says Christopher Elliott, founder of the consumer-advice nonprofit Elliott Advocacy

Stressed Asian Senior Couple calculate their monthly expense with laptop computer. Debts, Saving, … [+] Financials with Retirement. Getty Worried about a 2018 (or worse, a 2009) repeat? Good news: I’ve got a closed-end fund (CEF) that should be on your list no matter what happens: it carries a special “insurance” policy if markets head

null Getty The way to protect your portfolio isn’t large caps–it’s large yields. And the very best ones often come in small packages, such as the three “underappreciated dividends” yielding up to 15% that I’m about to show you. I’m talking about funds that pay big, secure dividends. When pullbacks happen, these funds’ prices don’t