How to talk inheritance with your kids
One of the most important conversations you can have with your grown children involves plans for your estate — where assets will end up when one or both parents pass away. If you feel the time has come to broach this topic, find an hour or two to pull everyone together for a conversation. Here are some tips for speaking with your adult children: Don’t feel you need to provide... READ MORE
Reasons to get your financial life in order
Scammers regularly target older adults with bogus claims of unpaid bills. Having an organized system to double-check your finances can help protect you, according to Susan Devaney, a professional who specializes in helping older adults move from their longtime homes and resettle elsewhere. It’s also useful to have documentation if you’ve forgotten whether you paid a bill and need to ... READ MORE
Bad financial advice can be very costly
Good financial advice leaves you better off. Bad advice does the opposite and may enrich someone else at your expense. Here are some areas where you need to be particularly careful to seek out good advice, since bad advice can be so costly: Investing Most financial advisers aren’t required to put your best interests first. They’re allowed to recommend investments that cost more or... READ MORE
Financial tasks to tackle at the new year
The beginning of the year is a good time to mark some items off your financial checklist, such as reviewing beneficiary designations, updating contact information and visiting your safe deposit box. A task without a deadline is just wishful thinking. Sometimes, you can get away with procrastinating. If you never get around to alphabetizing your spices, no one’s life will change. But... READ MORE
Protect yourself from fraud by a fiduciary
One in 20 older adults is a victim of financial mistreatment, according to the National Adult Protective Services Association. Most fail to report their victimization, fearing a loss of independence. In part, that’s because the most common perpetrators of financial abuse are family members, unscrupulous caregivers and professional advisers, such as lawyers, accountants and financial... READ MORE
Tax reduction via opportunity zone funds
It’s tough to think of a highly appreciated asset as the problem child in a portfolio. The goal is to choose investments that will flourish, after all. And those strong performers are typically the ones you love best and hold onto the longest. But things can get complicated when it’s time to let go — when that stock stops growing and you’re ready to sell, or when you’re... READ MORE
Questions to ask before investing money
Many people who ask me about investments or setting up an appointment often preface it by saying, “I’m sorry, this is probably a stupid question, but…” Most people are afraid to ask questions about their investments for fear of sounding ignorant or admitting in some way that they don’t have all of their “stuff together.” But there truly are no stupid questions when it... READ MORE
New law changes RMD and IRA rules
With the decline of traditional pensions, most of us are now responsible for squirrelling away money for our own retirement. In today’s do-it-yourself retirement savings world, we rely largely on 401(k) plans and IRAs. However, there are obviously flaws with the system because about one-fourth of working Americans have no retirement savings at all — including 13% of workers 60 and... READ MORE
Involve your spouse in financial decisions
When I taught courses in personal financial planning at the New School for Social Research in New York City for 18 years, most of my students were women. Periodically, I teach courses at local colleges and still find a large percentage of women in my courses. Many of them were widows who had not actively participated in basic personal financial decisions, such as investing and... READ MORE
Smart ways to choose a financial planner
Dear Savvy Senior, Can you recommend some tips on finding and choosing a good financial planner? My wife and I are both in our late 50s and would like to get some professional advice to help us better prepare for our retirement years. Seeking Advice Dear Seeking, With all the different financial planners, advisers and services available today, finding and choosing a trusted... READ MORE
Money 2024
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