Retirement

By Mark A. Stein, Next Avenue Theresa McCartin was looking forward to the new year. She had left a steady corporate job and was eager to start her own business cleaning and restoring expensive Oriental and Persian rugs. She called her startup Bal Arisi, Turkish for honeybee. Bal Arisi opened for business on January 3,

Many financially comfortable older parents are urged to prepare their heirs to receive their inheritances. How will the adult children know how to manage all those assets? How will they make important decisions about preserving what their aging parents worked so hard for so long to achieve? Some advisors say “tell them what you’ve got

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Giving your grandchild a new toy or game or clothes is nice. But helping pay for their future college education? Now, that’s a gift your grandkid and their parent — your adult child — will never forget. One smart way to do it: Opening and funding a 529 college savings

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For some investors, getting paid while they own a security, instead of just when they sell it, is a priority. For those investors, dividend investing can have tremendous appeal. Dividend investing involves investing in stocks, but with a particular focus on the regular distribution of a

The federal agency that operates Medicare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is finally recognizing what families have known for, well, thousands of years: Family members are the bedrock of the system of care for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. And the agency is taking some important steps to help

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin For most people, portfolio income is their pathway toward financial freedom. Money saved during the working years can be used to create an investment portfolio that can then generate income during retirement. In this article, we’re going to show you how to create an income-producing portfolio.

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin In December 2018, you could buy a share of Apple (AAPL) for about $40, adjusted for the 2020 stock split. Today, that share is worth upwards of $175. Look back further in time and you’ll see, this isn’t an anomaly. The iPhone maker has a long

Does your retirement plan offer Separately Managed Accounts (otherwise known as “SMAs”)? According to a recent report by Cerulli Associates, SMAs may represent the next big trend in 401k plans. Are you ready for it? Why might 401k plans want to offer SMA options on their investment menus? “Many financial providers have adopted the fiduciary

A friend texted me recently about his neighbor. “I am reaching out for Jerry. He has free dental through his Medicare Advantage plan. He has no top teeth left and needs dentures. His dentist quoted him $1,800. He had some fillings and such earlier this year and there was no bill. He wants to know

Annuity sales are soaring, but still only a minority of retirees own them. If more people were aware of one key advantage of annuities, they probably would reposition part of their retirement portfolios into annuities. In this post I’m talking about annuities that pay guaranteed lifetime income. These generally are the single premium immediate annuity

Lesson To Learn So the moral of this tax tale is that you have to be careful about making sure you file the right tax form to get what you want. We’ll elaborate a bit on the key point in the case to provide more background on trust taxation and trusts generally. The broader message

Most Americans who aren’t yet receiving their Social Security retirement benefits plan to claim the benefits early, according to the 2023 Schroders US Retirement Survey. Only 10% say they plan to wait until age 70 to claim the maximum Social Security retirement benefit. Many plan to accelerate their benefits. About 40% say they will claim

The Medicare scammers are at it again. They steal Medicare numbers, and send tests to beneficiaries’ homes. They then bill the recipient for things the recipient never ordered. For those with aging parents, this scheme can work well, as some won’t remember if they ordered a test after Medicare stopped paying for these on May

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin In creating a bond portfolio, an investor normally aims to obtain high income, to preserve principal and possibly to earn an attractive total return (the sum of income, reinvestment income and price change). Achieving these objectives requires careful attention to risk and taxation. The following discussion

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin What Are Index Funds? Index funds are a type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) that aims to replicate the performance of a specific market index such as the S&P 500. Unlike actively managed funds, where fund managers make individual security selections to try and

The IRS recently issued some short-term guidance on required minimum distributions for IRAs, especially inherited IRAs. The IRS isn’t ready to issue final regulations on the changes made to RMDs by the SECURE Act and other recent legislation. It issued proposed regulations on inherited IRAs in the spring of 2022 and still is considering the

Another summer, another stark reminder of the reality of climate change. Wildfires on Maui caused widespread destruction and the highest death toll in more than 140 years. The southern US buckled under a brutal and historic heat wave. Flash floods inundated Vermont and other northern states. And, hurricane season has only begun, potentially fueled by

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin What Are Index Funds? Index funds are a type of mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) that aims to replicate the performance of a specific market index such as the S&P 500. Unlike actively managed funds, where fund managers make individual security selections to try and

You might think that the aging of the Baby Boom generation, with the Gen Xers following close behind, would make geriatric medicine a popular specialty. Almost as attractive, perhaps, as orthopedic surgery. But you’d be very, very wrong. In 2000, there were only about 10,000 board-certified geriatricians to care for 35 million Americans age 65

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Fabless chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) will report results for its second quarter of fiscal year 2024 on August 23. This is an earnings release Wall Street is watching closely. Read on for the specifics on what metrics to watch, how to access the release and what numbers