financial strategies

Most people know that as they approach age 65, they need to learn about Medicare. Enrollment is the seven-month period that begins three months prior to the month of your ...

A Shameful Secret Some carriers make software available to calculate the correct estimated equivalency of the policy face ...

Strategy of Claim Lower Now, Higher Benefit Later The higher-benefit spouse defers but takes a spousal benefit from ...

At age 62, anyone with forty quarters of full-time work paying Social Security taxes may draw a permanently ...

Next, let’s look at guaranteed income in more detail. Immediate Annuities These contracts exchange principal permanently for income—only ...

Pension Settlement Decisions Think twice before accepting a commutation offer (getting a lump settlement instead of lifelong income) ...

Retirement Planning is the most complex chapter in this book, incorporating all of the prior topics, several very ...

REIT These Unit Investment Trusts have a tax advantage that corporations do not. They are not taxed at ...

The 'Disaster Fund' Imagine you have a mutual fund, rental property, or other asset that you have grown ...

Municipal Bonds and Muni Bond Funds Municipal bonds are commonly mistaken for low-risk investments, especially if diversified across ...

For the sake of liquidity (tax-favored accounts tend to be subject to tax penalties), you will want at ...

A similar folly can be seen with the way some people view real estate, which has many investment ...

The 'Secret' to Deciding on a Successful Crediting Method Actuaries design the crediting methods available to you to ...

Options as Investments The owner of a call option has paid a dollar or so for the right ...

Make New Savings Very Aggressive, and Existing Assets Well Diversified The first secret to be shared here is ...

The two ways to buy LTCi are as stand-alone (ongoing premium) policies or as riders to life or ...

Why buy insurance at all? Why not be self-insured and save the profit margin that carriers earn? After ...

Three-Tiered Cash Reserves   You don’t need a financial advisor to know you need a cash reserve. But how ...

This is the first of a series in which The Epoch Times will publish excerpts from chapter 1 ...