Posted On: May 11th, 2009 by Bob Richards
Receive 12 monthly issues of the SeniorFinances Newsletter. Here is a small sample of articles that have appeared:
Social Security Benefits How To Get A Bigger Check
If You Can Save In Retirement Put It Where It’ll Count
Eight Ways To Generate Supplemental Retirement Income Without Special Skills
The Best Ways To Take Charge Of Your Retirement Income And [...]
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Tags: investment newsletter
Posted in newsletter | 29 Comments »
Posted On: March 9th, 2009 by Bob Richards
Sure you can start your social security benefits at age 62, but is that wise? In most cases not. In most cases, given average life expectancy, you earn more by waiting until your full retirement age to start benefits. If you’re married, you have even greater flexibility and opportunities to get higher social security benefits.
One set [...]
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Tags: increase social security benefits
Posted in social security benefits | 29 Comments »
Posted On: February 23rd, 2009 by Bob Richards
If you are retired, you may have discovered that your current income is insufficient to meet your living expenses, especially if you have unexpected medical or funeral bills. In many cases, either liquid assets or insurance will be sufficient to meet these needs. But in some cases, neither of these avenues is available. Therefore, in [...]
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Tags: reverse mortgage
Posted in reverse mortgage | 22 Comments »
Posted On: February 4th, 2009 by Bob Richards
In economic downturns everyone tends to tighten their budgets, and that includes retirees. In fact you may find you’re actually saving in retirement after paying your regular expenses. So where should you put this ‘extra’ savings as a retiree?
You may tend to just put it into your retirement savings into a bank account. But that [...]
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Tags: retirement savings, saving in retirement
Posted in retirement savings | 20 Comments »
Posted On: January 20th, 2009 by Bob Richards
Traditionally, about 50% of people eligible to collect Social Security at 62 do so. But if you do, you’ll receive about 25% less income (i.e. Social Security benefits) than waiting until your full retirement age – between 65 and 67 depending on your birthday. What implication does your early retirement have on your spouse?
Everyone whose [...]
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Tags: social security spouses benefit
Posted in social security benefits | 18 Comments »
Posted On: January 16th, 2009 by Bob Richards
Once you’ve reached age 70½, you must take a minimum required IRA distribution (MRD) each year. But if you don’t need the cash to live on and you expect your IRA stock to increase in the future, consider taking an ‘in kind’ IRA distribution for improved tax benefits.
Recent economic conditions have hit many equities hard. [...]
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Tags: ira distribution
Posted in ira distributions | 4 Comments »
Posted On: January 15th, 2009 by Bob Richards
There can be no question that saving for your own retirement is a financially sound and important thing for you to do, and one of the most common and popular methods of doing this is by investing in a 401K plan at your place of work. But what you may not know is that not [...]
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Tags: 401k plan, 401k plan fees
Posted in 401k plan, financial advisor fees | 15 Comments »
Posted On: January 14th, 2009 by Bob Richards
If a recession becomes severe, dollars may suffer from deflation rather than inflation. This would change the rules you have for retirement investing over the past 30 years. What should retirees consider doing if deflation sets in?
We’re familiar with the effects of inflation. Our dollars just don’t buy as much as they used to. Too [...]
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Tags: deflation, retirement investing
Posted in deflation, retirement investing | 18 Comments »
Posted On: January 12th, 2009 by Bob Richards
Generally, your IRA and or company 401(k) distributions are taxed as ordinary income. That’s because you funded them with tax-deductible contributions and all the earnings of these contributions have been tax-deferred. So nothing has been taxed. Taking a distribution before turning 59½ will add a 10% penalty tax to the income tax.
Nevertheless, you may have made some [...]
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Tags: 401k distribution, 401k distriubution, ira distribution
Posted in 401k distributions, ira distributions | 6 Comments »
Posted On: January 9th, 2009 by Bob Richards
How you Use or Spend Your Savings Determines how much Retirement Tax You Pay
When it comes time to tap your savings and investment accounts, investors often ignore which source should come first for retirement distributions. In general, many experts often advise investors to draw from their taxable accounts first, then tap qualified accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s [...]
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Tags: cut senior taxes, retirement distributions
Posted in retirement distributions, retirement income | 11 Comments »