Category: Retirement

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Geoarbitrage: The Power of Money Depends on Where You Live

I have always earned my living in the greater New York City metropolitan area, technically here in suburban central NJ (and as the late great Rodney Dangerfield often said, “we don’t get no respect!”). Because of that fact, I have always known that living around here was way more expensive than most other places and the purchasing power of a buck got you significantly less here than, say, someplace in the southern part of the USA. That’s always been one of the big downsides of living in this area.

Geoarbitrage is taking advantage of the fact that your financial power depends on where you live. In retirement, this becomes especially important.

This fact is verified every year by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis that has been measuring this phenomenon since 2013. It recently published its latest data and using this info, the Tax Foundation demonstrates the real value of what $100 buys you in every state in the Union. It revealed once again that the power of your money really does depend on where you live. I’ll tell you more about that in a bit.
Continue reading“Geoarbitrage: The Power of Money Depends on Where You Live”

Retirement, Saving & Investing

7 Retirement Investment Pitches You Should Ignore

You’ve probably already heard of the many schemes and pitches designed to separate you from your money—emails from Nigerian princes, phishing scams, etc. But does your bull$h!t detector go off when confronted with a slick come-on for perfectly legal-but-somewhat-questionable retirement investment pitches? There are a ton of them out there and as you inch closer and closer to retirement, you are more likely to hear about them and yes, even get roped into a presentation by a so-called retirement expert!

As you near retirement, you'll hear all sorts of retirement investment pitches, but some of them are just plain BS. Here are 7 pitches you should ignore.

Retirement Investment Pitches You Should Ignore

That’s why I’m posting this today so you can get a heads up about some of these pitches that are often targeted to people just like you and I when planning our golden years in retirement. There are some investments that make sense in certain situations, but here are 7 specific BS pitches you should probably ignore!Continue reading“7 Retirement Investment Pitches You Should Ignore”

Personal Finance, Retirement

Inflation Is Merciless on Your Financial Future

Inflation has been low for the past 25 years and that sounds like a really good thing. In fact, the inflation rate since 1992 has remained under 3.0% annually every year with just a few exceptions when it was only slightly higher.

Inflation is often thought of as the gradual increase of prices over time. But when you're planning for retirement decades in the future, it's a huge factor. Learn more about inflation in today's post.

That’s 25 years of fairly stable overall consumer prices so you might just think all is well as we roll merrily along in our working years aiming for a great retirement. Unfortunately, if you truly believe that, you are probably not quite getting the impact that even an annually low inflation rate has on your future buying power. The fact is inflation is a merciless tyrant on your financial future.Continue reading“Inflation Is Merciless on Your Financial Future”

Family & Relationships, Retirement

How Financial Planning Changes When There’s an Age Difference

Planning your finances is never really simple. But when one spouse is many years younger than the other, there is often even more to consider. For example, instead of planning a typical retirement income stream of 30 years, it’s going to be more like 40, maybe even 50 years. Financial planning when there’s an age difference can be a bit more complicated.

If there's an age difference between you and your sweetheart...10 years, 15 years, 20 years or more...it can affect your finances. Financial planning when there's an age difference has some important distinctions of which you should be aware.

For me and my wife Suzanne, this is that situation. I am currently 68 and she is just 47. To be honest, it didn’t really dawn on me as to what might make it very different when we are 20+ years apart in planning retirement life until just a few years ago. Having met her when I was working and just in my mid 50’s, I thought retirement was far off in the distance and never dreamed that I would “have” to retire early because of my health and that she would become disabled for health reasons too. That’s made me ask the question: “What do we do differently to deal with our finances when one spouse is so much younger than the other?”Continue reading“How Financial Planning Changes When There’s an Age Difference”

Retirement, Taxes

The Strange Case of Taxing Your Social Security Benefits

Almost 62 million people, most of them retired workers, receive a Social Security check every month. That’s about 20% of all Americans these days and I’m one of them. For the vast majority of retirees, their Social Security income isn’t just some extra cash to count at the end of the month. It’s actually an indispensable source of income that they couldn’t do without. Social Security Administration (SSA) data shows that 62% of all retired workers get at least half their income, if not more, from Social Security. In some cases, it is the difference between life and death. And now that it’s tax time, many of us wonder “do you pay taxes on Social Security?”

Many seniors wonder "do you pay taxes on Social Security?" Well here is the strange case of how Social Security benefits are taxed and why it's unlikely to change.

The sad facts are that America’s most important social program isn’t in the best of shape. You probably know that Social Security will begin paying out more in benefits than it generates in revenue by 2022. By 2034, Social Security’s asset reserves are expected to be depleted.Continue reading“The Strange Case of Taxing Your Social Security Benefits”

Retirement, Saving & Investing

The Investing Strategy Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know

For today’s guest post on a personal investing strategy, please welcome fellow personal finance blogger Joseph Hogue.

Making investing personal will not only make investing cheaper but will motivate you and help you reach your financial goals

Two stock market crashes in less than a decade into the new millennium and a lot of people wonder if investing is worth the risk and the worry. Keeping up with the ups-and-downs of the stock market and picking the best investments can seem like a part-time job.

You wouldn't know it from listening to Wall Street and the investment industry, but the best way to invest is with a personal investing strategy. Making it personal will help you get where you want to go financially.

But investing doesn’t have to be like that.

In fact, the best investing strategy is one about which you don’t worry at all.Continue reading“The Investing Strategy Wall Street Doesn’t Want You to Know”

Income and Career, Retirement

Today’s Mail Brought Me an Unexpected Financial Windfall!

Today started like any ordinary day around here. Had my breakfast, watched a little CNN, checked out my emails, and played a bit of free online slots. It was a typical Monday morning here in exciting retirement land. Yeah, real exciting, huh? Well, nothing like a financial windfall to add a little pizzazz to your day!

I am thrilled to receive an unexpected financial windfall, but I should have known it was coming. Make sure you know what your retirement situation will be.

I am a creature of habit these days and although there are a few surprises here and there that do happen, what happened today was totally unexpected! I am still pinching myself and I am overwhelmed. Today’s mail brought an amazing letter from one of my former employers, R.H. Macy.Continue reading“Today’s Mail Brought Me an Unexpected Financial Windfall!”

Health, Retirement

The Chances of Living to 100 and Why You Should Care

You may be wondering “Why should I be reading about living to 100 and what does this have to do with me and my personal finances?” Interestingly enough, you do have a good question there. You might be in your 20’s, 30’s or 40’s and thinking, “Please Gary, I have so much to worry about, why that subject now?” Well, truth being told here, you probably won’t live to be 100. But what if you do?

Your chances of living to 100 are increasing as time goes by. Here's how to make the best of those chances and the most of your older years.

How many people are living to 100?

Centenarians, once a rarity, are the world’s fastest growing age group. Since 2000 when there were 50,281 of them here in the US, the group has grown by 44% to 72,197 (as of 2014). That makes this age group just about 0.003% in the United State, yes still small, but almost three times as many as there were in 1980 according to a report by CNN in 2016.Continue reading“The Chances of Living to 100 and Why You Should Care”