My Comments: With this topic, we’re dealing with mixed messages, both are in a foreign language. On one side are the brokerage firms and investment professionals whose expertise is probably exceptional, telling you what’s the best thing to do with your money. On the other side are insurance professionals whose income is largely a function …
Continue reading Equity-Indexed Annuities As a Retirement Strategy
My Comments: I grew up thinking I’d retire when I reached 65. That was in 2006. For a lot of reasons, here I am in 2019 calling myself semi-retired and working about 30 hours each week. Yes, I no longer have to put on a coat and tie and wander around town looking for new …
Continue reading The New Normal for Retirement: There Isn’t One
Can you believe it??? Capitalism and socialism working together? Whoever caused that to happen should be voted out of office… What were those bas**rds thinking? Actually, there are more than 60 million Americans today who rely on monthly checks from the Social Security Administration. And believe it or not, there is a damn good website. …
Continue reading Why You Should Create a My Social Security Account
No one likes bad news. When it arrives almost daily, there is a tendency to treat it as noise and tune it out. When it involves retirement, tuning it out is easy since for most people, retirement is years away. Without a sense of urgency, it’s just another time consuming and relatively meaningless waste of …
Continue reading Americans Know They’re Not Ready for Retirement. But It’s Worse Than They Think
Disney is a name that resonates with people of my generation. We grew up with Mickey Mouse and as our kids grew up, Disneyland in California and Disney World in Florida became vacation destinations for millions of us. My grandchildren today know the park in Orlando like the back of their hands. Abigail Disney is …
If you’re not yet 50, the idea of having to pay for long term care is way outside your everyday mind set. Yes, it may apply to your parents or grandparents, but not in your everyday world. But as you begin to think about your personal financial future, it needs to become part of the …
Continue reading Let’s Get Real About Health Costs in Retirement
There’s a lot of talk about retiring early. As someone now in their late 70s, I find it hard to get my mind around the idea. I attempted to retire at about 70, found myself terminally bored, and un-retired. With any luck, I’ll keep working about 30 hours every week for the rest of my …
It may sound simple, but making it happen for you may be very complicated. I think we’d all like less stress in our lives, but taking one simple step today to eliminate a major stress point in our future may be unrealistic. Nevertheless, this is worth thinking about. And if you can get yourself committed …
If I believed it was so, I’d be writing that there’s no retirement problem looming over us. But there is a problem, and you and I alone cannot fix it. I’m not sure it’s fixable. All we can do is be aware of it and at a personal level, figure out ways to survive it. …
Continue reading The Coming Pension Crisis Is So Big That It’s A Problem For Everyone
Debt, in and of itself, if not always a bad thing. For example, China has lent the US many billions of dollars by buying Treasury bonds over the years. We pay interest to China, they in turn get a return on their investment commensurate with the risk they’re taking, and in due time, when the …
Helping Define Your Financial Future 