A California retiree with a $1 million dividend portfolio earning a 5% blended yield grosses $50,000 in annual income. After federal qualified-dividend tax and California’s state income tax, that number drops sharply. California treats…
The host of Retire SMART Podcast opened Episode 416 with a number that should stop every income-focused retiree in their tracks. The S&P 500’s dividend yield has fallen to roughly 1.1%, an all-time low…
George Kamel, the Ramsey Solutions personality, recently spent 23 minutes on YouTube dismantling the Buy Now Pay Later pitch. His core claim: BNPL companies charge merchants 8% to 10% in processing fees, double or…
On a recent episode of The Ramsey Show, a caller named Joseph laid out a math problem that should not exist: a combined household income of about $340,000, a daughter heading to an SEC…
Suze Orman delivers financial advice with a blowtorch. On her October 10, 2024 podcast, a 65-year-old retired caller named Deb said her financial advisor had instructed her to leave her $125,000 TSP alone and…
A 67-year-old retiree with $920,000 saved and drawing a $2,800 monthly Social Security benefit appears, at first glance, to be in remarkably strong shape. With annual spending set at $58,000, the portfolio only needs…
The question comes up on call-in shows constantly: a parent staring at a credit card statement they cannot pay, looking sideways at the 529 plan they have been funding since the kids were toddlers.…
On a recent episode of Ramsey Everyday Millionaires, a caller asked whether a boat costing more than his annual income was too expensive. The host pivoted to defend Mark Zuckerberg's 387-foot superyacht, the Feadship-built…
Inheriting a parent’s retirement account sounds like a windfall. For a 67-year-old still pulling in a high W-2, it can quietly become one of the most expensive tax events of her life. The real…
At 63, with $1.2 million in savings and a $185,000 mortgage hanging around at 4.875%, retirement starts to feel like a balancing act. Every monthly payment is about to come from investments instead of…
A retiree with $850,000 in savings who wants about $40,000 a year in reliable income may not need to take the risks associated with high-yield funds or complex income strategies. One alternative is a…
Picture a single 73-year-old retiree sitting on $1.3 million in a traditional 401(k), drawing $36,000 a year in Social Security, and feeling reasonably set for retirement. 2026 is the year required minimum distributions begin,…
Jim Cramer’s blunt line to a young first-time homebuyer on the May 22 episode of Mad Money: “Expect corrections and don’t rely on hope as an investing strategy.” The caller, a younger investor, had…
A 70 year old retiree sitting on $2 million in a traditional 401(k) has roughly three years before required minimum distributions start dictating tax bills. The conventional planning advice (Roth conversions, charitable distributions, asset…
CNBC consumer reporter Brandon Gomez delivered the bad news to anyone hosting a backyard cookout this weekend: “Ground beef for burgers at record highs, up more than 14%. Steak also surging as well over…
