Should You Increase Equity Allocation in Retirement?

Should You Increase Equity Allocation in Retirement?

Conventional wisdom has it that young investors should allocate a large portion of their savings to stocks – a high return, high risk asset class – when they first start investing their savings, and then slowly reduce their stock allocation as they approach and then surpass retirement age.  By the time they reach their eighties,…
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Five End-of-Year Tax Tips

Since we’re approaching the end of another fiscal year, this is a good time to start developing your tax strategies.  Here are five tips to consider. Try to avoid selling investments that you have held for less than one year.  The gains on such investments are taxed at the short-term capital gains tax rate, which…
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The Time to Plan Is When It’s Not Needed

I received a call last year from a woman who’d sounded desperate.  “I was just offered an early-retirement package from my company,” she’d said, the words rushed from anxiety, “and I’ve got two weeks to make a decision.  Can you help me?”  I had groaned inwardly, imagining the late nights ahead struggling to collect the…
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Which Are Better: Mutual Funds or ETFs?

You’re probably familiar with mutual funds. They are arguably the most common type of investment choice for 401(k) and other retirement accounts. Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), by contrast, have only been around since the early 1990s, and have not yet found their way into very many retirement plan menus. But they are widely available for…
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Do You Feel Wealthy Again?

The Federal Reserve just released its quarterly financial accounts report. Household net worth – which includes Americans’ home values and savings, less liabilities such as mortgages and credit card debt – rose to $74.8 trillion. We are now, according to this measure, wealthier than at any point in history. And we’re $6.7 trillion wealthier than…
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401(k)s Created More Losers than Winners

Today, many Americans rely on savings in 401(k)-type accounts to supplement Social Security in retirement. This is a pronounced shift from a few decades ago, when many retirees could count on predictable, constant streams of income from traditional pensions.  The question is: has this shift improved the average American’s retirement prospects?  According to the Economic…
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