It’s not surprising that a survey last year by T. Rowe Price found that health care costs are the biggest financial worry among retirees. On the surface, the numbers are unsettling. According to a 2022 analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a couple with...

A four-year college degree is expensive. How expensive? While the numbers vary depending on whether you attend a public or private university, or in-state or out-of-state institution, the data are sobering. The average cost of college is $38,270 per student per year,...

Margaret Newcomb, 69, is a retired teacher, and she is trying to protect her retirement savings by caring for her 82-year-old husband, who has severe dementia. At times, he has wandered away from his home. She attaches a tag to his shoelace with her phone number in...

We’ve all read or heard the stories. Someone passes away without a will, and potential heirs sharpen their knives in a free-for-all that can take years to play out in court. The emotional toll is immeasurable, with relationships incurring irreparable harm that can...

Much has been written about saving for retirement, and we adhere to the principle that financial security is a key component to a successful retirement. Many of you are on that road right now, while others are accessing the savings accumulated over a lifetime. Knowing...

Social Security provides retirees with a basic income. It was never intended to fully cover the cost of living in retirement. But it acts as a supplement to your resources. Social Security includes disability, dependent benefits, and survivor benefits for minor or...

Taxpayers invest about 13 hours preparing their tax returns, according to the IRS’s instructions for Form 1040. More specifically, the IRS says that the average nonbusiness taxpayer spends nine hours preparing a tax return, which includes three hours of record...

The SECURE Act, or Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, and its successor SECURE 2.0 are significant pieces of retirement legislation impacting millions of Americans.   The Acts introduce several key provisions aimed at improving retirement...

It is not just about having a pile of money in a bank account or a fat portfolio of stocks and bonds. Lottery winners often stumble into wealth without having much in the way of financial knowledge. A beneficiary of a large estate may know very little about financial...

Are you familiar with how our federal tax code originated? In 1909, progressives in Congress attached a provision for an income tax to a tariff bill. Hoping to kill the idea for good, conservatives proposed enacting such a tax as they believed 75% of states would...