Retirement Watch Weekly
July 2012
July 27, 2012 04:30 p.m. Your Retirement Finance Week in Review There’s been a lot happening in the markets and economy, and more will happen the rest of the summer. This fall will be especially eventful with elections, more deadlines in Europe, and the need for legislation to avoid the “fiscal cliff” in the U.S. […]
New Look in and Uses of Reverse Mortgages
Many retirees in coming years will need to use at least part of their home equity to fund retirement expenses. They should consider reverse mortgages, and they’ll find some recent changes make reverse mortgages more attractive. But some other changes also limit their use and impose more work and restrictions on homeowners. In the last […]
10 Basic Estate Planning Rules for Every Plan
The estate and gift tax law has been shifting and uncertain for more than 10 years, and what it will be after 2012 is uncertain. You know the deal reached at the end of 2010 is scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2012. If Congress does nothing, we’ll revert to the 2001 law, which includes only […]
IRA Strategies for 2012-2013
The amount of money in IRAs is climbing. Most of us have at least one IRA, and eventually many people roll over their main retirement as-sets, 401(k) accounts, to IRAs. Unfortunately, a lot of the value in IRAs isn’t being maximized. People don’t focus on the key strategies that can make an IRA more valuable […]
Renting Your Home or Vacation Home
It’s a great time for landlords in many areas. The percentage of homeowners is steadily declining, and there aren’t signs it will turn around soon. It’s tough for many people to be approved for mortgages, and interest in being a homeowner is down. That means more people are renting. Even better, there aren’t a lot […]
Why Risk Management in Investing is Critical
I often encounter people who expect my investment advice should focus on at least one of two things: identifying the investments that will earn the highest returns in the next short-term, and forecasting the returns of different investments, but especially the stock indexes. Instead, I focus on risk management. The returns will take care of […]
Long-Term Care Insurance Made Easy
The question of whether or not to buy long-term care insurance perplexes many people. They don’t know how to approach the issue and don’t want to be led around by an insurance agent seeking a commission. If you’re in that situation, or simply want a decent road map to analyzing the decision, consider this post. […]
How Bad Are Public Pension Liabilities
A few state and local governments have pension liabilities that are manageable and can be paid down if we enter a period of decent economic growth and normal investment returns. But a number of them have large debt burdens in their pensions. How big is that burden? JPMorgan Chase prepared a confidential report earlier this […]
