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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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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I wrote last year about small business owners who plow most of their savings into their businesses to the exclusion of their retirement and other financial goals.  I had cited a 2006 study by the Small Business Administration that found that only about a third of such entrepreneurs had individual retirement accounts or had made…
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