Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Update Nov. 15, 2015: The Budget Bill signed into law in late 2015 dramatically changes the popular "File and Suspend" strategy discussed here. People who can take advantage of it by April 1, 2016 are grandfathered, but depending on your birth date, the strategy has gone away for other folks. See our article "How the New Social Security Claiming Rules Affect You" for more.
July 16, 2014 -- A recent story in MarketWatch by Robert Klein highlights a little known but interesting wrinkle to the "file and suspend" strategy for maximizing Social Security benefits. The wrinkle can result in a significant windfall of cash, which might be particularly useful if you contract a life-threatening illness before age 70.
For background, the file and suspend strategy is mainly taken to allow one spouse to collect the spousal benefit while the other spouse continues to accrue benefits past Full Retirement Age (age 66 to 67 for baby boomers). In this strategy one spouse
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Published on July 16, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 1, 2014 -- Congratulations on getting the kids through college. With today's out of control tuition costs, that was no easy task. And nice going with the retirement, we hope you get a hard-earned rest from a lifetime of work. The “Broke” part isn’t so good though, so here are 8 steps on how to help fix that.
Unfortunately you are not alone. It is estimated that
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Published on June 30, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 31, 2014 -- Thanks to everyone who took our Social Security Quiz - all 5,700 of you (and counting)! As we warned, it was not easy. In fact, Harry, a college friend of ours commented that if your editor was a professor back in the day no one would taken his classes! There is still plenty of good news though, especially since there is a grading curve:
- Some of the points that people messed up on are nice to know, but not crucial to
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Published on March 31, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
March 24, 2014 — Chances are your Social Security benefit is one of the most important components of your retirement. But in our experience there is a fairly shocking lack of knowledge about this subject. To help you get the most out of your benefit we have prepared an 11…
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Published on March 24, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
February 18, 2014 -- Now that all of us have assumed responsibility for our own retirements, conducting due diligence has become part of our job description. That responsibility extends to vetting the financial advisers and providers of financial services that we might hire to help with our retirement finances. If you decide to buy an annuity, which many experts believe most retirees should have a portion of their retirement in, you need to be especially careful.
The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article last week entitled "Who's Training Your Financial Advisor". The piece brings up how financial advisers
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Published on February 18, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
February 4, 2014 -- So misunderstood - that about sums up reverse mortgages as far as we are concerned. Hyped by some unscrupulous providers, this tool for older Americans to tap the equity in their homes for retirement has acquired if not a bad name, at least a lot of cautionary looks by potential customers. That's why we were very happy to find a government site with some excellent background information about HUD's Reverse Mortgage Program. The link provides a great deal of helpful
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Published on February 4, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Note: Be sure to take our new "What is Your Social Security IQ Quiz". It will give you a score and detailed explanations to make you a Social Security expert (our best advice, read this article first!).
January 27, 2014 -- We bet you have heard stories about why you shouldn't work once you start taking Social Security. Some folks say they'll just end up giving back what they make, while others go to great lengths to minimize their hours or even get paid under the table. But the facts are that you shouldn't be afraid of working once you start taking your benefit, assuming you could use more income and don't mind working. You can actually earn quite a bit without any effect on your benefit, and earn a lot with only a relatively small penalty.
The Facts M'am
Here are the rules about working and your Social Security benefits.
- Once you reach your normal retirement age (66 for most of us), you can earn as much
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Published on January 27, 2014
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 30, 2013 -- (Note: A slightly different version of this article by Topretirements founder John Brady originally appeared in the Dec. 17 USA Today).
Millions of baby boomers are starting retirement with fewer financial resources than they had planned on. The various reasons for the shortfalls represent a perfect storm for boomers: defined benefit plans are largely a thing of the past, not saving enough money, poor investments, unexpected emergencies, or losing their jobs years before the expected retirements. To maintain their current lifestyles on a reduced budget, many have decided that a tax-friendly place to retire might be the way to go. But while no one wants to pay taxes, that priority could be misplaced. Here are 5 reasons to rethink
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Published on December 29, 2013
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 10, 2013 – If you are a woman we would like to know more about your experiences with financial planners. Do you have one now? How did you find him or her? What would you like them to accomplish for you? What prevents you from going to one? Have…
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Published on December 10, 2013
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
November 25, 2013 -- Over the past week we saw numerous reports reminding us of yet another way that our hard-earned retirements can run onto financial shoals. This time the culprit is one that most of us don't think that much about - medical expenses. We will explain more about the problem here, along with some ideas on how to prepare your retirement against bankrupting medical expenses.
Fidelity, the mutual fund company, estimates that a couple in average health will spend over $220,000 during their retirement for medical
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Published on November 25, 2013
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