Bob Carlson shares miscellaneous advice on retirement and related topics
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Official figures say inflation is under control, but some of your regular expenses are rising steeply. You can beat many of these cost increases. You also can maximize savings on other expenses by doing some smart comparison shopping. Auto insurance. There is a revolution taking place in automobile insurance, sparked by Progressive Insurance. Instead of […]

The standard retirement planning advice is to plan on spending 65% to 85% of your pre-retirement income each year of retirement. Unfortunately, that is a fallacy. Following that advice could diminish your retirement. Proof is in the latest Retirement Replacement Ratio Study, sponsored by Aon, a financial services company, and conducted by professors at Georgia […]

When you no longer plan to use a house, is it better to sell or rent that residence or second home? The question faces many retirees, and even many pre-retirees. Of course, not everyone has this choice. They need to sell the former residence or second home in order to buy the new house and […]

Real estate values are climbing, and local property taxes are soaring with them. If the real estate tax rate stays the same and your home appreciates, your real estate tax bill rises at the same rate as the appreciation. In my recent trip to Naples, Fla., I learned that the prices of most residences there […]

A Retirement plan is a work in progress. You begin the plan with certain assumptions about your spending, inflation, taxes, investment returns, and other factors. Reality won’t match your assumptions as the years roll on. That’s why every few years, the plan needs to be adjusted. Once you are in or near retirement, you should […]
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