Category: Taxes

  • The Secure Act 2.0 May Have Passed While You Weren’t Looking

    The Secure Act 2.0 was finally passed as just one part of a massive funding package by the outgoing congress just before Christmas on December 23, 2022, and signed into law by the president as the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, an omnibus spending bill authorizing roughly $1.7 trillion in new Federal spending (yikes!). You’re…

  • Looking Forward to Making Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

    Now that I’ve reached age 70, I’m looking forward to getting just a little older. Why? Because when I reach age 70½, I’ll be eligible to make Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs). I first mentioned QCDs on this blog in an article published in December of last year titled ”My Year-End Retirement Stewardship Review and Planning…

  • Thinking (But Not Too Concerned) About RMDs

    If you read much about retirement finance, you’ll see a lot of hyperbolic rhetoric about “Required Minimum Distributions,” or “RMDs.” You’d think RMDs are going to sneak up on you and devastate your financial plans in retirement. Spoiler alert: they’re probably not. Yes, RMDs will impact your savings, income, and taxes, but not as much…

  • Beware the Free Steak Dinner and Financial Advice Retirement Seminar

    I recently received another one: an invitation in the mail to a “free dinner and retirement discussion.” It seems like I’ve been averaging one every few weeks or so. (My wife also receives one every once in a while. So does somebody named “Current Resident” who apparently lives with me who I don’t know.) I’m…

  • Retirement Account Rollovers and Transfers—You’ve Got to get it Right (Part Two)

    This article is the second of two about retirement account transfers and rollovers. First, we focused on transfers, which I defined as moving assets between two of the same type of retirement account, e.g., from a Traditional IRA with one provider to a Traditional IRA at another. In this article, we’ll look at rollovers, which…

  • Will Your Social Security Benefits be Taxed (and if so, how much)?

    Most don’t think too much about income taxes in retirement. They just assume that they’ll pay less since it’s possible (likely?) that their income will be less. For many, that’s a reasonable assumption (at least as long as tax rates remain relatively low). Others believe that their Social Security retirement benefits aren’t taxable, further reducing…

  • All You Need to Know About Personal Finance on a 3 x 5 Inch Index Card – Really?

    A few years ago, a University of Chicago college professor named Harold Pollack remarked that everything you really needed to know about personal finance could be fit on a single 3×5 inch index card. Someone asked him to prove it, the result went viral, and Pollack actually ended up co-writing a book about it called…

  • Some Thoughts on “Key Retirement Planning Birthday Milestones”

    A friend recently sent me this link to a chart on PNC Bank’s website titled “A Timeline for Achievement” that provided a helpful list of age-based retirement planning milestones. (Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement for PNC, although I am sure they are a good bank, I just found the chart interesting. This kind of…

  • New Year Retirement Stewardship 10-Point Check-Up

    Happy New Year! Planning is a wise part of retirement stewardship. But no matter how well we plan, we must always remember that “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9). And now that we are closing out 2018 and looking out ahead to 2019, I thought I would share some thoughts…

  • Roth IRAs, Roth Conversions, and the New Tax Law

    One of the ways we practice wise retirement stewardship is by making good use of the tax-advantaged savings plans at our disposal. Tax-deferral is a gift of God’s common grace that we can all take advantage of here in the U.S. (Psalm 145:9). As our savings earn interest and dividends and increase in value, we…