What could be worse than knowing that your taxes will go up and your future benefits will go down?
Not knowing. And not preparing in advance.
I am indebted to these sources for the summary findings that follow: the AARP Public Policy Institute, the Urban Institute, and the American Academy of Actuaries.
(In case you wondered, […]
This thought isn’t an April Fool’s joke:
We may finally be close to reaching bottom.
The bottom of the recession…the bear market…falling real estate prices. And our trust in the governing compact.
We don’t know if this will be the classic V shaped recovery…or W shaped (a false recovery preceding the real thing)….or even an L shape…where we […]
Consider this as a bonus addendum to our previous extreme makeover post.
There is a tangible benefit for continuing education offered by many employers.
But you’d never know it from the scanty number of employees who tap into this honey pot.
Typically, the maximum allowance is $5,250 per year, which just happens to be the upper limit that […]
It helps sometimes to hope for the best…but to plan for the worst.
Let’s imagine that your boss calls you into their office after the holiday break to have a little chat.
They start with the good news: You get to keep your job.
Then the bad news: Your salary has been cut from $85,000 to $48,000. […]
Everyone will be glad to put this dismal market behind us and start fresh in 2009.
With just a few weeks left in the year, here is a menu of goals and actions you should start planning for to help you make up for lost ground.
1. Contact your human resources department now…there is often a two […]
Three dominant themes are clearly visible on the horizon:
1. The entire concept of early retirement will be scrapped.
For several reasons. Mostly because our sprawling entitlement mentality is on a collision course with actuarial science. We simply don’t have the intrinsic wealth to provide both retirement income (Social Security) and elder […]
Something to think about as the market’s ups-and-downs continue.
Every sell order executed since the bottom fell out on September 29th has had a corresponding buy order.
Of course, the imbalance is lopsided. That’s how markets lose value…when the sellers outnumber the buyers.
The mirror image is when buyers outnumber sellers, and bull markets emerge.
And that […]
Not gold or oil, but valuable nonetheless, and where you least expect to find it: In the fine print of your employee benefits manual.
I just finished helping our oldest adultlet decipher the benefits package offered by her new employer and wanted to share the experience.
One reason new hires have difficulty in this task is […]
