December 2008 - Posts
The Washington Post - December 27, 2008
The financial crisis has torpedoed the retirement planning of many seniors.
Those foolish enough to have followed the advice of investment advisers who preached that homeowners should convert all their home
Read More
The New York Times - December 26,2008
For people in or near retirement, bonds were supposed to provide a sense of security.
But for some investors, they did precisely the opposite. Bonds of all stripes have taken sizable hits this year. The losses have
Read More
Business Week - December 18, 2008
The Federal Reserve's increasingly unconventional efforts to mend the financial markets and restore economic growth are starting to take on a new urgency. Recent data indicate the economy's descent into recession is
Read More
US News & World Report - December 19, 2008
Retirees older than 70 ½ will not be required to take withdrawals from their retirement accounts in 2009. But the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service decided seniors will not get the same tax
Read More
Newsweek - December 20, 2008
When you walk through a FOR SALE house with a real-estate agent, you expect to hear gushing about the "solid bones" or the "great potential." But as I toured listings this year while covering the deepening housing crisis,
Read More
CNN Money - December 2008
If you can afford to put off collecting your checks for a few more years, you probably should.
Question: I'm 60 years old and in good health. I can afford to put off drawing Social Security until after age 62 to get a higher
Read More
USA Today - December 12, 2008
Congress approved legislation that would provide relief to retirees who want to avoid inflicting further damage on their battered retirement savings plans.
The bill, which President Bush is expected to sign, allows retirees
Read More
The Arizona Star - December 14, 2008
Francesca Jarvis has lived in her university-area home since 1968, and it shows.
The home is cluttered with a lifetime of stuff: Stacks of magazines, keepsakes, loose ends and old videos have spread across
Read More
The New York Times - December 12, 2008
Harvard kicked off a small but ambitious experiment this week that it hopes will become a new “third stage” of university education. For the student-fellows in the program, most in their 50s and early 60s, the goal
Read More
The New York Times - December 12, 2008
AS people contemplate their own economic straits, the not-so-funny line you often hear these days is: “O.K., where is my bailout?”
Few of us will ever get the financial breaks now being given to big companies,
Read More
CNN Money - December 12, 2008
Dow 4,000. Food shortages. A bubble in Treasury notes. Fortune spoke to eight of the market's sharpest thinkers and what they had to say about the future is frightening.
Nouriel Roubini Known as Dr. Doom, the NYU economics
Read More
The New York Times - December 9, 2008
JACKSON, Tenn. — Before Sunday’s basketball game, Coach Yogi Woods gathered the junior varsity at Lambuth University. Watch out for 73 on the other team, he said. He did not mean the player’s number. He meant his
Read More
US News & World Report - December 11, 2008
Most seniors don’t use their home equity to finance retirement. But it is a back up plan if catastrophic expenses strike. And for some seniors that time is now.
Seniors took out 112,100 Home Equity Conversion
Read More
The New York Times - December 2, 2008
For these economically uncertain times, the UnitedHealth Group has a “first of its kind” product: the right to buy an individual health policy at some point in the future even if you become sick.
Called UnitedHealth
Read More
The Union Tribune - November 30, 2008
Seniors traditionally have used reverse mortgages to maintain their standard of living in retirement by tapping into their home equity, but older homeowners increasingly are using the loans to avoid sliding into
Read More
Yahoo Finance - December 1, 2008
The U.S. credit-card industry may pull back well over $2 trillion of lines over the next 18 months due to risk aversion and regulatory changes, leading to sharp declines in consumer spending, prominent banking analyst
Read More
Portfolio - December 2008 issue
To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or
Read More