Archive for Retirement Planning
LegalZoom Sued in California
Posted by: | Comments7.10.2010
A woman who botched the estate plan of her father using online legal documents firm LegalZoom is now suing the firm for deception and misleading statements:
From the article:
The lawsuit claims that Ms. Webster and others like her relied on misleading statements by LegalZoom, including that LegalZoom carefully reviews customer documents, that it guarantees its customers 100 percent satisfaction with its services, that its documents are the same quality as those prepared by an attorney, and that the documents are effective and dependable. Read More→
Private Option Health Care Act – HR5444
Posted by: | Comments6.3.2010
For those of you that actually think the government can afford to give everyone unlimited health care so that Americans can lead horrible lifestyles and waste trillions in unnecessary health care, you can stop reading here.
For those of you that know we are pulling a Greece, that the added STRUCTURAL deficit added by the health care bill is unsustainable, and those who want to CONTROL their own care needs, Ron Paul introduced HR 5444 – “The Private Option Health Care Act”
It offers among other things:
100% tax credit for costs of health insurance
Enforcement of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution allowing everyone to purchase insurance out of state
elimination of the 7.5% health cost threshold for deductions on schedule A (itemized deductions) – this would help MANY people – I know from my planning work and questions from countless people, especially retirees.
Read more here and if you like the idea, consider contacting your Rep!
Good Medicare Summary
Posted by: | Comments1.8.2010
For those of you to whom this applies, this is a good summary of cautionary points and details about starting Medicare coverage:
Do you have a Medicare story to share? Feel free to comment…
Monday Thoughts – Pension Problems Increasing Your Tax Bill?
Posted by: | Comments5.18.09
Just exactly how much does having generous municipal benefits cost you as a taxpayer? Though it may range from city to city, for Danville, IL, they pay 50% more for their property taxes now than they would if they had no unfunded pension liabilities.
Though their case may be an outlier (and then again maybe it ISN’T), you can see how poorly planned pension benefits from a long time ago can cost HUGE amounts of money now. Others have written eloquently about how, in order to bypass pay raises, many cities (and private corporations – ahem, GM) offered generous pension/health benefits mainly because it pushed the cost into the future Read More→
Pension Troubles Ahead
Posted by: | CommentsApril 1, 2009
For those of you who think your pension is safe, here’s some (bad) food for thought:
Apparently, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) who I believe currently manage Delta’s failed pension among others (fact check?) put their premiums into riskier investments over the past few years and the deficit, which was $11B according to the article, could now be substantially higher (as an interesting side note, my former B-school professor, Zvi Bodie is quoted in here – he taught me a lot about what “risk” is).
The PBGC is an entity created by Read More→
Independent Custodian is Key to Protecting Your Money
Posted by: | CommentsAs i write this (2.4.09), I am listening to Harry Marcopoulos, the “whistle blower” who outed Bernie Madoff and also apparently a fine Greek-American!
See the CNBC link to an article and video on this here
He made two very interesting points that I agree would dramatically cut down on financial fraud:
The first point was that there are entirely too many GREEN LAWYERS working at the SEC trying to find financial fraud. He recommends seasoned Wall Street FINANCIAL Executives who already made their money and want to serve the public. If top line former Wall Street executives and front line investigators were on the job, people with extensive FINANCIAL AND ACCOUNTING EXPERIENCE, and with financial incentive to find fraud, they would NOT be intimidated by a well-respected, and feared Wall Street crook such as Madoff.
I imagine it must be difficult for a 27 year old recent law school grad Read More→
Pension Liability Map of USA
Posted by: | CommentsVERY interesting map of US state pension funding levels from Forbes:
As you can see, by Forbes’ estimates of pension funding levels as a %, pensions are WAY underfunded. This underscores my previous articles about pension problems in the US. For those of you who have a pension and either always thought it was safe or are actually worried about it, click the link to the right for PensionTsunami.com – a good aggregator of pension news around the US.
And for those of you who think that cities will never not fund pensions, Read More→
Roth IRA – Long Benefit Explanation from LinkedIn
Posted by: | CommentsTax refund: A tactic devised by politicians to give you back some of your own money in such a way that you are supposed to think it’s a gift. (from http://www.businessdictionary.com/)
I privately answered a LinkedIn member’s question regarding the advantages of the Roth IRA (well since he is Canadian, the new “Canadian Roth”). He was of the opinion that it was not advantageous to do because of the low limits and that the current deduction was more of a benefit.
I argued that it depends if your thesis for the future includes increasing taxes, decreasing taxes, or no changes. The tax code effectively makes the Roth “tax neutral” if assumed tax rates don’t change. See my full answer below (understand that I do not provide tax advice – I am merely crunching some numbers here – OF COURSE consult your own tax advisor before making any plans or changes to your plan – this is not the be all/end all answer for everyone!): Read More→
Interview – John Erickson on Retirement Communities
Posted by: | CommentsI do a lot of work with helping retirees downsize from their house to a new lifestyle in retirement. Part of what I do is to review retirement living options which include ideas such buying a condo, renting an apartment, senior housing, in-law apartment on the kids house, and a growing area of resident options called called “Continual Care Retirement Communities” (or CCRC). Read More→
Avoid The Temptation to “Get Cash Now”
Posted by: | CommentsIn difficult economic times, I suspect that the number of people using various services that allow one to ‘get cash now’ for such things as annuities, life insurance, and legal settlements, will increase tremendously. In that light, I would stress EXTREME caution before signing over a guaranteed lifetime payment for cash now – especially if you are not so good with money!
Let’s cover a sampling of ways that one can get cash now, the decision-making behind that, and how these companies make money. Read More→
Unemployment Will Create A Whole New Problem
Posted by: | CommentsThe Problem Everyone Knows
Today’s article in Calculated Risk on the Unemployment Numbers highlights the worsening state of our economy as ALL of the excesses of the:
1980′s (beginning of heavy credit card use)
1990′s (stock market bubble and options to deadbeat executives who add no company value)
2000′s (real estate prices rising 10%+ year vs historical average of below 4% due to easy lending rates, and excessive Leveraged Buyouts – LBO’s – and private equity acquisitions of companies)
All of these excesses become unwound Read More→
AIG Gets $40B, You Get a Great Big Slap in the Rear
Posted by: | CommentsFolks, this is getting out of hand. Just like with any addict, once they get money from you, they continue to ask for more. And it seems the giver can’t stop giving either. But of course, in order to give, they’re going to take.
Today’s headline shows our good government giving AIG another $40 billion with total aid now coming to $150 billion – roughly one and a half times the market capitalization of Coca Cola.
While doing this, other elements of your government (i.e. your Congress) are spinning around plans to take away much of your 401(k) deduction. They want to replace it with a $600 dollat tax credit which is roughly equal to contributing $3,000 to your 401(k) and being in the 20% tax bracket ($3,000×20% = $600). if you contribute more than $3,000 and or are in the 25% tax bracket or above, YOU LOSE in this plan.But don’t worry, just know that you will be keeping AIG in business.
Chris Grande
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The Attack on Savers Has Begun
Posted by: | CommentsI mentioned in a previous article why you want to consider the Roth IRA – that government, with their budget deficits and the election of multiple new members of the socialist party to power, will go after an easy minority: savers.
Apparently, before Obama was even elected, democrats had been working on Read More→