Catching Up on Retirement Saving If you are starting at or near 50, consider these ideas. Do you fear you are saving for retirement too late? Plan to address that anxiety with some positive financial moves. If you have little saved for retirement at age 50 (or thereabouts), there is still much you can do to generate a fund for your future and to sustain your retirement prospects. Contribute and play catch-up. This year’s standard contribution limit for an IRA [...]
A Retirement Gender Gap Why a middle-class woman may end up less ready to retire than a middle-class man. What is the retirement outlook for the average fifty-something working woman? As a generalization, less sunny than that of a man in her age group. Most middle-class retirees get their income from three sources. An influential 2016 National Institute on Retirement Security study called them the “three-legged stool” of retirement. Social Security provides some of that income, retirement account distributions some [...]
Will Giving Decline? The loss of the charitable tax deduction could hurt non-profits. Charities are wondering if they will lose out on millions this year. The federal tax deduction for charitable contributions has disappeared because of the recent tax reforms. The standard federal income tax deduction is now $12,000 – make that $24,000 for a married couple filing jointly. (The amounts rise to $13,600 for a single taxpayer 65 or older and $26,600 for joint filers 65 and older.) With [...]
Retirement Plans for Individuals & Businesses A look at some of the choices. Households are saving too little for the future. According to one new analysis, 41% of Gen Xers and 42% of baby boomers have yet to begin saving for retirement. In a recent financial industry survey, 35% of small business owners said they were planning to use the sale proceeds from their company for a retirement fund, an idea which comes with a flashing question mark.1,2 Do you [...]
How the Tax Reforms Will Take Effect Some of the impact of the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act will be felt later than January 1. President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act into law on December 22, and on January 1, some key details of the Internal Revenue Code will abruptly change.1 There will be night-and-day change, both figuratively and literally. On January 1, the federal estate tax exemption will double; the standard federal income tax [...]
