By Sandra Block From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance When confronted with a task that’s necessary but joyless, it’s human nature to put it off until the last minute. And for some retirees, taking withdrawals from their retirement savings accounts is another chore that falls to the bottom of their to-do list. Investments in traditional Individual Retirement…

The concept of financial independence isn’t a far-fetched dream! Cultivating financial discipline right from your twenties or even thirties can put you on track with the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement. However, most individuals fail to achieve financial independence before their retirement. Now, think that you are 70, and when you look back, you…

The ongoing push for environment, social, and governance (ESG) policies has driven retirement accounts into a downward spiral. Stagnant and oftentimes fading portfolios are being filled with “woke” investments thanks in large part to new guidance from the White House. On top of politics, mega-money managers like BlackRock are pressuring businesses to focus less on…

Women often don’t score as well as men in surveys of financial literacy. One area where we seem to do better is “longevity literacy,” or understanding how long we’re likely to live. Longevity literacy is essential to smart retirement planning. Overestimate your longevity, and you could retire too late or scrimp too much. Underestimate it…

Recent changes to health savings accounts (HSAs) make them much more attractive. These accounts double as health insurance and a retirement account. Previously, they only allowed smaller contributions each year, but the limit has been raised for 2024. Money contributed to a health savings account is tax deductible. It enables money to be available for…

I got an interesting email (actually, it was more like a rant) from a guy who was upset about an encounter he had with the Social Security Administration. It went on for a couple pages. I’m used to rants. After all, you just can’t please everyone all the time. But here is the part of…

For new college graduates, receiving that first post-degree paycheck can be almost as exciting as getting the diploma itself. But it also presents a challenge: Given the many demands on a young person’s budget, how should those funds be managed? We asked five money experts to share their best personal finance strategies to help this…

America is facing a worker-shortage crisis, as several industries nationwide face the challenge of replenishing a workforce diminished by a surge of retirements that began during the pandemic. It’s a growing problem in fields such as aviation, construction, manufacturing, nursing, and some professional industries like accounting. Millions of workers have left the workforce since the…

Retiring is a step that seniors look forward to. Working days will have ended, and you can begin to live on the money you have saved in various retirement accounts over the years. There are plans to fulfill and trips to make. While no one wants to consider the need for long-term care—have you included…

My wife and I are celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary this week. (Although at our age, “celebrating” means maybe an extra scoop of ice cream on our next trip to Dairy Queen!) I know we are fortunate to be reaching almost five decades of wedded bliss because I get a lot of questions from divorced…