What an 81-year old Uber driver can teach us about retirement. Getty My Uber driver and I struck up a conversation about the Orlando traffic and weather. The chatter soon drifted into stories about his experiences living and driving in Florida. I soon learned my driver’s name was Bob. Raising his voice, and turning to
Retirement
In dealing with China, Malaysia has dared to do something Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and the Philippines didn’t: bring Beijing back to the negotiating table to cut the cost of the investment projects assigned to Chinese contractors. This week, China agreed to cut the cost of East Coast Rail Link project by one-third. The new deal
Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin As New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is famously known to say, “Do your job.” ASSOCIATED PRESS Your late aunt has appointed you executor of her will. What do you do now? There is a long list of items you need to address such as securing her
“I’ll never receive anything from Social Security – it’s going bankrupt!” This is a misperception I constantly hear from attendees of my retirement planning workshops, as well from as the public at large. Here’s one thing you can count on: If you live until the age at which you’re eligible for Social Security benefits, you’ll
It makes sense to pay more taxes now in order to exempt your IRA from future taxes. Getty With the growing number of proposals to increase taxes, its time to rethink how we save for retirement. Proposals to increase the top income tax rate, impose a new annual estate/wealth tax, and to tax unrealized capital
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (JIM WATSON)AFP/Getty Images Diversified index funds? Yesterday’s story. Sector funds? Fidelity has had those since 1981. The new, new thing is theme funds. You can get an exchange-traded fund with “millennial” stocks, one that buys shares of employers that are good to military veterans, one that invests in social media, another
There must come a time each year when the topic turns to taxes. Among other things, this event presents many parents (and even grandparents) of young children with an important decision: save in a Roth IRA or 529 plan? Which offers a better way to save for college? Which offers greater flexibility in an uncertain
Today concerned citizens are successfully banding together to protect whatever is most important to them—from their retirement security, to roads and bridges, to drinking water—through crowdfunded forensic investigations conducted by subject matter experts in any given field. Getty Four years ago I speculated that crowdfunding—the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary
The HECM for Purchase program can be used to either downsize or upsize a retirement home. Retirement Researcher The HECM for Purchase program began in 2009 as a way to use a reverse mortgage to purchase a new home. The government saw enough people using a costlier and more complicated two-step process—obtaining a traditional mortgage
Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin It’s no surprise that parents caught in the middle of the sandwich generation are feeling financially stress and strained. What is surprising, however, is the impact this family dynamic is having on our children. The sandwich generation is the term used when a parent is caring
Parents generally want their children to attend university for the primary purpose of securing a better future and gaining a higher level of education to ultimately obtain a well-paying job. Recent reports have shed light on alleged schemes by some wealthy parents to get their children into certain colleges or universities. This includes many parents, including
Dementia is a growing medical phenomenon impacting more than 50 million people world-wide and adding some 10 million to its ranks annually. Costs are estimated to be at least $818 billion a year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), dementia is now the 7th leading cause of death world-wide. And although age is the strongest known risk
If your investment objective is to become wealthy, here’s what you need to know. Getty Investing to become wealthy is different than investing to preserve wealth. A lot of financial articles are written for those who want to preserve wealth. If your investment objective is to become wealthy, here’s what you need to know. For the
New legislation might make it easier for you to save for retirement. Getty There are potential changes afoot in the retirement arena, and some of those changes could be potentially beneficial for a lot of retirees. On March 29, the House Ways and Means Committee unveiled HR 1994, or the SECURE (Setting Every Community Up
Pills at a manufacturerGetty We are living in the age of prescription drugs. They can turn once-fatal diseases into manageable, chronic conditions. But especially for older adults, many of whom take five or more medications each day, they can cause illness or even death. A new study by Judith Garber and Shannon Brownlee of the
As the April 15th tax filing deadline gets closer, there is a lot of last-minute planning going on. Taxpayers are getting one final opportunity to fund retirement accounts for tax year 2018. These accounts range from IRAs, Roth IRAs and SEP IRAs to Health Savings Accounts (HSA). What many are hoping for is that funding
Like Halley’s Comet, the idea that people are faking disability claims reoccurs with regularity. The recurrence doesn’t happen seasonally, but politically: Republicans are more likely to propose to cut disability benefits. In 2019, it is Democrats opposing the Trump Administration’s proposed Fiscal Year 2020 Budget, which targets people with disabilities. Sadly, Trump may feel he can
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg © 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP Investors, traders, and speculators are jumping into the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets again, sending prices soaring across the board. Over the last seven days, Bitcoin has gained 25.74%, Ethereum 18.76%, Ripple 16.12%, and Litecoin 53.20%–see table 1. The rally was extended across the cryptocurrency markets, with 94
Many investors confidently tell me they have discovered the secret to investing: It’s all about passive, Bob. I’m glad they are happy and comfortable with their investment strategy. Unfortunately, I think they are missing some important facts. Most index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are below-average investments. Here’s why. Fidelity’s study compares strategies Recently, Fidelity
Getty Benny retired last week. There was a small party for him in the IT department, and everyone chipped in to get him an Apple Watch, the obligatory successor to the Gold Watch of yore. A couple of decades ago, he and his wife would go off on vacation, doing the travel thing for a