With inflation dominating the news, people may be developing more than a passing interest in how the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is figured for inflation’s effects on the loss of purchasing power of each dollar. Whether it’s a matter of simple curiosity or an effort to maximize benefits through strategic claiming, people should know […]
If a person is under Full Retirement Age (FRA) and works while also receiving Social Security, their Social Security benefit will be subject to the earnings test: $1 in benefits will be withheld for every $2 earned over the annual threshold (earnings test link shows that threshold amount for the present year). An example for […]
Psycholology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness by Morgan Housel is a timeless work about how our feelings, emotions and interactions with money often results in different outcomes for different people – because people are different. So, insights into how to think and behave about money is instructive. You may think you […]
How many times can you use a source of money in your retirement plan? Turns out, just once, unless you know ahead of time WHEN something is going to happen, or if something was NOT going to happen. Since we don’t know either, we need to plan on what resources may solve which issues we […]
Most people look at the benefits they would receive today when making their decision about when to begin receiving their Social Security. They also underestimate how long they may live unless they already have medical issues that are known to reduce longevity. These two impulses cause many couples to begin their benefits too early which […]
Working or retired, the focus of most people is keeping their check book full of money for the monthly expenses they have. While working, the source of the money is obvious … it is from you working. While retired, the source of the money is less obvious … it is from your money working. So […]
Most people think of retirement planning as determining how much money they need to save up in order to spend it over a fixed, or set predetermined, number of years in retirement. This is wrong! The number of years one may have in retirement is not fixed! So the profession works around the dilemma of uncertain […]
You have probably heard the term Reverse Mortgage, but just what is it and what does one do for you? Here are some great resources to help you learn about them in the comfort of your home so you can decide how one may work for you (more on that later). Note: Home owners need […]
Retirement income management boils down to basically two schools of thought … Probability Based School and the Safety First School. Wade Pfau has a summary on his blog, and I’ve written on the comparisons as well. Wade is an advocate of the Safety First School in general while I’m an advocate of the Probability Based […]
Women have a number of issues when it comes to their saving for their retirement. Points you may have read before, and I reiterate them ahead of what appears to be good news for some: Fewer women save as compared to the number of men Those who do save are overly fearful and risk averse […]
