With the growing number of proposals to increase taxes, its time to rethink how we save for retirement. Proposals to increase the top income tax rate, impose a new annual estate/wealth tax, and to tax unrealized capital gains, are not likely to pass this year. However, the odds are rising that by the time you retire, taxes will […]
The country is facing a retirement crisis, but some Americans are worse off than others. Workers in the top 20% of earnings distributions have half of all retirement wealth in both 1992 and 2010, compared with the bottom group, which saw its share fall from 3% to 1% between those years, a recent analysis at […]
Most of us probably know that we ought to be on top of our finances. In an ideal world, we’d all have a clear understanding of our expenses, how close we are to meeting our goals, and how we’re doing savings-wise. But in the actual world, a large chunk of younger adults are somewhat clueless […]
Google knows your money-saving woes. It’s financial literacy month, so search engine Google GOOG, +0.20% has released its list of the most-Googled personal finance questions, including the questions they get on saving money. The No. 1 “how to save for” question Google got over the past year (in the U.S. from March 2018 to March 2019): How to […]
“Pension detective” Ted Siedle, a former SEC lawyer who now runs Benchmark Financial Services, was awarded a record $78 million for blowing the whistle on JPMorgan Chase’s JPM, +0.84% failure to inform wealthy clients about conflicts of interest that drove the bank’s investment advice. Furthermore, Siedle’s firm has taken the lead in over $1 trillion […]
WHILE YOU DON’T HAVE much choice when it comes to paying taxes, you can benefit from significant deductions that reduce the amount you owe Uncle Sam. “We’re allowed to take deductions against income,” explains Traci Kratish Pumo, the managing director with the tax and financial advisory firm BDO. Those deductions reduce the amount of income […]
Want to pay less to your credit card company? Make a phone call. While most cardholders have not requested a break on either interest rates or fees recently, the majority of those who did ask were successful, a new survey shows. In the past year — a time when interest rates were rising — 81% […]
The lack of financial understanding by consumers has been signaled as one of the main reasons behind savings and investing problems faced by many Americans. To that point, a variety of financial research and reports have made it clear that we, as a country, need to focus on financial literacy. The TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance […]
Relationship advice — “be honest, talk it over, respect each other’s feelings” — often goes right out the window when you’re in an actual relationship. Take money. Who talks about it honestly? Who can have calm discussions when tempers are running high over someone’s spending habits? “We don’t talk about money with anyone, even our […]
MANY PEOPLE SAVE AND invest in a 401(k) plan with the hope that they can accumulate enough to eventually pay for retirement. In addition to your savings rate and employer contributions, your 401(k) investment returns have a big impact on your final account balance. The average 401(k) return can vary, depending on: How consistently you save. The number of […]
The growing movement among some millennials and members of Generation X to aim for an extremely early retirement in their 40s, 30s, even 20s, which goes by the acronym “FIRE” (financial independence, retire early), is getting a lot of attention right now. To some, early retirees are an inspiration, showing what’s possible when you opt […]
Whether you want to put money aside for emergencies, college or retirement – saving is one of the most basic pieces of financial advice. Despite the importance of saving, some of us are falling short. Bankrate.com surveyed more than a thousand working Americans and found that 21 percent are not saving any money for retirement, emergencies or other […]
