Source: AdobeStock.com How did my 5 ETFs do versus the famous cryptocurrency during 2018? It is the holiday season.  That means three things to me: Good cheer Family and friends Settling a friendly non-financial wager with some friends about Bitcoin During this week in 2017, I relayed in this column a discussion I had with

Kuldip Pabla says it’s a misconception that senior adults “do not like or want technology,” and that error alone has caused the development of technology for older adults to lag behind that of younger people. Pabla is the senior vice president of engineering for K4Connect, a technology company that creates smart solutions for older adults

United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts speaks during the rally on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016. Thousands of unionized mine workers and supporters rallied to push for a bill that would protect health-care and pension benefits for about 120,000 former coal miners and their families. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

By Jess Stonefield, Next Avenue Contributor  One of the most common complaints about senior housing is this: it’s too $%&! expensive. Depending on the community, and the types of amenities and services offered, residents of assisted living and memory care facilities, for example, can pay $6,000 per month or more to live there. This can, of course,

Today we’re going to discuss six “retirement maker” funds that pay dividends up to 10.8% annually. You will not find these types of yields in mainstream financial publications. Here’s why. It’s important for you to fade Wall Street’s advertising machine and buy value, not hype – especially when it comes to dividend payers. Stick with

Many retirement plans don’t cover one of the events most likely to occur during retirement. The failure to properly plan for this event diminishes the quality of life in retirement and causes many plans to fail, because the financial consequences often are significant. Most retirement plans fail to account for likelihood that one spouse will

Unless you married right out of school you probably went through a period of time when you shared housing with people who weren’t related to you. How well that worked out mostly depended on how similar you were in values, habits, interests, and the willingness to work out your differences. Once settled in a career

People are buying annuities again, and for good reasons. Not long ago, there was a steady decline in the amount of money flowing into annuities and there seemed to be no bottom. Annuity purchases, however, have rebounded and indications are the demand for annuities is likely to keep rising. In the second quarter of 2018

Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin IRA individual retirement account written on wooden cubes.Getty Royalty Free Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) have become the go-to vehicles for holding retirement assets in the United States. In fact, IRAs now house more wealth in 2018 than all 401(k) accounts. IRAs represent about one-third of the

Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin December 31 not only represents the end of the calendar year, but it also represents a trigger point for many people to engage in planning, goal setting, and preparing for a new year. One area of our lives that can certainly benefit from an end-of-year boost

Source: Getty Royalty FreeGetty A few weeks ago, a reader emailed to ask me where he should invest his money for long-term growth. He had $20,000 in liquid cash to invest and wanted to secure a return of at least 5%. Well, don’t we all. Considering the average “high-interest savings account” offers 2% APY at

Tax revenue from legal marijuana sales should be earmarked to fund pension programs, the mayor of Chicago said on Wednesday. GettyGetty “Illinois legislators will be taking a serious look next year at legalizing recreational marijuana,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) said in a speech to the City Council. “Should they follow that course, a portion of that

Mayor Rahm Emanuel speaks at a press conference following a Chicago City Council meeting at city council chambers in City Hall in Chicago on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune/TNS via Getty Images)Getty Readers, I’m pausing my writing on multi-employer pensions for just long enough to address a news item out of Illinois,

HECM credit lines can be used to reduce retirement income instability(c) Can Stock Photo / focalpoint The HECM reverse mortgage is an ingeniously designed instrument with multiple possible uses, but its full potential has yet to be realized. A major reason is that it has been treated as a stand-alone, rather than as part of

Astute (and somewhat nerdy) readers of yesterday’s article will have noticed that I pretty much ignored the issue of using investment return as the valuation interest rate for evaluating funded status and calculating contributions.  This was not a mistake, nor was I giving multi-employer plans a pass that I haven’t been willing to do for

3 Year-End IRA And 401(k) Moves / photo credit: GettyGetty When it comes to year-end planning for retirement accounts, there is no time like the present! With just weeks left in 2018, there is precious little time left to make sure that you’re taking advantage of available planning opportunities and avoiding costly penalties. With that

Another day, another day of intrigue in Britain’s bloody and divisive Brexit battle. On Monday prime minister Theresa May decided to delay the vote on her proposed withdrawal deal scheduled for Tuesday, an event that was seen as the first major Parliamentary step to getting towards pulling the UK out of the European Union in March. May, fearing

Use a ladder to line up several years of IRA distributions. Scott Eells/Bloomberg© 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP There’s much to fret about: a spike in interest rates this year, a crash in the stock market this fall. It may be time to bite the bullets. Bullet bonds, that is. They eliminate a lot of life’s

Share to facebook Share to twitter Share to linkedin The Fed is confused to the point that they should take a step back.Getty The Federal Reserve has the power to make decisions that affect everyone’s life.  They are able to exercise their ability to change interest rates and to buy and sell bonds with relatively

America shouldn’t treat China the same way it treated Japan back in the 1980s.  When it comes to trade disputes, that is. It won’t work, and it could place the world trade and financial system at risk. America’s current trade disputes with China parallel those with Japan back in the early 1980s. They both revolve