Investing Daily

The wildcard in every retirement plan is the cost of medical care. Medical expenses above estimates are the cause of many retirement plan failures. There are several reasons medical expenses disrupt so many plans...

Among the more difficult retirement planning decisions are whether or not to buy long-term care insurance and, if so, at what age to purchase it.

As readers re-focus on their estate plans, they should take care to avoid the five main types of errors committed by estate owners.

Financial security for you and the objects of your affection is a priority of legacy planning.

It is important to transfer principles to the next generation but not necessarily methods of preserving and growing wealth.

Hedge funds don’t all follow the same investment strategy. The best hedge funds, however, tend to follow one or more of several successful strategies.

High school and college students are rolling into the work force during the summer break. Many areas report that local students are seeking jobs in numbers not seen in years. You can make the summer job experience more rewarding for your grandchildren or children, a reward that will pay off for decades. You also can provide an extra incentive for those who need more motivation to seek employment.

The critical decision of whether to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA continues to provoke questions and cause some confusion. Today we review some key points that seem to be confusing or that are gray areas in the rules.

The new health care laws, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 and a companion law, make sweeping changes in how your medical care is financed and provided. The changes are phased in now through 2018. The law is too broad to cover here. I focus on the items that will affect those in or planning for retirement, especially items that weren't covered much by the general interest media.

Very few tax strategies come with second chances. One that does is the conversion of a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. By converting taxpayers are able to create a stream of tax-free income. Then, the taxpayer is a able to reverse the conversion when it was not the best move.

Estate planning mistakes fall into two major categories.

Investors are starting to fall into traps with their IRA investments. The traps have been around for many years. They are being sprung now because more investors are attracted to nontraditional investments.

The easiest, surest way to increase your retirement income is to shop for annuities just as you would for anything else. Few retirees or prospective retirees do this, but I've shown over the years shopping will increase income.

You can spend a maximum of 4% of your retirement fund the first year and increase the distribution for inflation each succeeding year after.

Your questions answered.

Election years bring investors all sorts of anxieties. Aside from the various campaign promises designed to attract us to a particular candidate, we must also consider which nominee’s policy changes threaten to erode our financial well-being. Such considerations give new meaning to the term political plank, and pocketbook politics always hit home during times of economic and market malaise.