Is a Home an Investment? From one perspective, the answer is yes; from another, no. When you buy a home, are you investing? If you buy it to flip it or buy it as a rental property, the answer is yes. If you buy a home simply to live in it, the answer may be no. Your home is an expression of your lifestyle, a wonderful setting for your life, and a place you can enjoy in privacy and comfort. [...]
The Financial Toll of Addiction Opioid abuse threatens to wreak havoc on family finances and retirement plans. Imagine your retirement dreams put on hold or compromised, your savings and investment accounts reduced, and your loved ones uncommunicative or at odds with each other. This terrible state is reality for families ravaged by addiction. OxyContin, heroin, and other opioids can cost an addict hundreds of dollars per day. Where will an addict find the thousands of dollars needed, over time, to [...]
Retiring Before 60 If that is your dream, explore whether these steps could be useful to take. How could you retire in your fifties by choice? You will need abundant retirement savings and ways to access your retirement assets that lessen or avoid early withdrawal penalties. You may also need to have other, sometimes overlooked, components of retirement planning in place. There are ways to tap retirement savings accounts before 60. True, the I.R.S. discourages this with 10% penalties [...]
The Rough Consequences of Not Saving for Retirement Do you really want to risk facing these potential outcomes? Saving for retirement may seem a thankless task. But you may be thanking yourself later. Putting away a percentage of one’s income, money that could be used for any number of bills or luxuries, is a sacrifice made in the present in order to avoid a larger trouble down the road. More than a quarter of seniors have no retirement savings. To [...]
Why Retirees Need Good Credit Scores Careers & businesses end, but the need to borrow remains. We spend much of our adult lives working, borrowing, and buying. A good credit score is our ally along the way. It retains its importance when we retire. Retirees should do everything they can to maintain their credit rating. A FICO score of 700 or higher is useful whether an individual works or not. For example, some retirees will decide to refinance their home [...]