Retirement Watch Weekly
High Stock Values Don’t Mean a Stock Market Crash is Near
Stock values and many other asset values are too high, says Cliff Asness of AQR, a money management firm. But that doesn’t mean it is time to sell and hide in cash. Many assets values have been high for a long time. But high values alone don’t mean a decline is imminent. Asset prices could […]
Controlling Retirement Housing Costs
Housing is the biggest expense of most retirees, according to the Department of Labor. But don’t take that literally. Most of the cost is what Labor estimates as owners’ equivalent rent, not a cash expense. Even so, this article gives the details and some advice on how to reduce the cost. The best advice is […]
Profile of a Stock Promoter
Somehow enough investors never seem to catch on, so con artists make millions of dollars all the time by convincing investors to contribute money to companies that turn out to be phony. Here’s an entertaining profile of someone who was active as a stock promoter until recently and fleeced investors out of a lot of […]
Making Smarter Estate Planning Gifts to Family Members
Giving gifts isn’t as easy as one might think. It’s not easy, that is, if you want to maximize the value and impact of your gifts. Watching every gift is the tax man, looking to take a piece of it. Even if your estate isn’t likely to be taxable, you should be looking for ways […]
Will Your Children be Required to Pay for Your Long-Term Care?
Many Americans worry that long-term care expenses will deplete their estates and cause them to run out of money. People also should worry that their children and estates might be required to pay for their long-term care, even after they are gone. That’s the trend in both federal and state law. A 1993 federal law […]
Choosing a Medicare Supplement Plan
The limits of Medicare coverage are a surprise to many retirees. Some learn the lesson during their pre-retirement planning. Others don’t find out until they incur medical expenses in retirement. Medicare covers only about half the medical expenses incurred by retirees, according to studies over the years. The specifics vary for each beneficiary, of course. […]
A Higher Return on Safe Money, Plus LTC Benefits
Most of you have a slug of “safe money” on which you’d like to earn a higher return without risking your principal. You also would like to protect your estates from long-term care expenses without the use-it-or-lose-it feature of stand-alone long-term care insurance policies. There are tools available to help you reach these goals. In […]
October 2014
October 31, 2014 04:20 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review Happy Halloween. First I want to thank all of you who joined us for the recent webinar, “Your Portfolio and Your Heirs.” It was an important presentation, and we had a strong turnout. If you weren’t able to attend the webinar, you can view […]
