Many parents and grandparents wanting to save for children’s education have heard of 529 college-savings plans. But did you know about the Coverdell education savings account (ESA)? And which is better? A recent caller…
“I have never met someone that became a millionaire when they owned cars with payments,” financial host Dave Ramsey recently told Bridger, a 21-year-old from Salt Lake City. Bridger and his 20-year-old wife earn…
A traditional 401(k) balance of $800,000 looks like a retirement success story, and at age 75, with Social Security coming in and the portfolio still intact, the numbers look manageable. In practice, the IRS…
A $100,000 annual income is the target millions of Americans aim for in retirement: enough to cover housing, healthcare, travel, and comfort without touching principal. The question is how much capital it takes to…
An $850,000 brokerage account sounds like a lot of money until you do the math on what it actually pays. To pull $55,000 a year out of that account in income, you need every…
A 30-year-old single mother carrying $74,000 in debt wants to know whether she should open a 529 college-savings account  for her 4-year-old son. Dave Ramsey had a quick answer for the caller on his…
A recent Animal Spirits episode centered on a listener who had reached $1 million in investable assets and hated it. He called it “the single worst level of realistic wealth a normal person can…
Six years. That is how much time separates retirees from a Social Security system that, by its own projections, runs out of money. If you are 56 years old today, you will be 62…
In litigation-exposed professions, the creditor protection gap between a 401(k) and an IRA is one of the most consequential and least discussed features of the retirement system for high-balance savers. A $1.8 million 401(k)…
If there’s one thing that tends to upend retirement budgets, it’s inflation. You can estimate your monthly costs at the start of retirement and do a good job of not spending beyond what you’ve…
Inheriting a $500,000 traditional 401(k) triggers mandatory distributions under the SECURE Act‘s 10-year rule, and the tax consequences can accumulate across the full distribution window. The SECURE Act eliminated the stretch inherited 401(k) for…
A $500,000 portfolio in a savings account earning near-nothing is a missed opportunity. That same $500,000 deployed into income-generating assets can produce roughly $31,000 per year in dividends without selling a single share. The…
I was stunned by a number from the Money Guy Show recently: for every single dollar that flows into a 401(k), 40 cents of that comes out as a premature withdrawal on average. Americans…
A 32-year-old with $45,000 in non-mortgage debt recently called into The Ramsey Show to ask: “Would it be smart for me to open up a Roth IRA now even though I’m still in debt…
I’m mostly a tech investor, but I like to keep some dividend holdings as well. For example, I’ve been a Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund ETF (NYSEARCA:VIG) investor since 2011. Among my fellow dividend…
