January 2010: A period that financial journalists dream about. We were ushering in the new year of 2010 and significant impending tax law changes provided a bevy of important topics that consumers needed help navigating. There was the elimination of federal estate and gift tax, the return of IRA required minimum distributions after a one-year [...]
In financial planning, the right answer to most seemingly simple questions is nearly always “it depends”. How much life insurance do I need? Should I contribute to a traditional 401k or a Roth 401k? Should I use a will or revocable trust for my estate? How much can I plan to safely distribute from my [...]
First time flyers on Southwest Airlines are easy to spot at the boarding gate. They’re notably confused, trying to figure out the purpose of the stainless steel posts with numbers on them and what they should do with the unusual B22 zone assignment on their boarding pass. Someone eventually helps them find their spot in line and [...]
My mother owns an iPhone but constantly gets frustrated at her perceived difficulty of answering a call. I am confident that she has never downloaded an app, sent a text message, or used the phone to open an email. She can solve the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle but if you asked her to [...]
According to Google Dashboard, I currently maintain 663 bookmarks in my Chrome browser, sorted among 53 different folders. All of these websites were important enough that at one point, I elected to bookmark them. The overwhelming majority are websites that have something to do with personal finance, investments, taxes, insurance, debt, or other financial planning [...]
At this time of year, there is no shortage of holiday music on the radio, consumer electronic advertisements on television, and year-end tax planning suggestions in print media. Rather than add one more article about the ten tax steps you should consider at year-end, we thought it would instead be beneficial to review the framework [...]
In 1987, the IRS created rules to require the distribution of retirement plan assets and set 70½ as the age at which these distributions would be required to begin. Although not mentioned in the legislation or tax code, this age was chosen based on a Biblical reference to old age: “The days of our years [...]
