Congress recently passed, and the President recently signed, a bill called the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act). This brings major changes to the retirement landscape that will affect all retirement savers going forward. These are the most sweeping changes to the retirement rules in my entire 13-year career. Let’s walk through the most impactful changes: […]
Retirement Planning
Should you move domiciles to pay lower taxes?
Tax planning involves searching for and taking advantage of legitimate opportunities for tax reduction. As clients seek to reduce their tax bite, a common question is, “Should I move to another state to reduce my taxes?” For those on the East Coast, the move might be from New Jersey to Florida. On the West Coast, Californians may consider moving to Nevada.
New Ruling Holds All Financial Professionals to a “Fiduciary Standard”
The fiduciary standard is receiving significant press in light of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) approved expansion to the “investment advice fiduciary” definition under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). In broad terms, fiduciary duty means putting the interests of the client first, ahead of profits. It means that the advice a client receives serves the client’s best interests, […]
Inflation: The Grinch Who Stole Your Purchasing Power
As the holidays arrive, there are many constants in life to be thankful for: family, friends, and experiences, just to name a few. As many of us gather around the dinner table, discussions of internet hackers, early picks to win the Super Bowl, and stories of the past are bound to be debated. Perhaps the one thing that all of […]
Social Security: Timing Matters
A few weeks ago Chris recommended that I read a new book, “Social Security Strategies”, to better understand some of the strategies that clients can use to get the most out of Social Security over their lifetimes. As the name implies, the authors lay out different strategies on when to begin Social Security benefits based on profiles of an individual […]
Don’t put your retirement in jeopardy over college expenses
Middle-aged parents face two huge expenses: college costs for their children and the even larger eventual cost of retirement. Many find it hard to juggle the two and get confused over priorities and where to allocate resources. A recent Gallup survey done for Sallie Mae, the large student lender, found that 6 percent of parents in 2010 had withdrawn money from an […]
Want to retire but cannot control the markets? Save more
The old saying about not worrying about things we can’t control and concentrating on those things we can control applies to retirement planning, says Vanguard, the large mutual fund company. It conducted a study of market returns, savings rates, and investment horizons as they relate to retirement success. It found that savings rates are very important. “Our conclusions reinforce that the […]
A lesson for young workers: Save as much as you can now
Here is a lesson to keep repeating to your children and grandchildren: it is easier to save $381 per month toward retirement than to save $5,778 per month. Seems simple, doesn’t it? Yet it might be the hardest financial chore a young person can undertake. The reward, however, is a secure retirement, rather than a decision to keep working or live […]
Marriage and wealth determine whether retirement is a success
What is the secret to leading a financially successful and healthy retirement? Accumulate wealth while you are working and stay married in retirement. And, for the best individual outcome, die before your spouse does. Those are some of the findings of a study done by three economics professors at MIT, Dartmouth, and Harvard. It seems obvious that accumulating wealth is one of the keys to […]
More Stocks Can Mean a More Secure Retirement
Some people who are about to retire make a big mistake: They keep too much of their retirement portfolio in “safe” fixed-income investments, and not enough in “risky” stocks. Some also make another mistake in retirement: They take too much money out in certain years, making it hard for the portfolio to recover from bear markets. Financial writer Paul Merriman […]