retirement investments

Financial independence is a term typically used to describe a state where you have sufficient assets to live a certain lifestyle indefinitely without having to work or be employed.  Whether your income is derived from interest on savings, investment income, real estate income or something else, it really doesn’t matter.  The key is that you’re [...]

Investing works best if you set it and forget it.  However, at least once a year every investor should set aside some time to review their investment activities from the previous year.  February is a great time to do this investment review because if you wait too long you’ll find yourself in the thick of [...]

Today, I’d like to share with everyone blogs that I read and think you should check out.  For each blog, I will provide details on what is great about it so that you can understand better which blogs might be best for you.  I hope that the following blog recommendations will help you find additional [...]

There is a tug of war going on over your money right now.  When you sit down and think about it, you know that you should save your money, pay off your debt and provide for your future.  Unfortunately there are other forces coming after your money.  Not only do you have to deal with [...]

We’ve all heard the stories of lotto winners who win millions, think they’re set for life, and then go broke within a decade. Or people who inherit large sums of money and end up in financial ruin, family feuds, or both. The word “windfall” can mean different things to different people — if you’re young [...]

The young people today have a wide range of financial struggles. For the most part, young people have too much debt, bad spending habits, not enough savings and poor investing skills. Throw in today’s record unemployment for young workers and the result isn’t pretty. Most people would agree that investing should be a part of [...]

With the recent stock market crash, many people are understandably wary about investing. Concerns about the volatility of the stock market, and the prospect of losses during downturn, have convinced many that stock investing is not for them. However, “safer” investments like cash and bonds may not provide the needed returns for your portfolio to [...]

We hear a lot about diversifying across asset classes — owning stocks, bonds, real estate, etc. We also hear a lot about diversifying within asset classes — owning mutual funds of hundreds of stocks rather than owning a few individual stocks. But there’s another, lesser-known form of diversification from which you could benefit: Tax diversification.

Photo [...]

When you are leaving a job where you have contributed to a 401k plan, you have three options: cash out your 401k, keep it in your current plan, or move it to another qualified retirement account. A qualified retirement account could be your new employer’s 401k plan, a Traditional IRA, or a Roth IRA. The [...]

All inheritances are not taxable to the recipients; it’s the estate that must pay taxes, if any are due. In 2009, the amount excluded from any tax due is $3.5 million, and next year, the estate tax is repealed, no tax regardless of the estate size. Unfortunately, the repeal lasts only for 2010, and the [...]