Many older people say they “don’t want to be a burden” on their families. And yet, by not making a handful of key decisions and not completing the associated paperwork, they are leaving themselves vulnerable to the very
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May 25, 2017
Jenny Migdal, CFP®
As a financial planner, one of my responsibilities is to keep up with legislative changes and their effects on clients. Estate planning is an area where change is so frequent—and so confusing—it’s a challenge to stay
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There are countless important decisions to make as you get older. Many of them have a financial focus—how much to withdraw from the nest egg you’ve built, when to take Social Security, how to pay for healthcare and the
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In the January issue of the SMI newsletter, we ran an article that recommended taking a “fiscal health day.” The idea is to take a day off from work to catch up on your financial chores and tackle all of those
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Several years ago, when New York Times personal-finance writer Ron Lieber was furloughed for a few days, he responded in true personal-finance expert fashion. By devoting one of his unpaid days off to taking care of a list
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There are turning points in life that prompt important financial decisions. What you choose to do—or not do—at such times can have a significant impact on your long-term financial well-being. The death of a spouse is one
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In the mid-1990s I was in talks with Moody Publishers about the possibility of writing a second book. They asked what topics interested me, and among the ideas we discussed was a book tailored to the financial needs of
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Every year brings a number of changes in various financial rules and regs that impact our personal financial planning. Here’s a guide to some of the more significant changes for 2016.
Retirement Plans
If you participate
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When you think of estate planning documents, certainly wills and trusts come to mind. But two other planning instruments are also important: titles and beneficiary designation forms.
Estate planning essentials
The
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March 27, 2015
Eric J. Reinhold, CFP®, MBA
Once you reach retirement and begin drawing from the storehouse of wealth you’ve worked so hard to accumulate, two questions arise. First, how much can you withdraw each year without running the risk of depleting your
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