Credit cards often get a bad reputation because they can easily generate debt due to overspending and high interest rates. However, when used responsibly, they can actually offer several advantages over debit cards. Credit…
A 65-year-old single retiree with a well-funded portfolio had planned to stop working, live off savings for five years, then claim Social Security at 70 for the largest possible monthly check. A stage 2…
A 52-year-old couple in their peak earning years rarely thinks of charitable giving as a 401(k) decision. It is. The tax dollars they save through smart deduction timing are the same dollars that can…
A 66-year-old who retired at 64 with a $1.4 million 401(k) and a paid-off house took a part-time consulting role 18 months later because grocery and Medicare bills stopped feeling manageable. The 2026 Retirement…
On a recent episode of the Retire SMART Podcast, the host put a number on the long-term care problem that most baby boomers still treat as someone else’s issue: about 75% of baby boomers…
With the average price of a new car nearing $50,000, does it still make sense to write a check, or has leasing become the smarter play? That was the question from Dan, a 65-year-old…
A career educator retires at 65 with a defined-benefit pension paying $9,200 a month, plus $1.4 million in a 403(b). Two years in, she opens a notice from Social Security and learns her Medicare…
The day after her husband’s funeral in spring 2024, Carol kept filing taxes the way she and her husband always had. Year of death: married filing jointly. Year one and year two, she still…
On a recent episode of the Money Guy Show titled Van Life Millionaires Are Leaving Millions on the Table, co-host Bo Hanson described a couple, Robert and Carrie, who had done almost everything right.…
A free steak dinner. A chart with a green line climbing past a red line. A pitch about a $1 million investment that becomes $1.5 million thanks to a 54% bonus that “expires in…
Kiplinger’s May 2026 Tax Letter highlights a shift in retirement plan policy that has been building since last summer. After decades of being walled off, the 401(k) is on track to allow private equity,…
Many retirees are advised to defer paying taxes on their investments until retirement. "So many advisors have helped clients defer, defer, defer, because we all been told this myth, right?" said David Brooks on…
A listener named Suzanne from Austin wrote into the How to Money podcast with a question I think a lot of points-and-miles people quietly wrestle with: she earns “several thousand dollars every year” from…
A spousal IRA is a powerhouse move that lets a working partner fund a retirement account for a spouse with little or no earned income, effectively doubling the household’s annual contribution from a single…
A 58-year-old engineer in Palo Alto, married filing jointly, earns $750,000 a year, has already stuffed $4 million into 401(k)s and IRAs, and parks another $1.2 million in a brokerage account that holds a…
