Retirement Watch Weekly
The Most Common Life Insurance Mistake
Following rules of thumb can be dangerous to your wealth. Yet rules of thumb are the way many people decide how much life insurance to purchase. That’s why most people have either too much or too little life insurance. It’s one of the major financial mistakes. Buy too much life insurance, and you are wasting […]
Tips on Getting The Right New Mortgage
Mortgage interest rates are tumbling, spurring many people to buy homes or refinance current mortgages. When shopping for a mortgage, one of the first decisions is whether to choose a fixed rate or adjustable rate mortgage (ARM), sometimes known as a variable rate mortgage. Often there is a meaningful difference, or spread, between interest rates […]
IRS Approved Tax Benefits for Charitable Remainder Trusts
Taxpayers can get great income and estate tax benefits from one strategy – without being aggressive. The IRS recently said it would stop fighting a strategy that tax advisors have advocated for years. Even better, as a result of the bull market this tool is ideal for more people. If you’ve been reading Retirement Watch […]
How to Deal with Medigap Premiums
Premiums for Medicare supplement insurance are climbing again. Insurers report premium increases of 10% and more. For some policies, the premiums will increase over 40%. The sharpness of the increase depends on your state and the type of policy you have. The highest premium increases are for Medigap policies covering prescription drugs. Of the 10 […]
New Retirement Living Choices
Traditional retirement living and housing choices are on the way out. The new generation of retirees is looking for new living experiences. Developers are obliging, giving older Americans more choices for living arrangements than ever. These new choices involve more than locating outside the traditional retirement havens of Florida and Arizona, as I discussed last […]
The Pyramid For Portfolio Profits
It’s been a wild time in the markets, and that can make for dangerous times for investors. The stocks with the biggest gains in 1999 were those with no earnings and big losses. Meanwhile, uncertainty about inflation, interest rates, and the economy make the stock markets very volatile. Many investors are thinking of overhauling their […]
How to Keep More of your Social Security Benefits
There’s great news from Washington. Repeal of the “earned income limit” on Social Security beneficiaries passed Congress, and President Clinton said he would sign it. The bad news is income taxes still are imposed on Social Security benefits. Under the earned income limit, a beneficiary who receives “too much” income from working loses some of […]
Easy, No-Risk Ways To Boost Dividend Yields
Income investors have had a rough time. Even after the recent run-up in interest rates, yields still are far below what they were a few years ago. Income investors whose investments have matured have had to reinvest to receive lower income. It is understandable that long time income investors don’t want to take the risk […]
