Retirement

Hong Kong is culling (cute) pet hamsters by the thousands in a fierce effort to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Experts say there is little risk from getting infected from an animal. But when a HK pet store owner had tested positive for COVID-19, tests found that the shop’s hamsters imported from The Netherlands

Continuing to work after age 62 can affect your level of Social Security retirement benefits, whether you are receiving benefits at the time or not. Knowing how continuing to work might change benefit levels can lead to better decisions about when to claim benefits and whether to continue working. You can begin claiming Social Security

There was a time when I thought the optimal goal of financial planning was to collect vast amounts of information, boil all of that information down to an extensive list of assumptions and finely-tuned projections, and then to “click a button” and calculate precisely what a client should do based on those assumptions.  I thought

“Since my husband’s death—now a year ago—I have been a bit at sea financially (as well as emotionally). When his estate is finally settled, I will need to make decisions about a host of topics. Investment advice is not what I need, but an objective financial advisor that I could pay by the hour to work

Annuity laddering involves staggering the purchase of annuities over a period of time. A laddered annuity differs from a deferred annuity, which involves a single purchase but with payments deferred for some period selected by the purchaser. Both the laddered and deferred annuities considered here have fixed payments – variable annuities are a completely different

If the current state of politics and other woes in the U.S. have you looking thoughtfully at alternative places to live, this post is for you! Every January International Living posts their “Annual Global Retirement Index” for the year ahead. I like to hop on that and spread the word, so for the third year in a

Your friend or family member has named you as trustee of their trust. What do you do next?  Some people who serve as trustees do what they think they are supposed to do – without a true understanding of the role – or worse, whatever they want to do. In reality, accepting the role of

Searching for RMD Tables Online? If you do an online search for the new RMD (Required Minimum Distribution) tables to use to calculate your 2022 RMD, you might find yourself running in circles. Where, just where, are those 2022 tables? The online searches I tried today take you to the old tables, even if you specifically search

The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund says it hired BDO USA, LLP to conduct a so-called forensic audit. While the pension claims to “operate transparently,” in response to an Illinois FOIA request it produced a redacted copy of the contract with BDO which failed to disclose critical information regarding the cost and scope of the forensic

A rate lock is a commitment by a mortgage lender to lend a stated amount to a specified borrower posting a specified property as collateral, at a stipulated interest rate and points. An important proviso is that the loan must be closed within a specified “lock period”, which is usually 15 to 60 days. The

There’s been a lot of talk about whether the backdoor Roth IRA and mega back door Roth conversions will be eliminated. However, this isn’t the only reason to convert money to Roth. The most common reason is to pay taxes on pre-tax money now so the money can grow to be eventually tax-free. Let’s take

You might want to lock in life insurance premiums now, before they increase. You’ve probably seen the data showing that life expectancy in the U.S. has been declining. The decline first was detected before the pandemic, due to the opioid epidemic and some other factors. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a further decrease in life expectancy.

Based on rumblings at the Federal Reserve, the likelihood of a mortgage price spike in the near future is high. A price spike will make a mortgage costlier for all borrowers who are not locked, and unaffordable for some. This article is about locking a price before the spike hits. Distinguishing The Types of Mortgage

Who’s Minding the Store? We’re seeing it more and more now at AgingParents.com: elders as landlords who can’t do the management job any longer. Sometimes it’s the adult children who bring the issue to our attention. They see Dad failing maintain those rental houses he has had for decades. If tenants complain, he does not

As financial advisors, we like to think of financial planning as a series of discrete practices woven together—like budgeting, investment planning, insurance planning, retirement planning, estate planning, education planning, etc. But I don’t think that’s how non-advisors, and our clients, really see it. Consider for a moment: What are the typical triggers for someone reaching

By Richard Eisenberg, Next Avenue Whether 2022 is the year you’ve resolved to manage your money better or you have an adult child or grandchild you’d like to learn some personal finance basics, have I got some books for you! Actually, they’re 13 money book recommendations from my “Friends Talk Money” podcast co-hosts Pam Krueger, Terry

“Last year I moved a small amount of my 401(k) into the Vanguard Inflation Protected Securities fund. Turned out to be a good move for the 5.7% I earned in 2021. Not such good news for the small amount I still have in Fidelity’s U.S. Bond Index, which lost 1.8% last year. I am thinking of

On December 14, 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), released data about a significant increase in the Producer Price Index (PPI), the largest increase since the data was first calculated in November of 2010. For the 12 months ending November 2021, the PPI was up 9.6%. PPI is important because it measures the average

By Nancy Collamer, Next Avenue Last year, my husband Joel, then 65, retired from a 30+ year career as an IT consultant. Initially, he reveled in his newfound freedom. But over time, the leisurely life lost its luster and Joel seemed a little lost himself. Now as a retirement coach, I wasn’t alarmed by Joel’s growing restlessness.

By Andy Levine, Next Avenue By some estimates, up to 60% of new restaurants fail in the first year. Those statistics didn’t escape Nasim Alikhani, now 62, who says she knew opening a restaurant was “the dumbest investment you can ever do in your life.” Despite that, she did it anyway, opening Sofreh, a Persian restaurant