Is It Better to Take Social Security Early?

Is It Better to Take Social Security Early?

I’ve written numerous articles over the years about strategies for maximizing your Social Security (SS) benefits. But the most fundamental decision all retirees face is when to start taking payments. If you need the money, you may have no choice but to start taking payments as soon as you can. But if that’s not the…
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New Tax Benefits for Same-Sex Couples

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced last week that they will apply the federal “married” tax treatment for same-sex married couples no matter where they live — even in the 37 states that don’t recognize their own citizens’ gay marriages. The guidance is part of the government’s implementation of the June 26…
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Retirement Success: The One Thing Needed Most

I’ve written many times about various things you can do in order to maximize the chances that your post-retirement life turns out to be everything you’ve hoped it could be.  What is the number one thing you need to do?  In a word, save!  And I mean save early, save often, and save as much…
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Bond Funds Can Still Do Well When Rates Rise

As a follow up to a blog I wrote a few weeks ago (Do You Really Want to Sell Your Bonds Now?), I thought it would be a good idea to provide a little more data about how bond funds might be expected to perform during periods of rising rates. The following table was developed…
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Opportunities to Boost GDP and Jobs

A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) identifies five large-scale investment opportunities that have the potential to increase GDP by over $1 trillion and create millions of new jobs by 2020. MGI came up with these by first analyzing the structural (that is, long-term) causes of the lackluster Great Recession recovery. According to…
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Municipal Bankruptcies: It’s Not Just the Pensions

Detroit has recently joined Stockton and San Bernardino in filing for bankruptcy.  It’s the largest city in the U.S. ever to go this route.  How Detroit resolves its inability to pay in full the promises it has made to creditors and retirees will affect municipal bond holders, the insurers that guarantee such bonds, state and…
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