Taxes are on sale. It just does not feel like it. Taxes are on sale, although few people would describe them that way. Measured against the last eighty years, the federal income tax rates most Americans pay are close to the lowest on record. Most households would nonetheless swear they are paying more than ever, […]
With the midterm elections a few weeks away, Social Security legislation has been piling up in Congress. Seven bills introduced since June show how wide the range of ideas has become. Some would raise taxes on high earners, and others would simply let grieving families apply for survivor benefits online. None of them has moved […]
Social Security is an annuity. Claiming it is the decision most people make by accident. Strip away the politics and the paperwork, and Social Security is a simple thing wearing a complicated costume. It is a lifetime annuity. You pay in during your working years, and in return you get a monthly check that keeps […]
Six risks every retirement plan has to answer for Most retirement plans are built to answer one question: will the money last if things go roughly the way we expect? That is a fair question. It is just not the question that breaks people. What breaks people is the thing nobody priced in. A spouse […]
If you’ve already maxed out your 401(k) and other tax-deferred accounts, the next question is usually where to put the rest. For a lot of high earners, the answer they skip over is the Roth IRA — skipped because they assume they earn too much to use one. On paper, they’re right. But there’s a […]