You know something that would be no fun… retiring broke. What would be even worse is thinking you’re doing all the right stuff… and still retiring broke. For a lot of folks, it’s becoming a scary and...
Read More
Tuesday, July 6, 2021
A 529 Plan is a tax-advantaged savings plan designed to encourage saving for future education costs. But are they the best tools for college savings? Let's look at the pros and cons vs permanent life insurance.
Read More
Monday, June 21, 2021
In 1928, U.S. life expectancy was about 57 years. Today, according to the Social Security Administration, folks turning 65 this year have an average life expectancy of 84.3 (men) or 86.6 (women). What’s more, people are living...
Read More
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Now that Biden is expected to roll back the gift allowance, the wealthy are even more interested in owning permanent life insurance (PLI). Here are just a few of the reasons why: Owning PLI equalizes estate planning so that the estate...
Read More
With the recent release of the US Census we are getting a picture of the upcoming demographic time bomb facing the country. The 2020 census revealed that there are 331 million US residents, which represents a 7.4% increase since 2010....
Read More
If you think the next 10 years in the market will be similar to the last 10… it’s time to change your expectations. That means if you’re currently retired and living off your savings, or close to your retirement age...
Read More
Popular speakers in the financial and retirement space like Ken Fisher and Suzy Orman have made annuities rather unattractive. The major objection has to do with the supposed fees of the product. But did you know many of the annuities...
Read More
Saturday, April 17, 2021
To successfully plan, you must focus on how you can lose money. You must focus on risk. Once you've taken care of the risk, you can move on to the fun stuff... making money. The thing is, amateur investors are almost always thinking...
Read More
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Our politicians have turned our financial system into a game of Monopoly. Can there be any real question that with all of the money printing and out-of-control stimulus spending… The next meltdown in our financial system could...
Read More
Biggest Tax Hikes Since 1993 President Biden and Vice President Harris are gearing up for a grand cross-country tour in the coming weeks. The two are embarking on a series of public speaking events in an effort to help sell the...
Read More
Sunday, March 14, 2021
If you have money in a tax-deferred retirement account such as a 401(k), IRA or 403(b), you're sitting on a tax time bomb. I'm going to explain the tax traps you face and show you how to move toward a 0% tax bracket in retirement...
Read MoreWarren Buffett minced no words in his most recent annual shareholder letter (which came out in early March) when he told investors that “retirees face a bleak future.” Buffett was referring to the pitifully low interest...
Read MoreJason is 53 years old and just changed jobs. He's facing two retirement planning dilemmas... 1. He has $830,000 in his 401(k) from his previous job and wants to move it where it gives him more guarantees that he and his wife, Julie,...
Read More
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Risky Years Are you in the “retirement risk bubble”? This is called a 'systematic withdrawal' approach to retirement planning. Risk of the 4% rule. Sequence of Return Risk
Read More
Amid the strong rise in commodities over the last few months, gold has underperformed dramatically. Since August of 2020, copper, platinum, and palladium are up 48%, 32%, and 10% respectively, while gold actually dropped 10%. Gold is...
Read More
Friday, February 19, 2021
He's one of history's great military strategists, but you likely haven't heard of him... Colonel John Boyd was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, and joined the Army Air Corps in 1944, while he was still in high school. After graduating from...
Read More
Editor's note: No matter your situation, you should consider owning some bitcoin... As I've explained, even skeptical investors should consider making room for "the ultimate store of value in the current environment." For most, just...
Read More
Facts: Why the Antelope Valley? The Antelope Valley (AV) has made a commitment to becoming the first Net Zero city of its kind. Meaning the city will be totally self-sufficient and not reliant on any external energy companies such as...
Read More
A party is raging right now – perhaps the biggest bash ever seen. But, you simply haven’t been invited. Worse than that, you’re unknowingly footing the bill. The tab is so high, in fact, your children and...
Read More
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
More People Are Afraid of Going Broke Than Dying Do you want to live to 100? If you're like the majority of Americans, the answer is yes. In 2017, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that 65-year-old Americans can...
Read More
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Did you hear the news? Joe Biden wants to give you $1,400. That’s on top of the $1,200 and $600 checks that Trump signed, sealed and put into your mailbox. All told… that’s a lot of money. It’s pushed stocks,...
Read More
The basic premise of the Power of Zero is that due to the fiscal irresponsibility of the U.S., tax rates will have to rise dramatically over the next few years just to keep the country solvent. Combine that situation with a...
Read More
The chance of your house burning down or sustaining other damage is 1 in 1200. The odds you will use your auto insurance for a claim on your car is 18%. The odds that you’ll need long-term care are 72 in 100, but less than 30% have it
Read More
Monday, January 4, 2021
To successfully plan, you must focus on how you can lose money. You must focus on risk. Once you've taken care of the risk, you can move on to the fun stuff... making money. The thing is, amateur investors are almost always thinking...
Read More
Thursday, December 17, 2020
With Income for Life (a.k.a Private Reserve Account, PRA), we put our money into a high-quality indexed universal life insurance policy from a solid company. And we set it up a specific way to supercharge the growing cash balance in...
Read More
Sunday, December 13, 2020
Safety Is Just One Key to a Prudent Retirement Vehicle Mark Cuban almost lost his fortune in the stock market. And it would have been bad… If you are a retiring corporate executive, this could apply to you, too. Let me explain...
Read More
Saturday, December 12, 2020
The basics of corporate bonds... Corporate bonds are debt instruments issued to the public by companies. They're typically issued in increments of $1,000, known as the "par value" or "principal" of the bond. Unlike a share of stock, a...
Read More
Effect of provisional income on effective marginal tax rate According to David McKnight, author of the Power of Zero, the name of the game in retirement is to get yourself into the zero percent tax bracket, as tax rates are likely to...
Read More
October 2020 was an ugly month for the U.S. stock market. The Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite all declined more than 2%, registering their second down month in a row.Some will attribute this market weakness to pre-election jitters....
Read More
With the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates at or near zero, you may wonder about your mortgage. Is it a good time to refinance or even pay off the debt entirely? After all, your mortgage is one of the biggest expenses you may...
Read More
On October 26, the Treasury Department released the 2021 adjusted figures for retirement account savings. Although these adjustments won’t bring any major changes, there are some minor elements to note.401(k)sThe salary deferral...
Read More
Thursday, October 29, 2020
In early 1948, a group of US Air Force officers was working on a secret research project in the California desert codenamed MX981. The purpose of MX981 was to test how extreme gravitational forces from fast-moving fighter jets would...
Read More
As the U.S. presidential election draws near, expect to see more and more headlines that propose, "What will happen next if this person is elected?" or, "What policy changes to prepare for in the next four years?"In reality, however,...
Read More
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
In the summer of 1687, after years of study and reflection, the legendary English scientist Isaac Newton published one of the most important works in the history of the world. He called it Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica,...
Read More
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Most people have not been planning for a tax-free retirement. They have been accumulating assets; they have not been thinking about distribution. They usually have accumulated assets in tax-postponed accounts. That tax will be paid at...
Read More
Sunday, October 18, 2020
When saving for retirement, it’s best to assume slightly lower returns than average to make sure you’re not relying on risky investments to save enough. Overly-aggressive return assumptions could well cause you to not have...
Read More
In the good old days (before coronavirus), many people could rely on working longer to wrangle a wayward retirement plan back on track. Not anymore. The devastating loss of jobs set off by the COVID-19 pandemic is depriving many folks...
Read More
Saturday, August 29, 2020
Folks didn't like this idea because it seemed too simple... Back in 2015, Neil Jordan proposed a simple way to save the cows in southern Africa. At first, experts in the conservation and biology fields took the scientist to task for...
Read More
By Andreas Antonopoulos In October 2008, on an obscure electronic mailing list, a participant using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto made an announcement. He said, “I think I have solved a problem in computer science. I have found...
Read More
Saturday, August 22, 2020
Do you dream of life with no alarm clock, no commute, and no boss? Then you might be one of the many Americans who aspire to retire early. But for many, the dream of early retirement leads to a rude awakening when the reality of...
Read More
In the old days, they had this rule of thumb that your age should be your percentage allocation to bonds. So if you were 70 years old, you should have a 70% allocation to bonds. The reason is simple. When you’re close to...
Read More
Saturday, August 1, 2020
I often get the question about Mr. Ramsey...here are my candid thoughts... “Ramsey is the pro bono financial adviser to millions of Americans who otherwise could never afford one.”—Politico.com There’s a gap in...
Read More
Lately, it can feel like each day brings a new headline about fluctuating market behavior. But amid the ups and downs of 2020, there may be some potential good news on the horizon. On July 16, 2020, the interest rate for a 30-year...
Read MoreAARP published a report in which it found that 71% of Americans believe they pay no fees at all to have a 401(k) plan. (Put another way, more than 7 out of 10 people in America today are completely unaware that they are even being...
Read More
Thursday, July 9, 2020
As you may be well aware, Social Security retirement benefits can be taxable to you, depending upon how much other income you have. What you may not be aware of is how this can seriously increase your taxes for small amounts of...
Read MoreThe CARES Act made a few changes to the rules surrounding retirement account withdrawals... Under normal circumstances, if you withdraw money from your qualified retirement plan – like a 401(k) or 403(b) plan – or...
Read More
An “eye-popping” $2 trillion in cash has been stashed in deposit accounts at U.S. banks since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit the country in January.1This surge of money into banks has no precedent in history.Several...
Read More
Saturday, April 25, 2020
According to the Financial Times: “One of the basic rules of investment is coming unstuck, forcing some fund managers to rethink how they build their portfolios.” All to say the classic portfolio structure — 60%...
Read More
Monday, April 20, 2020
For many people, the term 401k is synonymous with retirement preparation, and sometimes represents the full extent of their preparedness. Such accounts are often included as part of a benefits package provided by employers, and...
Read More
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
A Roth IRA is an individual retirement account that offers tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals in retirement. Roth IRA rules dictate that as long as you've owned your account for 5 years and you're age 59½ or older, you...
Read More