Managing Student Loan Debt A review of some options for federal and private loans. Are you dealing with student loan debt? Have you explored ways to try and restructure it or have it forgiven? No one wants to carry five figures of education debt into middle age or retirement, but some do. The burden is not just financial. Last fall, the Madison Capital Times asked student loan borrowers in the state of Wisconsin how they felt about their education debt. [...]
Why You Should Have an Online Social Security Account In monitoring your Social Security profile, you may help to thwart fraud. Could your personal information soon be stolen? The possibility cannot be dismissed. Sensitive financial and medical data pertaining to your life may not be as safe as you think, and thieves may turn to a vast resource to try and mine it – the Social Security Administration. Consider three facts, which in combination seem especially troubling. One, Social [...]
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 [...]
