I’ve saved the toughest one for the last.
Reforming Medicare and Medicaid.
Not to mention the push to bring the 50 million uninsured in under the tent of coverage.
Currently, the Medicare tax is 1.45% for both Employer and Employee…and unlike Social Security, there is no wage ceiling exempting the top 10% of earnings.
All wage income is subject […]

And now the other shoe drops.
Benefit changes have the political virtue of appearing to be a free lunch, in the sense that the tax and wage base may remain unchanged, but the final product is diminished in scale and scope.
Like a frog being slowly boiled in increasingly heated water…
…the hope is that the public will […]

There may be a solution to the dizzying array of retirement accounts we now face.
It will likely be forced on the political hierarchy by events that threaten to spiral out of control.  We know that “reforms” will be applied to the entitlement programs…not because Congress has finally found the courage to do so…but because demography […]

Time is running out on the best slam dunk deal going.
I refer to the $8,000 first time home-buyers refundable tax credit, which runs through the end of November.
I covered the mechanics in an earlier series of posts…so today I’d like to explore some options of how to invest your new windfall if you qualify.
The credit […]

Have you noticed this trend in retirement account favoritism…where the tastiest  goodies are reserved for low income workers who usually cannot afford to collect their rewards?
Today’s case in point is the so-called “saver’s credit”
It’s full title: “The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit,” and it’s the latest iteration in the genre of “now you see it and […]

I’m not licensed of qualified to offer medical advice.  But I can offer my personal opinion on the best pain reliever available.
Not the reliable standbys like Darvon or Vicodin.
Plain old Schadenfreude.
It’s no fun taking pleasure in the misfortunes of the unemployed or foreclosed.  That could be, or has been, or will be us one day.
But […]

Keeping with Christine’s theme  of retirement savings…
I’m sure most of you remember “What Color Is Your Parachute?” the career guide written by Richard Bolles years ago, now in its umpteenth edition.
Perhaps the best seller ever in its category.
The newest iteration is “What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want”, […]

The Solo 401(k) - also known as an Individual 401(k) or a Self-Employed 401(k) - is specially designed for self-employed individuals and allows me to contribute 100% of my self-employment income up to the annual 401(k) limit ($15,500 for 2008 and $16,500 for 2009).
This means if I only earn $16,500, I can stash away the […]