Life Done Right™

There was a time when people stuffed cash under their mattress, fearful that putting the money in the bank was a sure guaranty of losing it all. Some today would call that fear irrational, but after reading about a rogue banker who lost $7 billion and nobody at the bank knew it (supposedly), maybe the [...]

Newsflash: “Analysts said the alarming write-downs at a handful of Wall Street firms could pale in comparison to the possible damage from shaky paper striking at the heart of assets held by insurance giants, mutual funds and big pension funds.”
If you thought only guys like casino owner Steve Wynn were allowed to gamble away fortunes [...]

Here’s the deal: when Baby Boomers started working for U.S. corporations, there was an agreement to fund retirement and health care benefits. As the years passed, the obligation to pay out these benefits continued to accrue. There was no doubt that one day these benefits would be paid out. There was no doubt about the [...]

As the financial markets explode and implode, what’s a retiree on a fixed income supposed to do? Jump out of a plane without a parachute? How about packing up your beach gear and hitting the beach. Why worry when you can enjoy the sun and go for a nice dip when it gets too warm. [...]

Risk can be your best friend when an idea so consumes your soul that you can’t imagine living one more moment without gambling your life away to prove you are right…right as in my passion will soon be your passion…I just know it, I feel it, or as they sing in A Chorus Line, “gimme [...]

Unless you were born into money there’s no shame in hoarding your own. If you have kids, though, that may be difficult, especially in a world where fewer and fewer people control a greater percentage of ALL money-making ventures. That disposable income that might have gone into a savings account or 401(k) but now finds [...]

Fortune magazine offers up five stories on people who have retired around fifty. John Greene is the first retiree interviewed. He paints full time now. He also draws income from leasing his three seats on the American Stock Exchange. Sweet. If you’re working at Wal-Mart then clicking on this story might not inspire you all [...]

By the time most people get around to understanding how sharpie accountants have fiddled with retirement and health care plans, the sunset party is over. All that’s left is you standing in a trashed room with a hangover wondering how you could have spent so much time worrying about whether Lindsay Lohan was doing [...]

There’s a new retirement guru in town and he says drawing on your Social Security benefits later may provide you with a higher standard of retirement living. He’s also pushing equities over more conservative bonds. So read his advice and make your own decisions, knowing a dollar saved today is probably one you won’t get [...]

For those of you who thought paying for your grandkids’ college education was frightening, you better bail on donating money to that cause and put all your dough into a savings account, because the cost of retirement is starting to look like the Iraq War budget.
Or, might we suggest retiring abroad to a foreign [...]

I spotted this Scottrade ad on the New York Times‘ website. What caught my eye was the re-imaging of a retiree. A husband and wife, dressed in wet suits, carrying surfboards on the beach, say somewhere in Malibu, makes for a whole new look to retirement. It’s not some frumpy old lady hiding her money [...]

Pensions offer the promise of a comfortable retirement, unless of course those doing the promising fail to live up to their agreement. State pensions are doing their best to operate like the big corporations by underfunding their pensions.
I guess some magic money fairy will show up one day and make everything balance out. Ha! [...]

If you plan on dying any time soon, you might want to consider how much of your money is going to your heirs versus how much is going to the IRS. Currently you’re allowed to pass down $2 million to anyone you damn please, but anything over that amount is subject to the death tax, [...]

When you’re watching a movie, unpredictability is the key to a good story. The audience feels cheated when they can anticipate where the story is headed; it begins to feel formulaic. An element of surprise that turns the story in a new direction is a delicious moment indeed.
Unpredictability in life, though, ain’t so great. [...]

As corporations around the world move to eliminate health care and pension plans from their cost of goods sold, the average worker needs to chuck their idealism and get in the trenches of being a hard ass about the value they contribute to the bottom line.

The reality of globalization affords no one a free [...]

There’s a rule around the house. If you start a project, then you better plan on sticking around until the project is finished. The same might be said for 401(k) retirement plans. If you invest your money in one of these plans, then you better make sure you’re not being taken to the cleaners by [...]

When you’re young, it doesn’t really matter how you live your life as long as you’re happy. As you approach middle age, the whole notion of “cumulative effects” starts to take shape as a concept and explain why that bulge around your waist might actually turn your health upside down. It’s all about planning and [...]

Congress being this Congress, you have to question motives whenever it involves such important things like pension plans. To date, pension plans have NOT been allowed to have funds invested overseas. In less than 60 days, a new rule goes into effect that makes this possible. If you thought getting a refund was tough, wait [...]

What’s a poor pension manager to do? The fund got walloped after the internet bubble exploded into thin air. The usual sorts of investment opportunities aren’t returning anything to spit at. The solution: dump the bucks, and lots of them, into super risky hedge funds. If you thought Enron or the savings and loan debacles [...]

There’s a shell game being played these days with pensions. Companies are furiously working to eliminate them, reduce them, or figure out a way to get people to absorb the cost of them. The days of a paternalistic company looking out for your well-being are over forever.
So remember that the next time you’re asked [...]