Retirement planning, 401(k)s, pensions, and annuities.
This is a challenging time for just about everyone. Even beyond the health concerns, many are facing stressors like jobs lost, salaries cut, and savings and portfolios way down. (Though at least tax season has been pushed back…) And while social distancing and coronavirus isolation is necessary, being alone can add fuel to the fire. Spending time […]
Making a mistake on your taxes can not only be costly, it can be a big red flag for the Internal Revenue Service, leading to an audit. For people nearing retirement, the stakes can be even higher. Many Americans in retirement will experience many “firsts,” including making retirement distributions, collecting Social Security retirement benefits and passing money […]
For many Americans, reaching retirement age doesn’t mean the end of work. That may be truer than ever for people in their 50s and 60s given the recent market slide related to the coronavirus pandemic. A survey conducted by SimplyWise on March 3 and 4 of people aged 55 to 60 found that continued market […]
It’s no secret: seniors are working at historic rates. Almost a quarter of seniors are now in the job market, up 18% from 10 years ago, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects this to increase over the next eight years. Relatedly, unemployment for seniors has dropped to an impressive 2.6%, below the national rate of 3.5%. At […]
For many Americans, reaching retirement age doesn’t mean the end of work. In a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 23% of workers said they don’t expect to stop working. Additionally, new stats show that people above the age of 65 are already working at all-time high rates since record keeping began. […]
A fixed index annuity is an insurance product that allows your savings to grow in a tax-deferred manner. The key differentiator of a fixed index annuity from other types of annuities is that the growth of your savings is linked to a stock market index, while your downside is limited. Annuities are used in two phases: an accumulation […]
Investors over the age of 50 are constantly being pitched on the virtues of tax deferred annuities. In this post, we’ll look at some concrete numbers to figure out when tax deferral actually makes sense for many investors and savers. We’ll identify cases where it may make sense and cases where it doesn’t. Next time […]
Every year consumers put over 300 billion dollars of their savings into annuities. While annuities can provide specific guarantees that are unavailable elsewhere, part of what consumers don’t like about them are their surrender charges. A surrender charge is what a consumer with an annuity has to pay if they want to withdraw their money early. […]
Tax season is upon us. But before you pull out that old box of receipts and get to work, you might want to look into whether tax deferral could save you money, in addition to buying a little extra time. Tax deferred accounts allows you to not pay taxes on your gains in an investment […]
In the US there are over one million licensed insurance agents/brokers. Many of them are trying to sell you an annuity (specifically a fixed index annuity). Why is that? Why does it make sense for brokers to sell them? Why does it make sense for insurance companies to try to sell them? In this post, we’ll […]