A crucial part of retirement income planning is helping you estimate health care expenses in retirement, both in the first year of retirement and over a your life expectancy. These costs are notoriously difficult to estimate because they depend on: 1) a client’s health care usage (i.e., health status) both now and in the future; […]
Most people believe Medicare covers dental – nope – Medicare does not! Some Medicare Advantage plans do (and some don’t – you need to check). Some retirees may have employer provided dental coverage. Check to see if it will cover things beyond maintenance care (cleanings and x-rays) that most plans are limited to. Here’s the […]
So you’re the executor/successor trustee of the will/trust of a loved one. What do you do about their remaining credit card debt? Are you personally obligated to pay those from your funds? How do you close all those credit card accounts? What documents will you need to contact the credit card companies? How do you […]
Children we love grow up. Many parents with concerns about a struggling adult child are apprehensive about discussing such a sensitive topic. But broaching this subject can lead to a number of benefits for the family and for the adult child. Adult children who are struggling with addiction, irresponsibility with money, or messy marital issues […]
Looming government pension issues at the State and Local levels impact not only current government employees, but retirees and taxpayers alike. Many have seen the National Debt Clock. However, this is only U.S. Treasury debt – which doesn’t include agency debt, unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare, State and Local debt, some student education […]
Two big areas of confusion among people and advisors are the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO). Although they are often spoken in the same breath, they are really quite different. The only thing they have in common is that they affect people who worked in jobs not covered by Social […]
I held onto this to post now, a few years later, to drive home the point of how some thoughts are timeless. 16 Insights That Will Change The Way You Think About Money is just such an example. The bold emphasis is mine to highlight what the article is about … … ways to think about […]
Two headaches when identity thieves first use your identity to start your Social Security benefits, and then you having to contend with not having reported that income (you never got) to the IRS when Social Security sends the IRS and you the 1099 for that phantom income! Two bureaucracies to contend with for that single […]
Home buying can be daunting, even for those who’ve done it before. The question of getting loan approval can be tricky. Having your debt to income ratios evaluated for loan qualification is also confusing to some. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a good short description as to the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval. […]
When do you claim your Social Security when you want to retire (stop working) at age 60? Or 58? Or some other age before 70? 62 is the earliest you can claim your benefit (reduced), and age 70 is the latest you should claim because that’s the age the benefit is maximized. Your stop working age […]
