Your Annual Financial To-Do List Things you can do before & for 2015. What financial, business or life priorities do you need to address for 2015? Now is a good time to think about the investing, saving or budgeting methods you could employ toward specific objectives. Some year-end financial moves may prove crucial to the pursuit of those goals as well. What can you do to lower your 2015 taxes? Before the year fades away, you have plenty of options. [...]
Accentuating the Positive Retiring? Saving for retirement? Here’s some good news. Are 90% of articles written about retirement pessimistic? Sometimes it seems that way. Repeatedly, we are reminded that most baby boomers haven’t saved enough for the future. There’s no denying this, but the media is giving short shrift to other, more positive developments that may be improving the economic and retirement outlook for many Americans. Here are a few worth noting. 401(k) savings have rebounded tremendously from Great Recession [...]
IRS Raises Retirement Plan Contribution Limits Roth & traditional IRAs won’t get 2015 COLAs, but other plans will. A little inflation means a little adjustment. As the Consumer Price Index is up 1.7% over the last 12 months, the federal government is giving Social Security benefits a 1.7% boost for 2015 and lifting annual contribution limits on key pension plans as well.1 401(k), 403(b), 457 & TSP annual contribution limits increase by $500. You will be able to defer up [...]
Getting Financially Fit for Retirement at 50 Things for trailing-edge boomers & Gen Xers to consider. When you turn 50, retirement starts to seem less abstract. In terms of retirement planning, a 50th birthday can act as a wake-up call. It may offer a powerful reminder to trailing-edge baby boomers and Gen Xers, many of whom are wrapping up their second act with inadequate retirement savings for their third. You may find yourself with such a shortfall, and you wouldn’t [...]
How Is Health Care Reform Affecting the Federal Deficit? Some analysts think it is helping reduce the deficit; but others wholeheartedly disagree. Has the Affordable Care Act actually cut Medicare spending? The numbers from the Congressional Budget Office make a pretty good argument for that, and suggest that the ACA has had a distinct hand in the recent drop in the federal deficit. Detractors of the ACA say that statistical argument doesn’t tell the whole story. Medicare has been a [...]