Social Security
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Avoid This #1 Retirement Mistake
What’s the biggest mistake in retirement plans? From what I see, it is failing fully to factor inflation into their planning. Retirement these days often lasts 20 years or more. To be safe, you should plan on living to age 90. Over that time inflation can make a safe, comfortable stream of income uncomfortably tight, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Strategies for Year End Tax Savings
Tax planning always is trickiest for senior Americans. And it will be especially tricky this year. The tax law has a number of traps designed specifically to get seniors. The biggest trap is the tax on those Social Security benefits that used to be tax-free. If your adjusted gross income exceeds $32,000 ($25,000 for single […]
Strategies for earning high and safe income from Annuities
The tax-deferral of annuities gets a lot of attention. But not much effort is devoted to the best way to get the highest, safest income from an annuity. Even less attention is devoted to buying an immediate annuity, one that begins paying income within a year. But you’ll hear more about these issues as insurers […]
Last Chance for Roth IRA Conversions
It is decision time for Roth IRA conversions. By letting the decision slip past Dec. 31 you miss a very profitable gift from Congress. As you probably know, Congress created the Roth IRA, which accumulates income and gains tax free, and from which all withdrawals are tax free. Another benefit of the Roth IRA is […]
Strategies for Year-End Tax Savings
In the next few weeks you could add thousands of dollars to your net worth. Market volatility and new tax rules give you the best opportunity in years to reduce your income taxes with year-end moves. Here are some actions to consider between now and Dec. 31 to slash the amount you owe Uncle Sam. […]
