Finally, the decade when you get to retire! Reaching your 60s is an exciting time for soon-to-be retirees. It can also be stressful, but that stress can be greatly reduced with some thoughtful planning before that last day of work. The first thing to do is estimate your monthly retirement income and compare this to…
There are some big changes that occur for 50-years-olds. Of course, there is the gray hair (if you have any left) and larger mid-section. But you also have some different rules for saving for retirement. We’ll get to those in a second. First, we need to talk about the big picture. Your 50s is the…
Turning 40 is a big deal. This decade of life is a time when you really start putting it all together. Once you make it into your 40s, you have tried out different occupations and gained tons of work and personal life experiences. Finally things all converge when you figure out who you are, what…
Finances and money obligations change throughout life. A 30-year-old has different goals and money concerns than a 70-year-old. With this in mind, the next several columns of The Money Shot will focus on each decade of life providing finance tips for that phase. This week, we focus on our 20s. What a fun time with…
There are many situations where you need to figure out where to invest your money. Maybe you left a company to take a new job. Or maybe you are retiring. Do you leave your money at the old company? If not, where should it go? Or let’s say you want to fire your current brokerage…
It’s doubtful you are as nerdy as me and watch PBS Frontline. However, I encourage everyone to watch the program titled The Retirement Gamble that aired April 23 (it’s easy to find online). This show is one of the best I’ve seen that exposes many of the hidden shenanigans the financial industry pulls over middle-class…
Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs, are available to people that have a high-deductible health insurance plan. The HSA is used for medical expenses such as your deductible, co-payments, medications, prescription glasses and dental care. The cash deposited into an HSA is pre-tax money. And money withdrawn from the HSA is also tax-free if used for…
Remember September 2007? That’s when the stock market was at an all-time high. Within 18-months it dropped by almost 50 percent. Just last week, after four long years, the market finally made it back to that September 2007 high point. It has been a tough time for everyone in the world, but we learned some…
Crime rates in San Diego increased in all categories in 2012 as compared with 2011 with the lone exception of hate crimes, which decreased by 16.7 percent overall. The number of hate crimes due to sexual orientation went down from 18 in 2011 to 11 in 2012 which was a 31.4 percent drop, according to…
Many years ago, the federal government did something amazing – they created the Roth IRA. The reason it’s so amazing is because you never pay tax on money after it’s deposited into a Roth IRA. Many people already know how great Roth IRAs are for retirement savings. However, there are important things most people don’t know about…
