A comprehensive new financial guide
Jonathan Clements has been a financial columnist for the Wall Street Journalfor many years. His new book,Jonathan Clements Money Guide 2015, is a comprehensive financial guide to the important decisions that influence your family’s long-term financial well-being. Informative, concise, up-to-date and easy-to-understand, the book encompasses investing, retirement planning, estate... READ MORE
Social Security extends field office hours
The Social Security Administration says a budget increase this year will allow it to keep field offices open an extra hour on most weekdays, starting in March.After years of cutbacks, the agency said it will restore service hours nationwide on March 16. A field office that is usually open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. will stay open until 4 p.m. on every weekday except Wednesday.Field offices ... READ MORE
The best retirement investing strategies
The cover-the-basics approach to retirement investing aims to match your fixed expenses with fixed sources of income, such as Social Security, pensions and immediate annuities. You can then invest the rest of your assets to provide income for non-necessities, such as travel and entertainment.Let’s say a couple needs $6,000 a month to meet day-to-day expenses and receives $4,000 a... READ MORE
How to avoid your own retirement crisis
Many of today’s workers will have a hard time retiring at the traditional age while maintaining their standard of living.A new book on the subject, Falling Short: The Coming Retirement Crisis (Oxford University Press), offers useful insight into the problem. Authors Charles Ellis, Alicia Munnell and Andrew Eschtruth, experts in retirement planning, offer advice both on “what we... READ MORE
Stock and fund ideas poised for growth
We’ll start with eight companies that will grow no matter what happens to the economy. Then, we offer funds and fund portfolios you can invest in starting with a mere $1,000.Stocks to considerAbbott Laboratories (symbol ABT, $44). The drug and medical-device maker has said it will sell part of its overseas generic-drug business for $5.3 billion. The deal will allow Abbott to focus on... READ MORE
How to select long-term care insurance
Mackey McNeill, a CPA and personal financial specialist in Kentucky, talks with clients in their 50s and early 60s about protecting their retirement savings from potential long-term-care expenses — which currently average more than $85,000 a year for a private room in a nursing home.But when McNeill turned 58 and looked at long-term-care policies for herself and her husband, she... READ MORE
Older taxpayers receive some tax breaks
You’ve downsized to an apartment, the kids are long gone, and you’re no longer eligible for some of the deductions and exemptions that had helped you lower your tax bill.But for those 65 years or older, there are other tax breaks that might benefit you come tax time.Social Security taxes For one, not all your Social Security benefits are subject to federal taxes. How much... READ MORE
Do you need an actively managed fund?
Not all experts agree whether actively managed funds can outperform index funds. Some do in the short term, but it is certainly not easy to select actively managed funds that will outperform index funds in the long term.An index fund manager buys all of the securities of a specific index, such as the S&P 500, or at least a representative sample. The objective is to track the... READ MORE
What does 2015 hold in store for bonds?
Don’t expect much from your bond mutual fund this year.The bond market will likely produce modest returns, if they’re positive at all, according to many bond-fund managers. It’s a matter of math: Bonds are offering very low interest rates following a decades-long drop in yields. That means they’re producing less income.It also means bonds have less protection from... READ MORE
What’s the outlook for small-cap stocks?
2014 felt like a hangover for owners of small-cap stock funds. On several occasions, small-cap stocks dipped by more than 7 percent in just a matter of weeks.All told, they were close to flat for the year, a letdown from 2013 when they surged 37 percent. And the performance looks even worse when compared with large-cap stocks, which were up 11 percent in 2014. The last time small-caps had... READ MORE
