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Class of 2020 Member Wow! I guess I am really tardy with this post. I retired effective July 1st, 2020. Staying busy volunteering as a Docent at Greenfield Village Museum outside of Detroit, restoring/building my 1964 Formula Car (see pre-work photo of car parked next to my convertible...

NO! IRA's and 401(k)'s are great ways to amass wealth over a number of years by avoiding taxes. But you will be retiring within a few months! You have a greater likelihood of benefiting from unencumbered access to funds for unplanned expenses. By placing it in an IRA you will need to pay...

For Life Insurance she only needs enough to pay for Funeral or Cremation expenses. No dependents, so nothing more than Final Services coverage. And that is only to prevent Mom & Dad from covering the costs.

I have appealed twice and won both times. Not a huge reduction either time but a reduction nevertheless. My advice: In some communities the members of the Appeal Board may include community volunteers. Treat everyone with respect. Arm yourself with facts, rather than just an opinion. Have...

Hey! Some of us 60+ YO employees are still working because we were lucky enough to find a career that is both fulfilling and that we love. I will be leaving the workplace, for good this time, in early Summer at age 64. And my Financial Planner keeps reminding me at every meeting me that he...

My younger sister is 62 and regularly runs 5K to Half-Marathon events - with a bad knee. She didn't start running until her 50's.

I worked in the auto industry for 38 years, most of those with Employee Discount on new car purchases, and still bought primarily used cars. Only new cars bought came with multiple layered discounts making it almost embarrassing how low the final cost was. Buying a slightly used car, such as...

Doesn't #1 still place you in the position of being currently strapped for free cash? You may need to pay penalty plus taxes to withdraw it, (realizing that age 59-1/2 which negates the penalty is nearly or already here). But if it came from a tax deferred account AND it was a large check -...

Yes, that is something all of us need to consider. If their future RMD's are more than a person will require to provide their desired/intended lifestyle, then it may be prudent to withdraw funds early - not exceeding the current tax rate steps. Definitely should be reviewed by everyone to...

Your wife's income doesn't support you and your chosen lifestyle. Either modify your lifestyle by: Selling off a piece of property, or Selling off some of your car collection Or go back to work to increase your income. Three viable solutions.

I guess we each interpreted the OP's question differently. I agree that your recommendation to treat it as an Early Inheritance is the best solution IF the OP is planning to contribute one or a few large sums to quickly fund the IRA. I interpreted the question as how to fund an IRA via a...

Yup, I have the same issue. The tax-deferred accounts are great to accumulate wealth but lousy to draw from later. I will be looking for a similar plan and will follow this post. Initially I thought your question was looking for income replacement. Since my target retirement date isn...

Our adviser is saying we should consider purchasing an additional Survivorship Life Insurance Policy for wealth transfer to our kids upon our deaths due to elimination of the Stretch IRA provision. (Not sure I want to do this. We already have one such policy and I would rather have improved...

If your goal was to have steady income with minimal fuss and mess, I would have suggested purchasing an Immediate Annuity within your existing IRA account, and moving all investment dollars from the Mutual Fund to the Annuity. No taxes due on the withdrawal or transfer. Monthly paycheck, (this...

I don't see this part as the best option. Yes, you can gift an Early Inheritance but that requires specific tax forms to be filed and years of maintaining the documentation. The two earlier suggestions to: keep the amount below the current annual gift limit, or; file a form for the excess gift...

I have never used Vanguard, but if you are happy with them, go there. Why are you buying Loaded Funds? I can understand if that was all your wife's employer offered, but Vanguard offers many high performing No-Load funds to save you the fees.

Don't count your chickens before they hatch! If one or both of his parents require Skilled Nursing care as they age, that $1M plus inheritance can be sucked dry fast. $100K per year per patient is not unusual depending upon their locale. That is equivalent to ~$8K per month, and the cost...

Well...you really kicked the Hornets' Nest with this question. My view is that a Good Annuity will provide Rocking Chair money in retirement with no effort on your part. I don't think any of the other respondents considered the potential/likelihood/inevitability that at some point in our...

Highly subjective! Reading the descriptions I placed us in Level #6. Reading the dollar amounts barely places us in level #4. But we no longer desire a bigger or fancier home as we are very happy where we are. We travel when we want, and now stay in upscale (to us) national name brand...

Yes, the recipient MUST have a plan in place when they select the Lump Sum option to avoid unpleasant tax consequences. A direct roll-over (not offered by my employer) is one such plan.

I selected the lump sum when I announced my retirement in late Fall of 2012. I had no confidence my soon to be former employer would exist for the rest of my life, and they had already reformatted/reduced pension calculations 3 or 4 times prior to my departure. Plus, we already had a Financial...

Hypothetically speaking: You keep $10K in your Safety Deposit Box for emergency cash. You find some collectible object you desire, car or furniture or artwork, for sale at a fair price of $5K. You decide to use you Emergency Cash for this purchase. Where do you go to get the cash? To the...

Double & Triple check your inputs I too was getting 100% success with FireCalc regardless of whatever scenario I requested to be run. No matter how much money I input as a desired income amount, the result stayed at 100%. So I went through all my inputs looking for errors and found a big one...

I agree 100%. And it sure is fun to bait the bears of the index find afficianados. Sorry guys, but it is a miserably hot weekend here in Michigan and this outlet provided entertainment without cooking my brain in the Triple digit temperatures. d; )

You need a high quality Fund Newsletter to identify those, and then react. Top Performing funds do not stay a Top Fund forever. The likes of Magellan Fund are now just a footnote in history. Are you investing outside of a 401(k) plan, or inside a 401(k) which offers lots of retail fund...