What is Estate Planning?

I am going to die. No, I don’t have a terminal disease, I am going to die because I am human, and dying is part of living. I won’t die any sooner for the fact that I have a will, in fact, with a will I sleep better at night knowing my affairs are in [...]

Difference between a 403(b) plan and 457 plan

As seen in Wikipedia
403(b) Plans
A 403(b) plan, also known as a tax-sheltered annuity plan, is a retirement plan for employees of specific tax-exempt organizations such as health care organizations and colleges and universities. While the relief provisions from the IRS give 403(b) a full year to adopt a written plan document, the plans still must [...]

Personal Finance : Lost your job? Don’t cash out your 401 (k)

Millions of workers take a huge chance with their retirement savings every year by cashing out their 401(k) accounts when they lose their jobs or move to new employers.
When people cash out, a chunk of their money just disappears.
Employers and financial advisers have warned workers about the possibility of retiring poor, something that’s more likely [...]

Why It’s Time to Retire the 401(k)

Two and a half decades ago, an employer, Occidental Petroleum Corp., cut its traditional defined pension plan in favor of a 401(k)-type system. So instead of getting a guaranteed pension check of $1,308 a month for his 36 years as a full-time, salaried employee, the former chemical-factory worker receives $225 a month from his 13 [...]

Congress to tackle rule on retirement advice

Now that the Department of Labor is scrapping a rule proposal that would have allowed brokers affiliated with financial-services firms to provide advice to 401(k) participants, Congress will move forward with legislation that would require that such advice be given by independent advisers, according to a key congressman.
The rule proposal was one of several Labor [...]

Strategies for a slow-go market

Chances are, your 401(k) is looking a lot healthier these days, now that stocks have soared more than 40% in just the past six months. But don’t get too used to investing in the fast lane.
While no one knows for certain how equities will behave going forward, the odds are good that Wall Street’s torrid [...]

New Government Initiatives to Boost Retirement Saving

Sometimes – not often – our government’s attempts to get in the middle of our financial planning makes sense. This appears to be the case with several initiatives announced by the White House yesterday. These initiatives are intended to firmly move more Americans toward responsible levels of saving for retirement. Let’s review them briefly.
This is [...]

3 Ways Obama’s Saving Initiatives Will Affect Your Retirement

President Obama announced several new federal initiatives to promote retirement savings today. “I’ve heard from so many who’ve had to put off retirement, or come out of retirement, to make ends meet,” Obama said during his weekly radio address today. “And having too little in savings not only leaves people financially ill-prepared for retirement, but [...]

Rebuilding your retirement

If the carnage in the markets has left your retirement planning dead in the water, you’re not alone. Most workers haven’t made any changes in their retirement-savings plan. A recent report by Vanguard found that 84 percent of its more than 3 million retirement-plan participants made no trades in their accounts in 2008. That inertia [...]

Parents credit card debt after their deaths

What I learned is the monetary difference between settling credit cards before versus during or after probate.
I ran into problems because neither of my parents had a will. They were pack rats, so trying to figure out credit card debt was pretty tough. We were getting stuff in the mail, but a lot of their [...]

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