Major changes to retirement tax rules took effect on January 1 this year that are impacting every retiree with a retirement account. In December, a $1.4 trillion spending bill was signed into law to keep the government running. Within this legislation was the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act—which brought some of the most significant changes we have seen to retirement tax laws in more than a decade.
Life as we know it has changed dramatically during 2020. As the coronavirus spread across the United States, cities and states issued shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus and prevent healthcare facilities from being overwhelmed by critically ill patients. In May, when states started to reopen, Americans began to return to work […]
Q & A with Angela Bender, CFP®, and AMJ's managing partner ____________________ Question: What is an annuity and is it true you can live off that interest alone in retirement? Answer: An annuity is an insurance contract for retirement that allows for tax deferral of the earnings in the annuity account. There four flavors, so to […]
Financial advisor Angela Bender talks about pennies in her second meeting with prospective clients — specifically, how her firm saves them.
If her RIA, AMJ Financial, can clip about four cents off each trade, a client can retire a year early (that’s given a $1 million portfolio seeking a moderate 6% return rate).
How can a relatively small firm make such a powerful statement? AMJ Financial manages $184 million in client assets, but it makes frequent use of its custodian’s block desk. By doing so, Bender has access to TD Ameritrade Institutional’s bench of 16 traders, who are bringing their institutional trading and market-making backgrounds to her clients.
If you have ever been flattened by a rogue wave while fishing or sunbathing on the shore, you probably recognize the emotional responses that have accompanied the pandemic wave crashing across the United States – shock, anxiety, and concern for ourselves and others.
We’ve been knocked flat by the unexpected – COVID-19.
In just a few weeks, the virus has changed our world in significant ways.
Here is some information regarding the recently passed CARES Act. Economic Impact Payments:The distribution of economic impact payments will begin in the next three weeks and will be distributed automatically, with no action required for most people. Social Security beneficiaries who are not typically required to file tax returns will not need to file to […]
The best place to retire in the United States is in dispute. There’s no formal debate, but a review of reliable publications showed surveys have named different states and cities as the “best” place to retire. For instance:
• Iowa was #1 in a best places to retire survey cited by Yahoo! Money.1
• Fort Myers, Florida was #1 in the ranking from U.S. News & World Report.2
• Athens, Georgia was the first name on a list of 25 places that are all the best, according to Forbes.3
• Catalina Foothills, Arizona topped Money.com’s list of eight equally best places to retire.4
In 2019, Kiplinger offered a list of the 50 best places to retire. There was one in each state.5
It begs the question, doesn’t it? How can there be so many ‘best’ places to retire?
Not everyone is financially prepared for retirement. Earlier this year, the Employee Benefit Research Institute estimated almost 41 percent of American households will run short of money in retirement. That’s an improvement over 2014 when almost 43 percent of 35- to 64-year-olds were unprepared.
Since 2011, the number of Americans owning smartphones has increased from 35 percent to 81 percent, although there remains a significant digital divide, demographically. A Pew Research survey found the vast majority of younger Americans rely on smartphones, while just 53 percent of the 65-and-over crowd use the devices.1 Americans who have embraced the technology […]