My Comments: This topic is very relevant for me. Statistically my wife will survive me by ten years. If life plays out that way, she may need help from Medicaid. If our home is in a family trust and I’m gone from the scene, it will be easier for our children as trustees to look …
Continue reading Does Putting Your Home in a Trust Protect It From Medicaid?
My Comments: A family member is thankfully near the end of a 12–15-month process to successfully complete an inheritance. The person who died had some assets in a revocable trust but many were not. The effort to complete what is often a long probate process has been complicated by an IRA owned by the deceased …
Continue reading Four Reasons Retirees Need a (Revocable) Trust
I’m sure you’ve heard about annuities. Some of them can be imagined as a "Swiss Army Knife" when it comes to retirement planning, a versatile companion that serves multiple purposes, much like the trusty Swiss Army Knife I've carried for years. In this post, I'll describe a financial product tailored for your retirement journey. While …
Continue reading An Interesting Analogy for Retirement Planning
My Comments: This post follows up on my previous message about Social Security, aiming to clarify program details. Now, let's delve into the decision-making process for when to apply for benefits. The primary uncertainty in this decision revolves around one critical factor: the unknown timing of your departure from this world. This factor determines whether …
Continue reading Should You Take Social Security at Age 62, 67, or 70?
My Comments: I suspect this question posed to an online site is more common than not. Too many Americans these days have too little money saved and aging is catching up with them if it hasn’t already. The article referenced below attempts to provide an intelligent answer, and for the most part it does. However …
Your Balance Sheet Your household has a balance sheet. As you may recall from accounting courses you took along the way, a balance sheet has the assets listed on the left with liabilities listed on the right. That balance sheet for someone approaching or already in retirement might look like this: Assets: Human Capital …
Continue reading How to Spend Your Nest Egg ~ Probability vs. Safety First
My Comments: Let me first acknowledge I have a profound respect for Robert Reich. His expressed ideas have always resonated with me and yes, he’s a Democrat, as am I. What follows is relevant these days given both the political environment we live in and the uncertainty about the economy and the investment markets. I …
Continue reading The Truth About The Economy That You’re Not Hearing
I’m sure you’re already aware the markets are very uncertain these days. For most of us, they’re down significantly for the year. For every pundit who says there’s a lot more downside to expect, there’s a pundit telling us we’ve essentially hit the bottom and the upside looks like a return to normal. After …
Continue reading The Retirement Life – The First of Many Steps
The Employee Retention Credit or ERC is an element still in play from the CARES Act that was the Congressional response to the Covid pandemic. Originally, it was set to expire at the end of 2021. However, there are still many millions of dollars waiting to be asked for and claimed. According to the National …
My Comments: Having more money is almost always a good thing. Having enough money is a function of your core expenses (food, shelter, transportation, healthcare, utilities, etc.) compared with discretionary expenses. Things like travel, entertainment, nice cards vs OK cars, etc. You’ve spent the last several years of your life establishing a lifestyle and odds …
Helping Define Your Financial Future 