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For reasons too complicated to explain here, DW and I ended up booked for two overseas vacations this Fall. The first was an 8 day river cruise in France, earlier this month. Despite having every Covid vaccination available by that time (6), we both developed strong Covid symptoms and...

Insurance companies supposedly invest SPIAs in long term bonds. If true, that would mean that higher rates on long term bonds would provide a higher payout for every dollar invested in a SPIA. That seems to be true, I recall that SPIA payouts were higher when I retired in 2005 than five years...

I'm 77, DW is 75. When I retired, taking the Contingent Annuitant option on my fixed pension would result a a huge drop in the monthly payout. Apparently the only people who took that option were guys already on death's door with young wives. So I took the full monthly payout and also bought...

I have taken each Covid vaccine when available/recommended for me. Thus far I've had: Initial two-doses of Pfizer in early 2021. Pfizer booster in Fall of 2021. Pfizer booster in Spring of 2022 before vacation. Moderna bivalent booster in Fall of 2022. All the articles I've seen are saying...

We had our house custom built 40 years ago on the far fringes of suburbia, from plans DW modified, when the kids were toddlers. Now the kids are gone and the house is twice as big as we need but we still like the house, the view, and the neighborhood. We plan to live here until we choose or...

A modest amount of our investment money is in a 457(b) fund, managed by Transamerica. AFAIK, this is the only place where we have the option of a Stable Value Fund. I'm considering putting some of our fixed income allocation into their stable value fund, "Standard Insurance Company Stable...

Keeping in mind that nothing is truly guaranteed except death & taxes... My former employer (United Airlines) went into Ch 11 a little while before I retired in 2005, and dumped all their pensions on the PBGC. Each employee group had a separate plan and they were kept separate by the PBGC. My...

My equity distribution is simple- Vanguard VTSAX for US stocks and VTIAX for international. It's generally said that having a portion of the equities in international can reduce volatility, but comparing those two funds makes it look like international moves mostly in lock step with US...

I'm 70, and my pension stops when I drop. Between SS and our other investments, my wife won't be eating dog food if she outlives me (she's 2 yrs younger) but it would be a big comedown. Right now I have a $500k 20 year term life insurance policy that ends when I'm 78. Buying more term life...

Events of the last few weeks do not give me warm and fuzzy feelings about the ability of our government or our health care providers, to control ebola in the USA. Maybe we'll get lucky, maybe not. If things get out of hand, my offhand guess is that we'd have a severe recession/depression...

My MIL is 86. Soon, she will be going into a retirement (not nursing or assisted living) home, and has enough money to last about 10 years. All of her money is currently in MM or short term CDs. She is looking for advice on how to change her AA for the next ten years, at which point the money...

My Mother-in-Law is a widow in her mid-late eighties, with no physical ailments and a family history of longevity. She lives alone in a small house in central Florida. About ten years ago, she was persuaded to invest her IRA and most of her free cash in a loan to LCS Correctional, basically a...

Here are the titles of two by-lined articles in this morning's newspapers, one from an AP Economics Writer, the other from the Business Section of the Chicago Tribune: "Fed's Dimmer outlook could mean longer bond buying" or "Stimulus appears in line for easing" I'm glad we got that...

When I retired at 60, that seemed too young for DW (58, then) and I to want a SPIA. We have SS and a modest pension already, plus our IRA's. But I planned to think about a SPIA a few years later. After all, our greater age should produce a higher income for a given investment. Well, here I...

Nobody has asked to see my social security card for a long time. But I'm on Medicare now (with a commercial supplemental policy) and wonder what would happen if I needed urgent medical care on a trip and didn't have the Medicare card along? Not sure my supplemental policy ID would be...

(I couldn't find the answer in Search) Are there any states that charge state income tax, or the equivilant, on Roth distributions? Illinois does not yet charge any state income tax on any qualified pensions or IRA's, but that may change in the future...

Surprisingly, I couldn't find my answer with the Search feature: If a person has multiple IRAs, and must take MRDs; must the specified percentage be taken from each IRA? Or can you calculate the total required MRD and take it all from one IRA, leaving the other(s) untouched? A sort of...

The monthly payout one gets from a SPIA should rise or fall somewhat with the insurance company's expectation of future rreturns. And I've been told those returns are mostly in the bond market. If so, SPIAs being sold today should have a significantly lower payout than ones issued 5-10 years...

A casual look at the data on Vangurd's site makes both funds look quite similar, except for age. What differences (besides age) do you see, and why would you pick one over the other?

Inflation and interest rates generally move in the same direction, but not exactly. How will the Vanguard TIPS fund perform relative to other Intermediate term funds if interest rates spike sooner than inflation, or later? Or, can I buy individual TIPS from VG with a relatively short...

The nice performance of the stock market has pushed my equity % above my target AA range at Vanguard. Wanting to move some money into fixed income, the choices at VG look pretty bleak. MM pays almost nothing, short-term bond funds pay darned little and will probably take some losses as...

(Perhaps I'm missing something new, but didn't find much in Search) The Vanguard Managed Payout funds haven't received much discussion lately, but the October issue of Consumer Reports Money Advisor has an article that includes them, and a graph on p. 8 showing how they would have allegedly...

Now that I've got a Penfed Platinum card, I get 5% back on all gas purchases at the pump, not just the 5% on Shell only or 1% from BP only. So I can ask Shell and BP to cancel those cards, or just throw them in the safe and probably they will be cancelled for inactivity, or make a couple of...

Several months ago I looked into getting a Penfed credit card (Visa Platinum cashback rewards card) to get the 5% back on gas purchases. Back then, the website said the 5% for gas was ending soon. Today I looked again and it appears the 5% for gas is still in effect, and I don't see anything...

For your comments and advice: I have a sister who just turned 60. At 55 she divorced her French husband because he suddenly picked up multiple expensive mistresses, lost his banking job, and generally fell apart. She came back to the U.S with about $500k in a lump, nothing else. She bought a...