My Comments: As you approach your retirement and your 62nd birthday, this question becomes increasingly relevant. Retirement is that point in your life when you essentially quit working for money and instead money starts working for you. The challenge is to make sure it’s working hard enough to keep you from running out of money …
Continue reading 3 Things That Affect When You Should Apply for Social Security
My Comments: With much of my time these days building a new business around retirement planning, the question of how long your money will last has huge implications. The 4% rule evolved in years past using the assumption that it would keep you from running out of money before you died. That assumption is not …
My Comments: Some of us are organized and some of us are not and the rest of us are 'sorta/kinda' organized. I’m in the 'sorta/kinda' organized group. I am, however, heavily invested these days in teaching others a process to follow when thinking about their future retirement. I’ve created an internet school called Successful Retirement …
Continue reading Planning for Retirement: a Checklist Approach
My Comments: To me, it’s both pathetic and amusing to hear political candidates rail against the idea of ‘socialism’ and declare it’s mankind’s greatest threat. Like so many of the ‘…isms” applied to economic models of all stripes, socialism is no more a threat to the health and welfare of any society than is capitalism …
My Comments: To all this, I will add another reason to take your benefits early. Reason #4: You are single and might not live very long. This applies to people who are single, likely to remain that way, and have a serious health issue. If there is reason to think you might not live into …
Continue reading 3 Reasons 62-Year-Olds Should Take Social Security Now
My Comments: To Make America Great Again, the presumably well intended mantra for those leading the GOP these day, someone has to overcome ignorance of economics and start paying attention to reality. A positive corporate bottom line is the driving force for a healthy US economy. To reach that goal, we need people willing to …
Continue reading The Danger From Low-Skilled Immigrants: Not Having Them
My Comments: At the national level, if we want more money to spend, both on ourselves as citizens and at the Federal level on things that require money to finance, please tell me why this administration insists on doing things that will result in less money. Yes, I know, the old and wealthy white cadre …
Continue reading Higher Tariffs Won’t Work Now Because They Never Did
My Comments: I’ve never understood the fear that surfaces among some people when the term ‘socialism’ appears. What threat do they feel from this poorly understood word? Yes, I remember the McCarthy hearings and the red menace of Communism. It manifested itself in Russia and China, and was perceived as a global threat to capitalism. …
Continue reading The Forgotten Architect of the American Social Security System
My Comments: It became accepted wisdom that a properly diversified stock portfolio can indefinitely absorb an annual 4% withdrawal rate to satisfy a need for retirement income. That assumption is now disappearing. There is growing sentiment that over the next decade, if not longer, a 4% withdrawal rate will lead to the exhaustion of your …
Continue reading ‘Rolling Bear Market’ Will Paralyze Stocks for Years: Morgan Stanley
My Comments: Long Term Care and the associated costs have become an increasingly obvious existential risk faced by people in retirement. We’re living longer and longer and despite our best efforts, we tend to become more goofy and less healthy as we age. If we can no longer function on our own, of if we …
Continue reading Paying for Long Term Care with a Hybrid Life Insurance Policy
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