Category Retirement
Social Security Benefit Basics
Sure, you get a periodic statement from the SSA indicating what your benefit will be if you continue working to 62, to your full retirement age (might be as high as 67) or to 70. And they tell you those benefits in today’s dollars.
But how did they come up with those numbers?
(Coronavirus) CARES Act and RMDs
A quick note about annual Required Minimum Distributions from IRAs and 401ks and other retirement accounts — The CARES act, which passed last week and was signed into law on Friday has made a lot of headlines, especially for the “stimulus checks” — the $1200/person which is simply being sent to most Americans. (It phases […]
Required Minimum Distributions – What You Need To Know
Many types of retirement accounts offer enormous tax advantages. For example, if you make contributions to an IRA or 401k, you may be able to deduct those contributions (i.e., not pay income taxes on the income you use to fund those accounts) now — and, instead, let the money grow — with no taxes due […]
Free Money! Which, sadly, only 25% of those eligible are taking…
Now that I have your attention, let’s try that again. Free Money! What we’re talking about here is the “Retirement Savings Contributions Credit”. It was first created as part of the 2001 tax cut package called the “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001” and was made permanent as part of the 2006 […]
How are Social Security benefits computed, and what are WEP and GPO?
Social Security. Perhaps the most successful government program ever, Social Security was put in place as a form of “social insurance” in order to protect against people who’d worked their entire lives ending up in poverty in their old age. Before diving into various details about benefits, there are a few things to clear up […]
FINRA warns about 401(k) Rollovers – Let’s talk again about conflicts of interest!
FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is the securities industry’s self-reglatory organization. They do the various test, deal with broker and advisor registration and monitoring, etc. And FINRA has recently started cracking down on advisors and brokers who are giving questionable advice to investors about how to deal with their 401(k)s and rollovers. In […]
Who’s Training Your Advisor? And let’s talk about conflicts of interest…
Another great column from Jason Zweig over at the Wall Street Journal: <http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/02/14/whos-training-your-retirement-navigator/> In it, he starts with the big issue — there’s a lot of money on the table in the world of retirement savings and, especially, those huge balances growing in people’s 401(k) accounts, many of which will be rolled over in some form […]
The Father of the Modern 401(k) Says It Fails Many Americans
<http://www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/consumed/father-modern-401k-says-it-fails-many-americans> “Thus began the era of make-your-own-retirement.” The 401k wasn’t exactly an accident – it was intentionally put into the tax code. But the blockbuster growth of it, and the way it’s supplanting the traditional pension more and more – that was not the original intention. Scott Tang at American Public Media (NPR) discusses the […]
How to Save More For Retirement Without Really Trying
Today’s column from the excellent Jason Zweig: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323361804578390313278109482.html?mod=djintinvestor_t How to Save More For Retirement Without Really Trying [Click the link above to read the entire article] A highlight or two: • When people want to save but can’t bring themselves to do it, their retirement funds need to do the saving for them—automatically. • At companies that […]
The 4% rule and its failings
The 4% rule and its failings There are plenty of articles about shortcomings of the 4% rule – which is still a great *starting point* if not a real plan. The WSJ brings up a few alternatives to help overcome the problems with the 4% rule: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324162304578304491492559684.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Some of the adjustments/alternatives discussed: (1) using […]
Meyers Wealth Management 