Retirement Watch Weekly
Simple Strategies for Effective Estate Planning
Estate planning can be much easier than people realize, and simpler than many estate planners make it. Too often, people delay creating or updating their estate plans to avoid confusion about a potentially steep learning curve for novel terms and strategies. Fortunately, few of us need to learn about grantor-retained annuity trusts, intentionally defective trusts, […]
Bob’s Journal for 4/25
IRA Heirs Can Delay RMDs Another Year, But Should They? The IRS announced that in 2024, for the fourth consecutive year, IRA beneficiaries don’t have to take the annual required minimum distributions (RMDs) described in the proposed regulations interpreting the 10-year rule of the SECURE Act. Recall that in late 2019, the Setting Every Community […]
How To Make Your Home Equity a Retirement Asset
The residence usually is one of the most valuable assets retirees own. It also is one of the worst-managed assets. Few people realize the home can be used to increase retirement cash flow or know how to do so efficiently. In the past issues of Retirement Watch, we’ve gone over reverse mortgages and issues related […]
Bob’s Journal for 4/18
Advance Indicators of Recessions Reverse Course The most-cited advance indicators of recessions recently became less gloomy after months of indicating a recession was imminent. The prominent Leading Economic Index from The Conference Board declined for 23 consecutive months, causing The Conference Board to warn for most of the last two years that a mild recession […]
Must-Take Retirement Finance Actions for the Rest of 2024
In my new Retirement Watch Spotlight Series, I’ll share my newest breakthrough strategies for protecting your assets and growing your portfolio, including how to prepare for the next market downturn. Click here now to learn more. […]
Bob’s Journal for 4/11
Why the Economy is Harder to Read It’s no surprise that many economists, analysts and investors misread the economy the last few years, as did the Federal Reserve. There are good reasons for this. One problem that’s becoming worse is data collection. A good portion of the economic data released each month comes from surveys […]
Expect Medicare Advantage Changes in 2025
Medicare Advantage plan insurers are under fire, as I foretold in my Feb. 1 Bob’s Journal. Barron’s recently expanded upon the situation in a cover story. The problems became apparent when Humana, a major provider of Medicare Advantage plans, reported higher costs and lower profits, reporting it expected those trends to continue. While Advantage plans […]
Bob’s Journal for 3/28
Social Security to Reduce ‘Clawback Cruelty’ for Benefit Overpayments The Social Security Administration (SSA) finally is moderating its aggressive practices against beneficiaries who were overpaid benefits. It’s not unusual for SSA to make errors when calculating someone’s benefits and discover the error later, sometimes years later. Then, the SSA demands repayment. The longstanding SSA practice […]
