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I will still take the dividends

R Quinn | Sep 12, 2026

"on The Compound and Friends / What Are Your Thoughts on April 7, 2026, with Josh Brown and Michael Batnick. They were discussing a survey by Meb Faber about whether investors understand how dividends work. The question was essentially: If a stock is worth $100 and pays a $5 dividend, what do you have afterward? The correct answer is $95 of stock + $5 cash = $100, not $100 of stock + $5 cash = $105. The striking result they discussed was that about 75% of respondents apparently thought the dividend was essentially “free money”—i.e., that they ended up with $105. Only roughly 25% understood that the stock price adjusts downward for the dividend. "

- Mark Bergman

Being terminated…

gnussen623 | Sep 12, 2026

"My heartfelt advice to you isn't about work or retirement. It's about relationships. A short, curt reply can stick with the questioner for years, for a lifetime. It can cause not just hurt feelings but lasting embarrassment in someone who belatedly realizes that their remark to you may have been thoughtless or even inappropriate. They may never forget an exchange that lasts only seconds. I know you're hurting, but don't spread that hurt around to family and friends. They are far more precious than the job you lost. I have been there and done that, and afterwards wished I had just smiled back. So fake it and smile, and take out your frustration later on a punching bag or a weight rack. Not your people."

- Mike Gaynes

Widow’s IRA Choice

ArticleJohn Urban | Sep 12, 2026

WHEN A HUSBAND dies, his widow inherits his IRA. Somewhere in the paperwork of the months that follow there is a decision to make, and nobody presents it to her as one. She can take the account as her own, or she can leave it titled as inherited. Taking it as her own means filling something in. Leaving it means doing nothing, and the IRS tells custodians they may assume that is what she wants. So the account sits where it is, at the same firm, holding money the household always treated as joint, and the decision gets made by nobody. It is the more expensive of the two. Not by a little. Two Tables Every year, a required minimum distribution, or RMD, has to come out of the account. The amount is the balance divided by a number from an IRS table, and there are two tables in play here. Beneficiaries use the Single Life Expectancy table. Owners use the Uniform Lifetime table, which spreads the money over a longer period and therefore asks for less each year. That is the whole mechanism, and it is worth about a third of the annual bill. Take a widow of 76 with $480,000. Left titled as an inherited account, she must take $34,043 that year. Had she taken the same account into her own name, she would have to take $20,253. Same money, same woman, same birthday. The difference is which box got ticked in the months after the funeral. It Does Not Happen Once That gap is not a one-year event. Run both versions forward 10 years, same account, same growth, taking exactly what is required and nothing more. The inherited schedule forces out $374,306 over the decade. As owner, $246,281. She pays about $30,600 more in federal income tax getting there, and reaches 85 with roughly $171,000 less still inside the IRA. She has not lost that money. She has been made to take it out early, pay tax on it sooner, and hold it somewhere less sheltered for the rest of her life. That is a slower kind of damage than a penalty, and a larger one, because it renews every January for as long as she lives. A Floor, Not a Ceiling The usual objection to taking the account as your own is that it locks the money up. It does the opposite. A required distribution is a floor, not a ceiling. She can take more in any year she wants it, for any reason, and nobody asks why. What she leaves alone stays sheltered and keeps compounding. The lower figure buys her the choice. The higher one makes it for her, every year, whether the money is needed or not. One Case Runs the Other Way There is a real exception, and it matters enough to state plainly. Money paid out of an inherited IRA escapes the 10% early-withdrawal penalty at any age, because the IRS exempts what is paid to a beneficiary on account of the owner's death. Take the account as your own and you are back under the ordinary rules. So a survivor who is young enough that an early withdrawal would be penalized, and who expects to need the money, has a genuine reason to leave the account exactly where it is. That threshold is 59 and a half. For most couples already retired this will not apply, and the rest of the article governs. Where it does apply, it outranks everything above. Nobody Will Prompt You I wrote recently about the letter that never comes. A custodian has to tell an IRA owner what must be withdrawn each year, and owes an inherited account nothing at all. So the choice decides more than the size of the bill. Take the account as your own and the letter starts arriving, every January, for the rest of your life. Leave it as inherited and you are on your own to remember the RMD. The branch that requires no paperwork is therefore both the more expensive one and the quiet one, and those two facts feed each other. The option that costs more is also the one that removes the annual nudge that might have made you reconsider it. Decide It Before You Have To None of this is hard to work out. It is hard to work out in the eight weeks after a funeral, which is exactly when it gets decided, usually by default. If you are married and you both hold IRAs, settle it now, while it is hypothetical for both of you. Talk through which of you would be likely to need the money soon after the other died. That is what the 59-and-a-half question really asks, and it is a conversation about your circumstances rather than about tax tables. Then decide which way the survivor should go, write it down, and put it with your trust, your will and the beneficiary designations, where a survivor or an executor will actually come across it. Tell whoever else needs to know that it exists. Look at it again as either of you nears the age your own distributions must begin. That is 70 and a half if you were born before July 1949, 72 if you were born between then and the end of 1950, 73 if you were born between 1951 and 1959, and 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. It is the birthday that makes the whole question live. The paperwork will not choose for you. It will simply do nothing, which is a choice, and on these numbers it is the wrong one for most people who make it by accident. ________________________________________________________________________________ John Urban is the founder of RetireSmartIRA, a retirement tax-planning app. Earlier, he founded GT Nexus, a supply-chain software company acquired by Infor in 2015. He lives in Northern California with his wife, Kathy, and enjoys time with family, travel, reading, Bay Area sports, and the occasional deep dive into the fine print of the tax code.

Americans are rushing to collect Social Security. The reason is disturbing

R Quinn | Sep 12, 2026

"I think you have a point. That provision is subject to abuse. The claims tend to rise during poor economic times and high unemployment. But I wouldn’t eliminate it completely. I had a nephew who was totally disabled from birth with CP. He eventually collected SS on his father’s record."

- R Quinn

A Wedding Too Far

Mark Crothers | Sep 7, 2026

"William, we were in the same boat — paying for our own wedding. That's probably why we kept costs down. We'd also just bought our first house six months earlier, so money was really tight."

- Mark Crothers

Free Breakfast

D.J. | Sep 9, 2026

"Hilton? Higher end? Not the ones where I have to stay."

- Rich

The Ultimate Tail Risk

Mark Gardner | Sep 13, 2026

"The original three laws were fine, and should be adopted."

- mytimetotravel

Locking it in

greg_j_tomamichel | Sep 5, 2026

"Great article, keep them coming. We had our way too, it was no loans except for a car and a house. We worked diligently to live within our means, with one worker and one home Mom, with 3 kids. The other angle was we would contribute the max to our IRA's, this worked for us, and now we have a very comfortable retirement. I must admit I pushed the numbers, and I look back, sure those numbers did not work after 50 years, but they also helped us get to a good place. Different strokes for different folks."

- William Dorner

Jonathan’s Parting Thoughts: No. 7

Jonathan Clements | Sep 4, 2026

"Jonathan is still giving great advice. Simple an to the point too."

- Brian Kowald

Growing Up In A Big House

DAN SMITH | Sep 9, 2026

"I grew up in a 650-square-foot, two-bedroom condo, surrounded by a loving family, a beautiful garden and close neighbors. I’m not nostalgic for the small home—we were four people, often with visiting relatives, in a very tight space. What I am nostalgic for is the closeness. When I could afford it, I bought a 2,100-square-foot home and was quite happy to have the extra room. But I tried to carry forward the family life I grew up with. That, to me, is what’s worth remembering about those smaller homes—not their size, but the families that filled them. Decades later, we remain close across generations."

- Mark Gardner

What’s your Domicile?

William Perry | Sep 1, 2026

"We know four different couples our age here in town who have bought homes near their kids/grandchildren in other states. Two divide their time between their home base in California and regular extended visits to their kids. In one case, they’ve bought second/third homes in TWO different states because one kid is in Alabama and the other two are in Idaho. The other two are in the process of moving completely to the new state, but they’re both taking it slowly. One is gradually moving stuff in Pods from California to North Carolina, but they’re not planning to put their current home on the market until next spring. The other is planning to just keep their house here “for now.” They actually have two kids/sets of grandkids in Nashville and Memphis and have bought homes in BOTH places. I’m sure the tax implications of all of this are complicated, and since my husband was an attorney in a California tax agency for 20 years, he would tell you that the state of California is very vigilant in getting what it thinks it deserves. I guess, on the other hand, if you’re in a position to buy another home(s) elsewhere and just keep your highly appreciated California home “for now,” you’re probably going to be OK financially when it’s tax time."

- DrLefty

Financial Choices

ArticleAdam M. Grossman | Sep 12, 2026

FOR MUCH OF THE seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European monarchs used a financial instrument known as a tontine to help finance their governments. Tontines were first developed in the 1650s by an Italian government worker named Lorenzo Tonti and were similar to annuities: In exchange for a single, lump-sum purchase, tontines offered guaranteed payments for life. But tontines also offered some unique features. Unlike an annuity, where payments end with the death of the owner, tontine holders had the option of tying the payments to another person. A parent, for example, could name their son or daughter on a tontine, thus extending the payments over a much longer period. In the 1750s, however, a Swiss banker named Jacob Beaumont had a realization: While the owners of tontines typically named their children, a quirk in the rules permitted a tontine owner to name any individual. To Beaumont, this presented an opportunity: Why not name the youngest possible person, thus extending the stream of payments even further? In his home town of Geneva, Beaumont identified ideal candidates for this role: young children who came from well-heeled backgrounds and were thus likely to have access to good healthcare. He then began loading up on tontines tied to the very long life expectancies of these children. The strategy worked exactly as expected and delivered Beaumont enormous profits. Other investors then piled in, mimicking Beaumont’s strategy, which, for a time, offered a virtually no-lose opportunity for profit. This went on until the French government, in frustration, discontinued its tontine program. When it comes to financial decisions, it’s the rare situation that’s as obvious as the one that Beaumont identified. Instead, most financial decisions entail some amount of uncertainty and are subject to judgment. Some choices, though, are closer than others to being obvious decisions. Here are six that I see frequently.

Certain Social Security claiming decisions are without question. For example, if you’re married and plan to claim the spousal benefit, it’s important to know that this benefit hits a maximum at full retirement age (FRA), which is now age 67 for most people. Unlike workers’ own benefits, which can continue to increase all the way to age 70, spousal benefits are subject to a different rule, so there’s no benefit for anyone to wait beyond FRA.
You may be familiar with umbrella insurance. This provides additional liability coverage on top of auto and homeowner’s (or renter’s) insurance. Because it covers low-likelihood situations, such as someone slipping and falling on your front walk, umbrella coverage is extremely cost effective—sometimes as low as a few hundred dollars per year. I see it as an obvious benefit because the situations it covers, however unlikely, are also the ones that could be the most expensive. And because it would be the insurance company that would face exposure, insurers provide legal defense, at their expense, if there is ever a claim. How much coverage should you have? I generally recommend between $1 million and $5 million, but the key point is that almost any coverage is better than none.
In choosing an asset allocation for your portfolio, I think it’s best to avoid rules of thumb, because everyone is different. At the same time, a recommendation that I see as universal is to avoid extremes. I wouldn’t get too close to 100% bonds because of the corrosive impact of inflation. And I don’t like getting too close to 100% stocks because of the volatility and risk of loss. That’s always been my view, but recent research can help investors narrow the range further. William Bengen, creator of the “4% rule,” published a book last year in which, for the first time, he looked at the question of portfolio longevity through the lens of asset allocation. What he found was that portfolios with stock allocations between 45% and 75% offered the highest sustainable withdrawal rates over multiple decades.

If you’ve recently retired, you may be considering a Roth conversion, whereby you’d move dollars from your pre-tax IRA to a Roth IRA. This is a popular strategy, but the catch is that a tax must be paid when a conversion is completed, and your tax bracket can increase as you convert more. Convert too much, and you can negate the benefit of a conversion. For that reason, it isn’t always obvious whether a conversion is advisable. There is one situation, though, where a conversion offers an almost obvious benefit: If your income, even with a conversion, would be in one of the two lowest tax brackets (10% or 12%), then it’s unlikely you’d ever find yourself in a lower bracket than that in the future. In that case, especially because of special deductions provided by the new tax rules, I’d view it as an almost obvious choice to proceed with a conversion up to the top of the 12% bracket.

Looking to make charitable gifts? Because the standard deduction is now so high, fewer taxpayers are able to itemize deductions, and that can limit the tax benefit of donations. But there’s still a way to gain a tax benefit: If you have appreciated stocks in a taxable account, you can donate them to a donor-advised fund. That would allow you to sidestep the capital gains tax that would otherwise be due if you sold those stocks. Many donor-advised funds have no minimums, making this an easy choice, in my view.
If you believe your estate will top the estate tax threshold (about $15 million per person at the federal level, but much lower in certain states), then I would be sure to use the annual exclusion (currently $19,000 per donor and per recipient) to make incremental gifts to your heirs. That's because this annual exclusion is in addition to the lifetime exclusion and doesn’t carry over from year to year.

Note that these gifts don't have to be made in cash if the recipients aren't yet in a position to receive them. As alternatives, you could make contributions to a 529 account or to a trust for their benefit, and these contributions would count toward the annual exclusion. Adam M. Grossman is the founder of Mayport, a fixed-fee wealth management firm. Sign up for Adam's Daily Ideas email, follow him on X @AdamMGrossman and check out his earlier articles.

I will still take the dividends

R Quinn | Sep 12, 2026

- Mark Bergman

Being terminated…

gnussen623 | Sep 12, 2026

- Mike Gaynes

Widow’s IRA Choice

ArticleJohn Urban | Sep 12, 2026

Americans are rushing to collect Social Security. The reason is disturbing

R Quinn | Sep 12, 2026

- R Quinn

A Wedding Too Far

Mark Crothers | Sep 7, 2026

"William, we were in the same boat — paying for our own wedding. That's probably why we kept costs down. We'd also just bought our first house six months earlier, so money was really tight."

- Mark Crothers

Free Breakfast

D.J. | Sep 9, 2026

"Hilton? Higher end? Not the ones where I have to stay."

- Rich

The Ultimate Tail Risk

Mark Gardner | Sep 13, 2026

"The original three laws were fine, and should be adopted."

- mytimetotravel

Locking it in

greg_j_tomamichel | Sep 5, 2026

- William Dorner

Jonathan’s Parting Thoughts: No. 7

Jonathan Clements | Sep 4, 2026

"Jonathan is still giving great advice. Simple an to the point too."

- Brian Kowald

Financial Choices

ArticleAdam M. Grossman | Sep 12, 2026

Certain Social Security claiming decisions are without question. For example, if you’re married and plan to claim the spousal benefit, it’s important to know that this benefit hits a maximum at full retirement age (FRA), which is now age 67 for most people. Unlike workers’ own benefits, which can continue to increase all the way to age 70, spousal benefits are subject to a different rule, so there’s no benefit for anyone to wait beyond FRA.
You may be familiar with umbrella insurance. This provides additional liability coverage on top of auto and homeowner’s (or renter’s) insurance. Because it covers low-likelihood situations, such as someone slipping and falling on your front walk, umbrella coverage is extremely cost effective—sometimes as low as a few hundred dollars per year. I see it as an obvious benefit because the situations it covers, however unlikely, are also the ones that could be the most expensive. And because it would be the insurance company that would face exposure, insurers provide legal defense, at their expense, if there is ever a claim. How much coverage should you have? I generally recommend between $1 million and $5 million, but the key point is that almost any coverage is better than none.
In choosing an asset allocation for your portfolio, I think it’s best to avoid rules of thumb, because everyone is different. At the same time, a recommendation that I see as universal is to avoid extremes. I wouldn’t get too close to 100% bonds because of the corrosive impact of inflation. And I don’t like getting too close to 100% stocks because of the volatility and risk of loss. That’s always been my view, but recent research can help investors narrow the range further. William Bengen, creator of the “4% rule,” published a book last year in which, for the first time, he looked at the question of portfolio longevity through the lens of asset allocation. What he found was that portfolios with stock allocations between 45% and 75% offered the highest sustainable withdrawal rates over multiple decades.

If you’ve recently retired, you may be considering a Roth conversion, whereby you’d move dollars from your pre-tax IRA to a Roth IRA. This is a popular strategy, but the catch is that a tax must be paid when a conversion is completed, and your tax bracket can increase as you convert more. Convert too much, and you can negate the benefit of a conversion. For that reason, it isn’t always obvious whether a conversion is advisable. There is one situation, though, where a conversion offers an almost obvious benefit: If your income, even with a conversion, would be in one of the two lowest tax brackets (10% or 12%), then it’s unlikely you’d ever find yourself in a lower bracket than that in the future. In that case, especially because of special deductions provided by the new tax rules, I’d view it as an almost obvious choice to proceed with a conversion up to the top of the 12% bracket.

Looking to make charitable gifts? Because the standard deduction is now so high, fewer taxpayers are able to itemize deductions, and that can limit the tax benefit of donations. But there’s still a way to gain a tax benefit: If you have appreciated stocks in a taxable account, you can donate them to a donor-advised fund. That would allow you to sidestep the capital gains tax that would otherwise be due if you sold those stocks. Many donor-advised funds have no minimums, making this an easy choice, in my view.
If you believe your estate will top the estate tax threshold (about $15 million per person at the federal level, but much lower in certain states), then I would be sure to use the annual exclusion (currently $19,000 per donor and per recipient) to make incremental gifts to your heirs. That's because this annual exclusion is in addition to the lifetime exclusion and doesn’t carry over from year to year.

Manifesto

Sep 13, 2026

NO. 32: WE SHOULD start with the global market portfolio—the investments we collectively own—and decide what we don’t want in our portfolio. Often, foreign bonds are the biggest subtraction.

Truths

Sep 13, 2026

NO. 91: A MORTGAGE leverages your home’s price appreciation—and costs you a bundle in interest. If you buy a $300,000 home with $30,000 down and the price climbs 30% to $390,000, your home equity would leap 300% to $120,000. But how much did you pay in mortgage interest to get this gain? Often, the cost of leverage offsets the benefit.

humans

Sep 12, 2026

NO. 5: WE'RE IMPULSIVE. Our brain has two parts: an instinctive side and a contemplative side. Much of the time, we operate on instinct. But with money, our instincts can lead us astray, prompting us to make impulsive spending and investing choices. To reduce the risk of subsequent regret, stop and pause, especially before big financial decisions.

act

Sep 12, 2026

TRY THE BACKDOOR. Is your income too high to fund a Roth IRA? Consider making nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA and then converting it to a Roth. This can allow you to get money into a Roth at little or no tax cost—provided your nondeductible IRA is your only IRA. If it isn't, the so-called backdoor Roth could trigger a big income tax bill.

Money Guide

Manifesto

Sep 13, 2026

Spotlight: Investing

Resilient Investing

Adam M. Grossman | May 16, 2026

BACK IN 2010, at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, a shareholder challenged Warren Buffett. Noting that shares of motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson had nearly tripled over the prior year, he asked Buffett why he had chosen to buy the company’s bonds rather than its stock. Buffett’s reply was a two-minute masterclass in how to think about investments. It’s worth walking through it point by point.
To start, Buffett acknowledged that hindsight can be cruel.

AI, Bubbles, and Markets

Adam M. Grossman | Mar 21, 2026

IN AN INTERVIEW a little while back, the technology investor Peter Thiel drew an uncomfortable comparison. Today’s frenzy around artificial intelligence, he said, parallels the tech stock bubble of the 1990s. To illustrate his point, Thiel pointed to Amazon.
By any measure, it’s been an extraordinary success. But, Thiel points out, it hasn’t been a straight line. At one point early on, Amazon shares lost more than 90% of their value.
“My suspicion is that that’s roughly where we are in AI.

The Market’s Unpredictability

Adam M. Grossman | Jun 13, 2026

EARLIER THIS SPRING, Emil Verner, an economist at MIT, made an observation: The stock market, he said, seemed to be exhibiting “excess tranquility.” Despite an ongoing war, inflation and other negative headlines, investors seemed surprisingly unfazed. The market was on track for its fourth year in a row of positive returns. Through May, it had gained 11%.
But no sooner did Verner make this observation that the market did begin to wobble. Last Friday,

Tax Efficiency

Bogdan Sheremeta | Apr 4, 2026

TAX EFFICIENT FUND placement is an often underrated topic. The goal of the tax efficient fund placement is to minimize taxes within your investments, and select the right account for those investments.

But how much does that actually matter?

Vanguard’s research finds that a thoughtful asset location strategy can add significantly more value than an equal location strategy. The value added typically ranges from 5 to 30 basis points of after-tax return, depending on circumstances (e.g.,

2026 Financial Plan

Adam M. Grossman | Jan 3, 2026

LOOKING TO UPDATE your financial plan for 2026? Below are ten strategies you might consider:
Gaining control
January is a good time to audit your investments. I’d start with this very basic step: If you have accounts at multiple brokerage firms, see if you can consolidate them. This won’t necessarily lead to better investment results, but if you have fewer accounts, it’ll be easier to monitor and to manage them. This might not seem like an important exercise,

Index Fund Bubble

Adam M. Grossman | Dec 6, 2025

CRITICS OF INDEX FUNDS are pursuing a new line of attack. Passive investing, they argue, is distorting market prices and creating an unhealthy bubble.
To be sure, the market today is expensive. The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of the S&P 500 stands at about 22. That’s substantially above its long-term average of about 16. Of more concern, that metric is approaching a level not seen since the market peak in 2000, just before stocks dropped 57%.

Better Than Golf

Kathleen M. Rehl | Mar 28, 2019

FOR ME AND MANY other older baby boomers, the traditional retirement model doesn’t work. We’re healthier and living longer than prior generations. Most of us don’t want to sit in a rocking chair, gaze at the sunset, play golf continuously, eat boring lunches at the senior center or live like we’re on vacation every single day. Instead, we want to remain relevant, with meaning and purpose in our lives, and we want to continue to learn and grow. Indeed, many studies, including one at Oregon State University, have found that people who retire early, and don’t remain active and engaged, tend to die sooner. Years ago, I thought I’d retire in my mid-60s from my financial planning business and, together with my husband, spend my remaining decades focusing on family, volunteering and travel. But my plan was turned upside down when my husband died two months after being diagnosed with cancer. That was right after my 60th birthday. His passing was the start of my journey into the wilderness of grief and transformation—and ultimately led to my encore career. Soon after I lost my husband, I started focusing my financial planning practice on helping other widows, including writing articles about their financial concerns. I was asked to contribute a regular column to Investment News, a publication for professionals. That, in turn, spurred me to write a personal finance book for widows, which garnered yet more attention. Many invitations to speak followed. I agreed to talk at events across the country. I wanted to help other widows, while also advising financial professionals about the special challenges facing women who suddenly find themselves on their own. Problem is, I was losing money on every event I did, because I was paying my own travel expenses. Sure, I was selling books at these events. But…

Giving Twice

Kathleen M. Rehl | Sep 22, 2021

MY ANDROID RANG on a sunny Saturday afternoon. The screen said it was from a police station. Hesitating, I took the call. My biracial son came on. “I’m going to jail, Mom. But I didn’t do it.” Instant memories, almost 50 years old, of police guns pointing at my African husband’s head and mine. Wrong profile of an interracial couple. It wasn’t us. Checking IDs, they realized we weren’t the suspects sought. With my son’s phone call, I jumped into mama bear mode, hiring expensive and effective legal counsel to fight the charges against my son. Bottom line: Case dismissed. That incident jolted me into modifying my estate plan. I’m sharing my personal story for readers who also may want to protect and stretch an IRA inheritance for their beneficiaries. Years ago, I named my adult son as the outright beneficiary of my traditional IRA. It seemed like a good idea. But I’ve changed my mind. Here’s why. Over many years and careers, I funded several tax-deferred retirement accounts—a traditional IRA, plus various employer plans. I lived frugally and kept adding money to these accounts until I retired at age 72. That’s when I merged them all (except a Roth IRA and an inherited IRA) into my traditional IRA. Most of my living expenses are covered by Social Security, a small pension and other investments. In retirement, I withdraw only the minimum required annually by law. I don’t ever expect to deplete my now $1.7 million traditional IRA. Indeed, it’s the largest asset I own. As it continues to grow tax-deferred, it’s becoming a taxable ticking time bomb for my son as beneficiary. In addition, if my son suddenly inherits this large IRA, it might be like winning the lottery. He could find it hard to resist sharply increasing his…

Merging Money

Kathleen M. Rehl | Nov 5, 2018

I TIED THE KNOT again—at age 71. Four years into widowhood, I met Charlie online. Also widowed, he and I began dating cautiously, each respectful of our late spouses and those marriages, as well as our adult children and grandchildren. We also focused on financial and legal issues. We knew from experience, and from research we had read, that financial disagreements can derail love. In an international survey of widows and money, women shared advice about re-partnering: Talking about money matters was essential before remarriage, so as not to be blindsided later. Here are 10 vital questions that Charlie and I used to delve into financial issues before our marriage last August. If you’re contemplating a new relationship, possibly including remarriage, these money talks may also benefit you: How will we make decisions about money, such as spending, saving, handling debt and budgeting? Who pays for what? Will we use, say, a joint credit card or checking account for shared expenses? Will we live together fulltime or keep separate homes? If we live together fulltime, whose place will we choose? Or should we move into a new home? What are our plans for retirement? If already retired, what retirement lifestyle does each of us desire? Will we merge our investments or hold them separately? How will we handle it if one of us earns substantially less than the other or has fewer financial assets? What about health issues and potential costs down the road? How will we navigate those? What financial responsibilities are we willing to take on for our children or aging parents? How do each of us feel about a prenuptial agreement? Communicating honestly about money with your partner can deepen your relationship as a couple. I know it worked for Charlie and me. Observe how your partner deals…

Better Than Cake

Kathleen M. Rehl | Feb 22, 2023

ON DEC. 23, 2022, while Santa and his elves were busy loading his red sleigh with gifts, the 117th Congress was putting together some goodies of its own, formally known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Before we rang in the new year, President Biden signed the bill into law. Included in that 1,600-page, $1.7 trillion appropriations measure was a special present for folks like me—the so-called Legacy IRA. This allows me to increase the sum I give to charity and the money I earn on my fixed-income investments, while lowering the income tax I pay. Kind of like having my cake and eating it, too. You might also benefit from this new provision. If you’re age 70½ or older, you can make a once-in-a-lifetime tax-free rollover of up to $50,000 from your traditional IRA to fund a charitable gift annuity (CGA). That $50,000 rollover doesn’t count as taxable income—but it will count toward your required minimum distribution, a must-do for those age 73 and older. You’ll receive fixed monthly, quarterly or annual payments for life based on your age. In most cases, the payout is set by the American Council on Gift Annuities. Income can be payable for life to just you or just your spouse, or to both of you. Over many years and careers, I funded several tax-deferred retirement accounts—a traditional IRA, plus various employer plans. I lived frugally and kept adding money to these accounts until I retired at age 72. That’s when I merged them all, except a Roth IRA and an inherited IRA, into my traditional IRA. Today, most of my living expenses are covered by Social Security, a small pension and other investments. I withdraw only the required minimum distribution each year from my IRA, which—for 2023—will be almost $63,000. Ordinary income tax…

Final Thoughts

Kathleen M. Rehl | Feb 12, 2021

YOUR ESTATE PLAN specifies what you want done with your money and possessions after your death. But your life’s treasures extend beyond these material items—to your values, heritage, relationships, hopes, dreams, memories and stories. You can share some of this with family and friends through a legacy letter, sometimes called an “ethical will.” Not long before my mother died, she wrote her legacy letter. She asked that it be read during her memorial service. Her letter began: “To you, my family, who are reading my legacy letter, please know how important you are to me and how much I love you. Life has been such a fascinating and interesting adventure. I apologize for the times I wasn’t the Mom you would have liked me to be. Please know that I really tried my best. Forgive me if I have hurt you in any way.” Mom’s two-page letter went on to talk about what mattered most to her, emphasizing a great love for family. It was the major theme of my mother’s life: “As I’ve grown older, I continue to value family more and more. It’s so important to keep in touch by calling or writing. So much of who I am today is because of my mother and Grandma Green and Aunt Frances. They were very special ladies in many ways.” A couple of times a year, I reread Mom’s legacy letter, written 14 years ago. Her wisdom and advice still speak to me today. How many times do you think I have revisited my mother’s legal will? Never. I wrote my first legacy letter after my husband’s death. I’ve updated my message for family several times since, usually triggered by unique events—my son’s marriage, birth of a grandchild, a move across the country, starting a business, remarriage, retirement and…

All Together Now

Kathleen M. Rehl | Sep 10, 2022

ONE OUT OF FOUR Americans lives in a household with three or more generations under one roof, according to Generations United’s 2021 report. The number of folks living in these multigenerational households has increased sharply over the past decade, from 7% in 2011 to 26% in 2021. Although “multigen” households come in many shapes and sizes, the rarest type is a four- or five-generation family living together. For most of my pre-teen years, I lived in a four-generation household. It all began in 1947, during a blustery blizzard when my great-grandpa drove my very pregnant mother and my father to the hospital. He didn’t trust Dad to navigate his DeSoto on the icy roads. When my parents brought me home, my great-grandparents and grandparents welcomed me. All seven of us lived together as a multigenerational family in a large rambling house built in the late 1800s. When Dad returned from Europe after World War II, he was a G.I. Bill university student with no income. Mom promptly got pregnant and remained a homemaker for several years as the babies came quickly. Living with family was about economics and affordability. I thought our housing arrangement was normal, though I later realized most of our neighbors lived in two-generation family homes. Except for a short stint when my parents and I stayed with my great-aunt and uncle on their farm, we lived with my double set of grandparents until I was almost 13 years old. I believe my parents’ failed finances were the main reason they lived with the grands. My great-grandma provided childcare, allowing Mom to earn income working outside the home. When my great-grandmother and grandmother were each widowed, living with the extended family helped them emotionally as well as financially. Growing up with all these relatives taught me several…

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