Financial independence is both easier and harder to achieve than most people think. Financial independence is simple if you follow the standard, time-tested formula of long-term saving and investing. But, no one wants to do that. They want financial independence faster and easier, and that is much harder to achieve than most people think. What …
If you’ve read much in the personal finance world, or even just the occasional news story from the business section of your local paper, you are probably well aware of the non-stop stream of headlines about how people are not prepared to retire. Chances are you have visions of old people shut up in their …
401k contribution limits prevent higher income taxpayers from stuffing too much money into their 401k plans. Each year, the IRS adjusts tax numbers due to either tax law changes, or statutorily mandated adjustments. However, in some cases, the tax amounts are tied to inflation so that they automatically adjust. In many cases, numbers are only modified …
As a former financial planner in Colorado, I get a lot of questions about Colorado’s PERA program. For those of you who are not from Colorado, PERA stands for Public Employment Retirement Association. It is a public pension plan for employees of the State of Colorado and public school teachers, similar to CalPERS, the public …
Every year Social Security payments are adjusted for inflation. That means that in most years, there is an increase in the monthly benefit paid to people collecting Social Security. This year, retirees can expect a small increase. Social Security COLA for 2021 The Cost-of-Living Adjustment, or COLA, is calculated using an inflation index called the consumer …
Not all tax numbers stay the same over time. Many income limits and other tax numbers are adjusted each year, either for inflation, or by another statutory mandate. These tax numbers include the tax tables and tax brackets for each year, for example. It also includes IRA contribution limits. The IRS announces the numbers each fall. …
One of the things that comes up in financial planning is that getting all of the information and facts can be difficult. This, all too often, leads to financial paralysis where you don’t end up doing anything at all, because you don’t understand all the details. Ironically, a lot of the information that ends up …
When it comes to rollovers or transfers between 401k accounts and IRA accounts, one word makes a lot of difference. So, what exactly is the difference between a rollover and a transfer? A 401k rollover requires that 20 percent of the amount being rolled over be withheld for taxes, even though the IRS still requires …
Sometimes, it’s easy to let the small (but BIG) stuff get lost among all of the other information and knowledge out there. I’m just as guilty as anyone else, and that’s why I’m ashamed that there are already hundreds of other articles on my personal finance advice blog before I got around to writing this …
Politics sometimes makes it hard to get straight information about important topics relating to your finances. In this case, a court has struck down an Obama era rule that essentially applied the fiduciary standard to certain 401k advisors. According to the Republicans, this is a giant victory for freedom, and business, and enterprise. According to …