Retirement

Sarah McKinney Gibson, Encore.org and Next Avenue Contributor Co-mentors Ashley Moy and Tonise Paul Cast21 Ageism happens to young people, too. Just ask Ashley S. Moy, 25, founder and CEO of the Chicago medical startup, Cast21, which provides waterproof cast and brace alternatives for patients with broken bones. “I’ve had people say, ‘Oh my gosh,

journey concept showing a man with robot looking at a new colony in the alien planet, digital art … [+] style, illustration painting Getty I’m not quite sure how I stumbled on the book The Year 2000 for the first time. My memory says this was in the library – but at the same time,

Getty The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced Medicare Part B premiums for 2020, and the base premium increases nearly 7% from $135.50 a month to $144.60 a month. That $9.10 monthly increase compares to a modest $1.50 monthly increase last year. Meanwhile high earners are still getting used to income-related surcharges that

null Getty Are interest rates heading to zero in the US? Or, dare I say, negative range? I don’t think so. But if they do, real estate investment trusts (REITs) are going to absolutely skyrocket. This year-to-date has been a sneak preview. Most REITs have seen their valuations expand with the market rally, but we

Getty In the realm of financial planning, there are numerous rules and guidelines which must be followed in order to stay clear of significant problems. Many times, once an error has been committed it can either not be unwound or it takes significant time and cost to rectify. One specific area where this holds especially

Getty It’s benefits season, and that means employees are making mistakes that will cost them in headaches and dollars. “You really have to sit down and pay attention to your benefits like you never had to before,” says Judith Wethall, an employee benefits lawyer with McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago. It’s complicated enough if

By Elizabeth Alterman, Next Avenue Contributor Ruth and Al Brod and family in their dining room Ruth and Al Brod When Ruth Brod retired from her job as a probation officer in 2004, she and her retired husband, Al, decided to sell their 1,600-square-foot house in New Hyde Park, N.Y. and move into a 2,800-square-foot

raccoon in a trash can Getty Most stocks that pay more than 10% are, honestly, trash. Their yields usually look big because their stocks have split once or twice “the wrong way.” Take Tupperware Brands (TUP), for example. The party ended abruptly for these shareholders. I feel bad for anyone who was mistakenly holding these

Getty Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the earnings gap between men and women affects not merely their living standards in the short-term, but also their well-being in retirement. There’s nothing surprising here. But the whole discussion is very narrowly focused on income. There’s an elephant in the room: marriage. Let’s start with

Trickle-down tax cuts do not build a strong middle class Getty Many families still struggle financially, even though the economy has been on the mend for more than a decade. It becomes increasingly clear that something must fundamentally change for a broad and secure middle class to reemerge. Real economic security for more families won’t

Businessman looking tired while working at his office desk Getty Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are on fire—and we need to be very careful not to get burned. Here’s the twist: there’s plenty more upside ahead—and you can thank the Fed for that. Its latest rate cuts will keep powering REITs higher, for two reasons:

(Rancho Santa Fe, CA)Clinical Pharmacist Jason Kim consults patients with Medicare questions (Photo … [+] by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Los Angeles Times via Getty Images One of the biggest misconceptions seniors have about health care is this: I have Medicare so don’t need to worry about medical costs in old age. It

Retiring early has obvious advantages, but it can also have disadvantages. Early retirement is often envisioned as ditching the daily grind for a worry-free lifestyle in your 50s and 60s. However, if you are not properly prepared, a tighter budget might make that lack of the daily grind seem less enjoyable. However, if you are

null Getty It’s been a terrific year for one specific group of funds—and that means, if you’re one of many people who own them, you need to be very careful. I’m talking about senior-loan (also known as floating-rate) funds, which have made big gains in 2019. That’s lulled many folks into a false sense of

Put more into your piggy bank with tax-planning strategies for capital gains. Getty Let’s say you own stock that may generate a big capital gain when you sell it. It could be shares in Apple or Amazon that you purchased a long time ago, founder’s stock in a startup that turned into a hot IPO

Will the maximum social security benefit be increasing in 2020? Getty There is some good news and some bad news for workers near the top of the Social Security payroll tax levels. For 2019, the top-level is $132,900 or more. The bad news is that more of your income will get hit with Social Security

Team of doctors Getty Elizabeth Warren just released her proposal for funding the single-payer healthcare system she calls “Medicare for All” but which is far more generous than the existing Medicare system, promising all medically necessary/appropriate services/treatments not just with respect to traditional healthcare but also dental, hearing, vision, and long-term care, both in-home and

Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have proposed expensive across-the-board increases in Social Security benefits, premised on the idea, as Warren says, that “It’s too hard to save enough for a decent retirement — and it’s only getting harder.” Congressional Democrats are ready to back the candidates’ promises, with near-unanimous House Democrat support for

(photo credit: Getty) Getty For Baby Boomers who remember the double-digit inflation that helped put Ronald Reagan in the White House, today’s comparatively subdued annual increases in the Consumer Price Index probably rank low among their retirement-related concerns. Rather than trying to restrain inflation, the Federal Reserve is now striving to boost it to 2%

stack of money Getty Did you get a notification from a former employer offering you the opportunity to cash out your future pension, or even a pension you’re collecting now or about to start, in exchange for a lump sum amount of money? Are you trying to make sense of the numbers? Are you unable