Retirement

Some Taxpayers’ Max QCDs Will Be Reduced Recall that QCDs (qualified charitable distributions) are limited to $100,000 per year? That $100,000 maximum is not available to everyone. If an individual makes deductible contributions to his or her tax-deferred IRA (individual retirement account), the max is reduced. How so? The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement

The stock market volatility in January and the first week in February this year may be causing some jittery nerves with retired investors. If you want to feel more confident that a stock market crash won’t ruin your life in retirement, it’s a good idea to develop a careful strategy for investing and drawing down

Banking decisions aren’t always front and center in wealth planning, but they should be part of the conversation. Family wealth plans are typically focused on long-term investments or complex tax strategies. Banking solutions don’t often get a lot of attention, but it is important when viewing both sides of the balance sheet and how lending

America’s largest banks echoed the U.S. economy in 2021, rebounding to a strong position following the upheaval and disruption of Covid-19 that continues to spread but with less disruptions to daily life. Coming out of pandemic shutdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the virus served as a resiliency test for the sector, the likes

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue For a look into the present, and possible future, of living to 100, meet the Rarey family, featured in the first episode of the excellent new “Century Lives” podcast series from the Stanford Center on Longevity. Patriarch Dick Rarey, who turned 100 in 2021, is a former landscape architect and WWII vet, now

By Sally Abrahms, Next Avenue Linda Helfet, 78, and her husband Bill Hilliker, 86, always thought they would grow old in their beloved Watertown, Mass., condo just outside Boston. But with one son living in Oregon and the other in Georgia, they’ve begun to worry. “What’s going to happen when either Bill or I are gone?”

In a low-bracket year you could have either a long-term gain or a Roth conversion. One will save you more money. “My wife and I plan to retire on my 65th birthday in 2025; we will delay taking Social Security until age 70.  With required distributions from IRAs beginning in 2032, we have seven years to harvest

“The stock market is poised to lose 20%. No, wait, it could lose 30%. Or it could even crash by 50%!” If you keep up with the news, you’ve most likely read similar “the sky is falling” headlines—the market’s sharp drop in January prompted a rash of such pronouncements. So should you panic if you’re

By Erin Flynn Jay, Next Avenue Sue Ronnenkamp, 64, worked in health care and aging services for over 40 years. Her last job was with a start-up company focused on the Medicare Plus market in Pennsylvania, but she lost that position in a lay-off. Ronnenkamp made the decision to shift to homesharing when she decided to leave

In my prior article, I laid out the Illinois General Assembly’s repeated unanimous, near-unanimous or strong bipartisan majority support for a series of bills increasing pension benefits for public employees from 1989 – 2000. But what more can we learn from what the senators and representatives themselves said about the bills? Their comments are quite

Imagine that your aging mother had to go to the hospital and is now going to be discharged. The discharge coordinator tells you that your aging parent must get rehab and go to a facility to receive it, as the hospital won’t provide that now. She needs physical and occupational therapy, you’re told. The discharge

With nursing homes and other long-term care facilities desperately short of nurses and aides, it is more important than ever for consumers to know about staffing levels, quality, and turnover. But it has been difficult to get some key information. Now, the government has taken a modest step to help. In January, the Centers for

The economy grew by 5.7% in 2021 from 2020. This was the highest annual growth rate since 1984. Much of this impressive growth was due to the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) enacted in March 2021. But, the data also show that Congress needs to enact progressive supply side policies to maintain this momentum. These

The day is finally approaching. You’ve been saving and investing most of your life for this moment, but now you’re not so sure you’re really ready to retire. It’s a predicament faced by many employees that we work with. While retirement readiness has many non-financial components to it, here’s how you can know if you’re

Most people aren’t very excited to read an article about taxes. Unless, of course, that article describes how they may be able to pay up to $20,000 per year less than they otherwise would have to pay. This may be one of those articles. As you might imagine, as the CEO of Best Mexico Movers,

Starting the new year off with a strong, strategic financial plan to kickstart your financial goals for the next 12 months can have a lasting impact on your future beyond 2022. This, of course, includes the ever-important consideration of retirement planning. Luckily, recent legislative changes have increased contribution limits for the 401(k), as well as

Presuming that you’ve seen the caregiving commercials and are even more worried about caring for your parents – you’re not alone – over 53 million Americans are currently caring for an elderly relative or friend who needs help just navigating daily life. Yep, that many – 1 in 5 – spend an average 24 hours

Today’s Social Security column addresses questions about published maximum Social Security benefit rates, payment of delayed retirement credits when filing after full retirement age and how spousal benefit rates are calculated. Larry Kotlikoff is a Professor of Economics at Boston University and the founder and president of Economic Security Planning, Inc. See more Ask Larry

Thanks to some rigorous studies in recent years, we now know that social isolation is a key factor in predicting early mortality. In fact, it is more closely linked to mortality than obesity or high cholesterol. However, social isolation cannot be defined simply as living alone. In fact, more people live alone today than ever before, not just in

Over 27 years after William P. Bengen published what he referred to as the SAFEMAX rate in the October 1994 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, the four percent rule still stands as one of the most widely used rules of thumb in retirement planning. Let’s take a look to see how it has developed