Tag: retirement

Retirement can open up a whole new way of life for Americans ready to bring their working years to an end, but at least one thing doesn’t change. Uncle Sam continues to direct his gave toward you.

The IRS still keeps a watchful eye on your income, including whatever amount you’re pulling from the IRA or 401(k) that you spent decades building into a nice, hefty nest egg.

A Health Savings Account is supposed to stay with you for life, but if you do not use it, you could lose actually lose it.

HSAs are intended to make medical expenses more affordable by allowing consumers with high-deductible health plans to set aside pretax money in an account that, unlike a Flexible Spending Account, will not expire at the end of the year.

You can keep these accounts as you change jobs, which allows you to build up funds that you can spend as you need to or save for retirement.

A year after Travis Kelso-Turner and his husband got married, their to-do list of financial tasks still daunts them.

"I'm still finding times I have to fill out new paperwork because of the name change," said the 30-year-old Las Vegas resident, who is executive director of the Executive Pride networking group for corporate executives advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in the workforce.

How about this idea for a new reality TV show: "Survivor: Maximize your Social Security." Rather than getting voted off the island, contestants lose when they fail to get the most out of Social Security’s survivor benefit—one of the government program’s most important features for married couples.

Here is how our reality show works. When one spouse dies, the survivor (typically, but not always the woman) has the option to take the larger of two benefits: her own or 100 percent of her late spouse’s benefit. The game sounds simple, and for many couples, it is.

As couples struggle with the complex challenges of retirement income planning, more are turning to Single Premium Immediate Annuities, or SPIAs for help in managing the risk of outliving their retirement assets. In short, an immediate annuity allows a person to convert a sum of money into a guaranteed series of payments for a period equal to the greater of the person's life or a certain number of years.

SPIA sales have been relatively flat for years, however sales have recently been growing at a 25 to 30 percent annual rate, reaching $2.4 billion in 2008.

Today’s economic environment has left countless couples feeling uneasy about their finances and worried about what will happen next to their hard-earned savings. Many are coming face-to-face with questions they most likely never imagined they would have to confront now or in the future: Will we be able to sustain a comfortable lifestyle? Do we have enough money to pay our bills each month? Can we afford to keep our home? Will we ever be able to retire?

As savings dwindle, financial concerns can put a strain on any relationship and you might find yourself pointing a finger at your spouse

Is that hissing sound your 401(k) account losing precious dollars from the recent stock market swoon? Years ago, when your balance was small and fluctuated in value, it never bothered you, because even large swings represented little in actual dollars. However, your balance has grown over the years as you and perhaps your employer have made annual contributions, which have benefited from several periods of considerable stock market appreciation. Now, a 15 percent decline is real money and you are not getting any younger. In fact, for many 401(k) participants the U.S. stock market correction that started in late October 2007 has wiped out the past 18 months of profits and possibly some of their contributions.

In years of strong growth, a poor asset allocation may result in earning less than your potential. However, during market corrections or bear markets (stock market decline of over 20 percent) a poorly allocated portfolio can sometimes represent huge losses like those experienced during the last correction that started in March 2000.