Posted by Mark Frey | Mar 07, 2020 |
During the last week of February 2020, the S&P 500 lost 11.49% — the worst week for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis — only to jump by 4.6% on the first Monday in March.1 By all accounts, the drop was largely driven by ever-increasing fears about the potential effects of the coronavirus (CO...
Posted by Mark Frey | Mar 01, 2020 |
As of February 26, 2020, the death toll from COVID-19 — the official name of the coronavirus first reported in Wuhan, China — passed 2,700, while the number of confirmed cases exceeded 80,000. Almost all were in China, most of them in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province. But more than 2,500 ...
Posted by Mark Frey | Feb 22, 2020 |
IRA contribution limits
The maximum amount you can contribute to a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA in 2020 is $6,000 (or 100% of your earned income, if less), unchanged from 2019. The maximum catch-up contribution for those age 50 or older remains at $1,000. You can contribute to both a traditiona...
Posted by Mark Frey | Feb 15, 2020 |
Even though tax filing season is well under way, there's still time to make a regular IRA contribution for 2019. You have until your tax return due date (not including extensions) to contribute up to $6,000 for 2019 ($7,000 if you were age 50 or older on December 31, 2019). For most taxpayers, th...
Posted by Mark Frey | Feb 08, 2020 |
By one estimate, a 65-year-old couple who retire in 2019 may need about $300,000 in savings to pay their health-care expenses in retirement. This includes premiums for Medicare Parts B and D, supplemental (Medigap) insurance, and median out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses, but not other heal...
Posted by Mark Frey | Feb 01, 2020 |
Medicare won't cover all of your health-care costs during retirement, so you may want to buy a supplemental medical insurance policy known as Medigap. Offered by private insurance companies, Medigap policies are designed to cover costs not paid by Original Medicare, helping you fill the gaps in y...
Posted by Mark Frey | Jan 26, 2020 |
The $1.4 trillion spending package enacted on December 20, 2019, included the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives in the spring of 2019, but then subsequently stalled in the Senate. The SECURE Act represe...
Posted by Mark Frey | Jan 19, 2020 |
Whether at home, work or on a cell phone, it's a scenario many Americans have found themselves in: answering a phone call only to find out it's from an unwanted robocaller. In fact, the number of unwanted robocalls in this country has skyrocketed in recent years. The Federal Communications Commis...
Posted by Mark Frey | Jan 12, 2020 |
On December 13, 2019, the United States and China announced a “phase one” trade agreement just before new tariffs were scheduled to go into effect.1 Six days later, the House of Representatives passed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in an overwhelming bipartisan vote, virtually ...
Posted by Mark Frey | Jan 04, 2020 |
If you have a 401(k) plan at work and need some cash, you might be tempted to borrow or withdraw money from it. But keep in mind that the purpose of a 401(k) is to save for retirement. Take money out of it now, and you'll risk running out of money during retirement. You may also face stiff tax co...
Posted by Mark Frey | Dec 22, 2019 |
Annuity Basics
An annuity is a contract between you, the purchaser or owner, and an insurance company, the annuity issuer. In its simplest form, you pay money to an annuity issuer, and the issuer pays out the principal and earnings back to you or to a named beneficiary. Life insurance companies ...
Posted by Mark Frey | Oct 20, 2019 |
The relationship between oil prices and economic growth has become more complicated in recent years.
Conflict in the Persian Gulf has spurred modest oil price volatility in recent weeks, but prices didn't spike to high levels seen during some past conflicts. That's partly because rising U.S. oil...
Posted by Mark Frey | Oct 13, 2019 |
It's nice to own stocks, bonds, and other investments. Nice, that is, until it's time to fill out your federal income tax return. At that point, you may be left scratching your head. Just how do you report your investments and how are they taxed?
Is it ordinary income or a capital gain?
To dete...
Posted by Mark Frey | Oct 06, 2019 |
The IRS recently issued its annual list of tax scams. The list highlights various scams that taxpayers may encounter, many of which occur during tax filing season. Here are some of the scams that are highlighted on the list.
Phishing
Phishing scams usually involve unsolicited emails or fake web...
Posted by Mark Frey | Sep 29, 2019 |
Cash value, or permanent, life insurance is life insurance that is designed to be kept until your death–whenever that may be. Part of your premium pays for the “pure” insurance coverage and expenses, and the balance is held by the insurance company in a cash value account. The type of permanent l...
Posted by Mark Frey | Sep 21, 2019 |
You may have heard that IRAs and employer-sponsored plans (e.g., 401(k)s) are the best ways to invest for retirement. That's true for many people, but what if you've maxed out your contributions to those accounts and want to save more? An annuity may be a good investment to look into.
Get the la...