You retired at 54 with $1.2 million in a traditional 401(k). Touch it before 59½ and the IRS charges a 10% early withdrawal penalty on top of ordinary income tax. A $60,000 withdrawal nets…
The average monthly Social Security benefit comes in at $2,071 for retirees, which provides an income of around $24,852. Obviously, that’s not a huge amount of money for the typical retiree to collect, which…
The primary way to qualify for Social Security benefits in retirement is to pay taxes on your wages for a good number of years. But many seniors are surprised — or shocked —…
Retiring at 60 with $2.3 million and a mortgage low enough to pay off tomorrow sounds ideal to most people. But a couple in this situation faces a genuinely hard decision, and the answer…
Turning 73 marks the year the IRS starts making income decisions for you. Required minimum distributions, or RMDs, are mandatory annual withdrawals from traditional IRAs. They’re taxed as ordinary income, and they don’t arrive…
At 58 with $750,000 saved, you sit closer to retirement than most Americans ever reach. Yet "close" and "ready" remain different propositions. The gap separating them shows up not in account balances but in…
At 61, with a combined portfolio of $4.5 million and a partner still earning $380,000 a year as a consulting firm partner, this couple has the money and income to retire. The problem is…
You sold a losing position in March, locked in a real loss, and now you’re sitting on a taxable account with a gap where that investment used to be. Pairing that loss with a…
Divorce often takes a high emotional toll, but it also comes with a very real financial impact. Due primarily to attorney fees and litigation costs, the price of ending a marriage can add up…
On a recent episode of her Women & Money podcast, Suze Orman fielded a listener letter from someone named Rachel worried her portfolio was too concentrated. Orman’s response cut straight to the point: “Put…
Your 65th birthday is a financial checkpoint. Medicare eligibility kicks in, senior discounts become available, and a stack of pre-retirement expenses stop making sense. Most retirees don’t realize how fast those costs compound on…
Everyone agrees that Social Security is facing financial trouble. Unfortunately, no one agrees on how to fix that situation. In fact, one recent bipartisan proposal has drawn criticism from experts at the Center for…
Alex Karnal, co-founder and CIO of Braidwell, a life sciences investment firm, spent 20 years building and backing biotech companies before declaring on the Invest Like the Best podcast that “2025 was probably the…
Jeffrey Hirsch called Dow 38,820 by 2025 back in 2010, when the index was trading around 10,000. That target has already been exceeded. Now he’s raising the bar: Dow 62,430 by 2030, and the…
Patrick McGee’s observation that incoming Apple CEO John Ternus “has more of an opportunity to be a cowboy here, meaning to shoot from the hip and to be a lot more playful” sounds like…
