Breaking down the basics & what each part covers. Whether your 65th birthday is on the horizon or decades away, you should understand the parts of Medicare – what they cover and where they come from. Parts A & B: Original Medicare. There are two components. Part A is hospital insurance. It provides coverage for […]
Tag: finance
Certain Uncertainties in Retirement
Two financial unknowns may erode our degree of confidence. The financial uncertainties we face in retirement may risk reducing our sense of confidence, potentially undermining our outlook during those years. Indeed, according to the 2018 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefits Research Institute, only 17% of pre-retirees said they are “very confident” about having […]
Strategic vs. Tactical Investing
How do these investment approaches differ? Ever heard the term “strategic investing”? How about “tactical investing”? At a glance, you might assume that both these phrases describe the same investment approach. While both approaches involve the periodic adjustment of a portfolio and holding portfolio assets in varied investment classes, they differ in one key respect. […]
Value vs. Growth Investing
There are those who favor value and those who favor growth. You might be initially confused by these terms or even suspect they aren’t that different in terms of what each model offers you as an investor, but they are very distinct approaches, and it’s good to understand these two schools of thought as you […]
Getting Your Personal Finances in Shape for 2019
Fall is a good time to assess where you stand and where you could be. You need not wait for 2019 to plan improvements to your finances. You can begin now. The last few months of 2018 give you a prime time to examine critical areas of your budget, your credit, and your investments. You […]
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What if Capital Gains Were Indexed to Inflation?
Investors would be taxed less if this idea gets the green light. Recently, President Trump and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin both voiced their support for an intriguing idea: the indexing of capital gains.1 The idea is not new; President George H.W. Bush’s administration briefly considered it in the early 1990s. It is certainly […]
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Balancing Your Checkbook
A useful skill, even in a digital age. Do you know how much money you have in your checking account? If you keep your checkbook balanced, answering that question becomes easier. Balancing, reconciling, whatever you want to call it – this is a core financial skill, even if you happen to do all your banking […]
Save & Invest Even if Money Is Tight
For millennials, today is the right time. If you are under 30, you have likely heard that now is the ideal time to save and invest. You know that the power of compound interest is on your side; you recognize the potential advantages of an early start. There is only one problem: you do not […]
What Women Shouldn’t Retire Without
A practical financial checklist for the future. When our parents retired, living to 75 amounted to a nice long life, and Social Security was often supplemented by a pension. The Social Security Administration estimates that today’s average 65-year-old female will live to age 86.6. Given these projections, it appears that a retirement of 20 years […]
Wealth Management with Memory Disorders
What steps can a family take? Besides impacting lives and relationships, dementia can also impact family finances. It may call for another family member to assume money management responsibilities for a parent, grandparent, or sibling. It may increase the risk of financial exploitation, even as we do our best to guard against it. Just how […]