If your company pension plan (assuming you work for a company that still has one) supports a lump-sum distribution when you retire, you will be faced with the decision whether to roll over the pension into an IRA or whether to take it as an annuity (i.e. as guaranteed income for life). What many people…
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At a speech in Washington a few weeks ago Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen declared that a large number of American families are “extraordinarily vulnerable” to financial setbacks because they have few assets to fall back on. To them, a financial crisis is a month or two without a paycheck. By contrast, she went on…
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One of the most heatedly debated questions regarding Social Security (SS) is when to start. You have the option of initiating benefits as early as age 62 or as late as age 70. The longer you wait, the greater the monthly payment you will receive over your lifetime. If you are married, there are various…
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The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently ran an article about affluent individuals and families who, despite large six-figure salaries, managed to pile up a huge amount of debt. They cited one woman who had accumulated $300K in debt despite earning more than $200 a year. Reader responses, unsurprisingly, were variously indignant, angry, and puzzled. Many…
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When it comes to saving for college, most people think about setting up a 529 College Savings Account. However, you can also use individual retirement accounts (traditional IRA or Roth IRA) as well as 401(k) plans to pay for most college expenses. But you have to make sure to follow the rules carefully; otherwise you…
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If you were to review the historical performance of any mutual fund, asset class, or investment portfolio over any period of time, you’d certainly notice quite a bit of variation in the returns. Take the S&P 500 (representing the largest 500 U.S. companies), for example. The returns from this asset class over the last five…
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