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How Both Obama and Romney Threaten Your Retirement
May 24, 2012
Robert Powell takes a look at the candidates' positions on some major retirement security issues.
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Savings Fall Short for Most Retirees
Your financial adviser doesn't want you to read this column. Many retirement investors, egged on by brokers and mutual-fund companies, put a great deal of emphasis on crafting finely tuned portfolios out of stocks, bonds and—increasingly, ...
WSJ.com - May 18, 2012
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Smarter Ways to Help Your Kids Pay for College
The trend toward putting off having children means many parents are facing their kids' tuition bills when they are hitting their 60s and about to retire.
WSJ.com - Apr 24, 2012
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The Juggle on Sunday; When Two Complete Worlds Come Together
When Alejandro and I met in New York 10 years ago, we fell in love quickly. But we knew we could never end up together. "We're from two different worlds," we would say.
WSJ.com - May 14, 2012
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Should You Purchase Long-Term-Care Insurance?
Long-term-care insurance. It's a subject most people don't want to think about—but many people know they need to. At first blush, policies that help pay the costs of extended nursing care make perfect sense. Bills add up quickly when you can ...
WSJ.com - May 11, 2012
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Retiree Health-Care Costs Surge
Talk about sticker shock: Even with Medicare benefits, a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2012 will spend at least $240,000 in health-care costs during their retirement, according to a report from Fidelity Investments released Wednesday. That ...
WSJ.com - May 11, 2012
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How Facebook's Elite Skirt Estate Tax
Investors are focusing on Facebook's offering price as the company prepares to go public as soon as next week. Tax specialists are paying attention to something else: how half a dozen of the firm's luminaries, including founder Mark ...
WSJ.com - May 11, 2012
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Retirement Homes for Less
Most people wouldn't dream of buying a house or a car without negotiating the price. Yet many families don't realize they can bargain for what can be an even bigger-ticket item: a retirement residence.
WSJ.com - May 14, 2012
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Are Variable Annuities a Good Investment?
Investors constantly balance their desire for the highest possible returns against their desire to guard against big losses. For many people, that balance was thrown off in recent years with the wild swings in financial markets. The ...
WSJ.com - May 13, 2012
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State Governments Eye 'Inactive' Broker Accounts
Attention buy-and-hold investors: A recent flare-up over escheatment, the age-old right of a government to claim abandoned or unclaimed property, has highlighted the importance of keeping in contact about your accounts.
WSJ.com - May 13, 2012
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Plan for Parents' Future
One mistake elder-law attorney Gregory S. French sees people make time and time again: waiting until they're nearly retired themselves to get involved in their parents' plans for old age.
WSJ.com - May 10, 2012
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Picking a Place to Retire
Where to retire? It's an age-old question that for many people centers on two big variables: housing costs and taxes. They should add a third criterion to their list: the percentage of people collecting pensions.
WSJ.com - May 9, 2012
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Preparing to Leave; Many small-business owners are waiting for the day they can cash out and retire. But they'd better do more than just wait.
The wealth of many boomers is tied up in businesses they own. And that can be a problem when it comes time to retire. Too many owners aren't prepared for the day when they'll need to cash out. Some haven't done their homework to figure out ...
Latest Retirement Planning News
WSJ.com - May 20, 2012-
Family Finance; Tips for Returning Troops; After combat stints, service members can face financial challenges
For U.S. troops returning from overseas, personal-finance issues can be a sobering part of homecoming. Nearly 150,000 service members returned from Iraq and Afghanistan last year, and 35,000 more came home from Afghanistan in the first two ...
WSJ.com - May 6, 2012
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States Are Shaking Up Their 529-Plan Lineups
To attract more parents to college-savings plans, states are making a new round of changes to deliver lower-cost, better-performing investments.
WSJ.com - Apr 30, 2012
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Retirees: Pump Up Those Yields!
With interest rates stuck at rock-bottom levels, retirees and soon-to-be retirees are hungry for better returns on their low-risk investments.
WSJ.com - Apr 30, 2012
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Clients From Venus; Financial advisers say that women are very different from men when it comes to money. And that requires a unique strategy to win their business.
Some advisers think they have found the next big niche: women. Women control $8 trillion in assets in the U.S., and by 2020 are expected to control $22 trillion, according to TD Ameritrade Institutional, a division of TD Ameritrade Inc. ...
WSJ.com - Apr 28, 2012
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How Will You Spend Your Refund?
Last time, I looked at why something that's bad for us—getting a big tax refund—feels good. Our rational side knows we shouldn't give Uncle Sam an interest-free loan by overpaying our taxes throughout the year, but our emotional side seems ...
WSJ.com - Apr 28, 2012
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If You're Under 40, Don't Bank on Social Security
If Plan A in your retirement scheme is Social Security, it's time to start working on Plan B. Based on reports last week from the folks responsible for the Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds, Americans—especially those under age ...
WSJ.com - Apr 26, 2012
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Insurers Step Up Business Exits
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. took a step toward exiting from the annuity business, agreeing to sell units that develop, market and distribute new versions of the investment and retirement-income products.
WSJ.com - Apr 22, 2012
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College Graduates, You Need to Start Saving Now
The majority of this spring's college graduates aren't ready to take on the world financially. Two-thirds of students will graduate with debt that averages $25,250 in student loans and more than $4,000 in credit-card debt, according to the ...
WSJ.com - Apr 22, 2012
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Readers Share Their Stories of Loss
Last month, I wrote about the challenges my family faced as we raced to provide care for my ailing father. That column met with an outpouring of emails from readers—and a realization on my part that many tough choices lay ahead when it ...
WSJ.com - Apr 20, 2012
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Facing Health-Plan Cuts
Retirees are paying more than ever for their employer-sponsored health coverage, often in the form of higher premiums, copays and deductibles.
WSJ.com - Apr 20, 2012
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Congress Eyes 401(k)s Again
Some of the most popular retirement-savings tools are coming under the congressional microscope. As policy makers gear up for the tax-reform effort expected after the presidential election, they are asking: Can 401(k) plans, individual ...
WSJ.com - Apr 18, 2012
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New Suits Over Do-It-Yourself IRAs
A wave of blowups in do-it-yourself individual retirement accounts has prompted some investors to go after firms that handle the paperwork. Two custodians of self-directed IRAs were sued in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday by ...
Latest Retirement Planning News
WSJ.com - May 7, 2012-
Inherited IRAs: a Sweet Deal; A Generous Benefit for Families Survives a Senate Challenge
Inherited individual retirement accounts made news earlier this year when the Senate Finance Committee proposed to make heirs empty them within five years of the benefactor's death.
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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Don't Grow Old Without It
Long-term-care insurance: It can make the difference between living out your life the way you want and becoming a burden to your family or a ward of the state.
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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The Best In... Financing Your Future
Scams and Schemes A new report, "The Rise of Financial Fraud," is a terrific introduction to a sobering topic: the surge nationwide in swindles that cost Americans—and older adults, in particular—more than $1 billion annually. Published by ...
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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Claiming Spousal Benefits; Social Security strategies, moving IRA dollars, and charitable gifts
My wife reaches full retirement age for Social Security this month. She doesn't have her own earnings record. I will reach full retirement age in October, but plan to wait to start drawing benefits until I retire in a few years.
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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Staying Fit; Same Room, Different Ailments; A program in which patients with varied problems help each other expands nationwide
After quintuple bypass surgery in 2005, Howard Falvey, now 64 years old, says his doctors warned him to improve his diet and exercise habits. But it wasn't until 2010, when the Woodland, Calif., resident enrolled in a program led by others ...
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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So Much for Snap Decisions; A Nobel Prize winner explains why one secret to a successful retirement is to think 'slow'
How is it that so many people make decisions that, from their perspective, seem so right—and turn out so wrong? Blame it, in part, on thinking "fast."
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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Destinations; A Last-Minute Dash for the Olympics; Where to find tickets and lodging for the London Games—just four months away
Thinking about dropping in on this year's Summer Olympics in London? It isn't too late. Though the Games are right around the corner—they will be held July 27 through Aug. 12—lodging, airline seats and even tickets to certain events are ...
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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Financing Your Future; How to Create a Pension (With a Few Catches); 'Longevity insurance' is catching on with baby boomers. But even the best safety nets have some holes.
Americans with pension envy increasingly are turning to a relatively new breed of annuity, known as "longevity" insurance, to restore some financial security to what are supposed to be their golden years.
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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Editor's Note
As recently as the early 1990s, decisions about when to retire were relatively straightforward: When a husband retired, his wife did the same. Even if she was working outside the home, her job typically paid less, or she hadn't been ...
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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The Good Life; Joining a Community By Staying at Home; Some continuing-care campuses are doing away with the requirement to buy a residence
Thinking about moving to a so-called CCRC, or continuing-care retirement community? Perhaps you could stay in your home—and have the community come to you.
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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Destinations; Moving to Portugal; How a retired TV executive found a new life on the edge of Europe
This is part of a series of travel stories in which retirees living overseas, full time or part time, profile their adopted locales. Send us your suggestions at next@wsj.com.
WSJ.com - Apr 9, 2012
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He Wants to Retire…but She Doesn't; How couples negotiate one of the toughest parts of retirement: deciding when to start
Let's say you have managed to stay married—or even remarried—by the time you hit middle age. Get ready for one more marital hurdle. The odds are your spouse won't feel the same way you do about when to retire. A recent study by Fidelity ...
Latest Retirement Planning News
WSJ.com - Apr 14, 2012-
It's Not Your Fault Your Fund Can't Keep Up
Good news: The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is up 12.6% (including dividends) for the year, one of the best first quarters in a long, long time. Many stock analysts are projecting a banner year for stocks, as investors pile into ...
WSJ.com - Apr 8, 2012
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Five Mistakes You May Be Making
Mistakes you are making now may sabotage your retirement later. While not having a game plan for how you're going to retire by age 65 may not seem like a priority today, for example, the longer you delay planning hurts your chances of ...
WSJ.com - Apr 8, 2012
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Financial Scammers Prey on Seniors
As the population ages, legal actions taken in response to the financial abuse of older adults are proliferating. But family members can take steps to protect an elder's nest egg.
Barrons.com - Apr 7, 2012
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Steady Eddies
For sellers of stable-value funds, the 2008-2009 financial crisis was a godsend. Many investors -- especially baby boomers approaching retirement -- were savaged in the brutal stock-market downturn that accompanied the meltdown. After it ...
WSJ.com - Apr 7, 2012
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Finding Social Security Help
Doing your own Social Security planning is a bit like doing your own taxes: You might do a good job, but if your situation is complex, you would be wise to enlist professional help.
WSJ.com - Apr 6, 2012
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Need to Know; Inspect the Fees in Your 401(k); New disclosures will make this easier, but here's how you can check key expenses today
More than 50 million Americans have invested some $3.64 trillion in 401(k) and 403(b) retirement savings plans, more than half of it in mutual funds. Chances are, few of them know how much they're paying in fees and expenses.
WSJ.com - Apr 6, 2012
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Time for a 'Backdoor' IRA?
Uncertainty over the fate of the looming 3.8% tax on investment income is fueling new focus on a trusted tax maneuver: the "backdoor" Roth individual retirement account.
WSJ.com - Apr 5, 2012
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Exchange-Traded Funds; Are ETFs and 401(k) Plans a Bad Fit? Not necessarily, as some companies try adding exchange-traded funds to retirement plans
When the 401(k) came into vogue in the 1980s, the mutual fund was the investment of choice. So the retirement plan was built to suit the mutual fund's particular quirks, including its once-a-day trading and the ability to buy partial ...
WSJ.com - Apr 5, 2012
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Tax Pitfalls for Fund Investors; Avoiding these five mistakes can save you grief and put more money in your pocket
Fund investors can go wrong in all sorts of ways. But since mid-April is fast approaching, let's talk about one of the most common and least understood: taxes.
WSJ.com - Apr 1, 2012
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Financial Planning on a Limited Budget
You don't need a high net worth or complicated investments to create a financial plan. There are a crop of new resources that let you get financial-planning services on the cheap. For a flat or hourly fee, a certified financial planner can ...
WSJ.com - Mar 30, 2012
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Medicaid Gets Harder to Tap
Families hoping to use Medicaid to help pay for long-term care are facing tougher restrictions—though some states are getting stricter than others.
WSJ.com - Mar 28, 2012
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Dividends Are Great, but Not Perfect
The past year's slide in bond yields has prompted income-focused investors to eye a switch to dividend-paying stocks such as AT&T and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Latest Retirement Planning News
WSJ.com - Apr 8, 2012-
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Seniors Rise in Work Force After Slump
After the recession thinned the ranks of employed New Yorkers, one group has emerged from the downturn with improved standing in the labor force—older workers.
WSJ.com - Mar 25, 2012
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Making a Difference, Even at the End of Life
From time to time during the past several years I've used this column to help readers through the challenges of end-of-life planning. Recently, my dad's health took a sudden, sharp turn for the worse. My family and I found ...
WSJ.com - Mar 23, 2012
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By Ellen E. Schultz; How to Time Social Security
When should you start taking Social Security benefits? It is one of the toughest retirement decisions seniors will have to make: whether to take benefits early, wait till their full retirement age or delay them to age 70. Each has its pros ...
WSJ.com - Mar 21, 2012
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Hartford Comes Full Circle on Annuities
A decade ago, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. began selling baby boomers a new kind of retirement-income product to guard against outliving their savings. It was an instant hit.
WSJ.com - Mar 21, 2012
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Hartford Says Goodbye to Annuities
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. on Wednesday unveiled plans for a radical overhaul of its business in an effort to revive its share price and satisfy demands by the hedge-fund manager John Paulson for "drastic" change at ...
WSJ.com - Mar 20, 2012
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Insurance Agent Gets Bail in Annuity Case
A California state judge granted bail Tuesday to an insurance agent so he can avoid jail time while appealing a felony-theft conviction for selling an annuity to an 83-year-old woman.
WSJ.com - Mar 19, 2012
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Cuomo Hypes Modest Pension Deal; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo hails a "bold and transformational pension reform plan" that the state legislature passed as "a historic win for New York taxpayers and municipalities."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to be channeling Newt Gingrich on Friday when he hailed the "bold and transformational pension reform plan" that the state legislature passed as "a historic win for New York taxpayers and ...
WSJ.com - Mar 19, 2012
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The New Retirement Resorts; Forget Assisted-Living Facilities. Some Intrepid Folks Are Venturing Out to Foreign Countries, Spas and Even Cruise Ships. Here's What You Need to Know
Instead of moving his mother into an assisted-living apartment three years ago, Eli Portnoy rented condos for both of them, two floors apart, at Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa in Miami Beach, Fla.
MarketWatch - Mar 21, 2012
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Hartford bows to Paulson on annuity business
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Bowing to pressure from hedge-fund titan John Paulson, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said Wednesday it would exit its annuity business and weigh a sale of a large portion of its life-insurance operation.
WSJ.com - Mar 18, 2012
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Annuity Case Chills Insurance Agents
Last month, Glenn Neasham, an independent insurance agent, was ordered to spend 90 days in jail on a felony-theft conviction for selling a complex annuity to an 83-year-old woman who prosecutors alleged had shown signs of dementia.
WSJ.com - Mar 18, 2012
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Ten Perennial Mistakes That Tax Filers Make
Tax laws change with alarming frequency, but some taxpayer errors are perennial. Here are 10 things that tax filers commonly forget to do, according to Greg Rosica, a tax partner at Ernst & Young and lead author of the Ernst & Young ...
WSJ.com - Mar 18, 2012
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How Much Risk Can You Manage?
In my last column, I outlined a new approach to managing investment risk that I summed up this way: Never gamble unless you can afford to lose.
Latest Retirement Planning News
WSJ.com - Mar 27, 2012-
SmartMoney Magazine; Fix Your 401(k); At too many companies, critics say, the 401(k) plan is in so-so shape. Can savvy employees patch the holes and improve their odds of a secure retirement?
Every day, millions of Americans give their investments the serious attention they deserve, riffling through the business pages, tracking the markets and grappling with tough questions. Do I need more exposure to stocks -- or less? How ...
WSJ.com - Mar 12, 2012
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He Says, She Says; For couples, a crucial part of financial planning is figuring out what each person wants
When couples first come to see Bruce Helmer of Wealth Enhancement Group in Minneapolis, he often hands them a deck of cards. Each card has a value written on it, such as family, spirituality, or adventure, and he asks each spouse to narrow ...
WSJ.com - Mar 12, 2012
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Editor's Note
Scenario No. 1: You're young, with many years left in the work force. You're getting serious about building your nest egg, and want to make sure you have enough money for a comfortable retirement.
WSJ.com - Mar 12, 2012
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Who Will Run the Family Business? It's a question that leads to all sorts of conflicts. But it doesn't have to.
Owning a business can be a family's greatest asset—and its greatest source of conflict. Two areas in particular seem to hold the most potential for missteps in the life of a family business: getting family members into the business and ...
WSJ.com - Mar 12, 2012
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Why Stocks Are Riskier Than You Think; Most people can get the money they need for retirement without gambling heavily on equities, say Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu
A growing sense of urgency is driving many investors to take reckless risks with their money. Even though they experienced the hazards of stock ownership firsthand in 2008, investors are venturing back into equities again. They've been ...
WSJ.com - Mar 12, 2012
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The Game Plan; How some people are saving for retirement—and what financial advisers think of those strategies
The Game Plan takes a look at how individuals and families are saving for retirement—and then asks financial advisers to comment on those strategies. You're invited to share your own retirement-savings plans by sending an email to ...
WSJ.com - Mar 10, 2012
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Long-Term Care: What Now?
Shopping for long-term-care insurance? You should expect higher costs and a tougher approval process as a growing number of household-name insurers quit selling the policies.
WSJ.com - Mar 10, 2012
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Divorce: Splitting Up a Rich Military Pension
Dividing retirement plans in a divorce is never easy. When one spouse is in the military, it gets even harder. The issue affects millions of military couples for whom a pension is often their largest asset.
WSJ.com - Mar 8, 2012
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AMR Does About-Face; American Airlines Parent Says It Will Freeze, Not Terminate, 3 of 4 Pension Plans
AMR Corp., which last month told employees at its American Airlines unit that it intended to terminate their four underfunded pension plans, reversed course Wednesday, saying it had found a solution that would let workers covered by three ...
WSJ.com - Mar 5, 2012
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Exchange-Traded Funds; ETF Choices for Income Investors; Advisers take varied routes in combining funds for people who don't want lots of risk
Income-oriented investors are caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one side, the Federal Reserve is keeping Treasury bond yields artificially low. On the other, dividend stocks offer tempting payouts but with painful ups and downs ...
WSJ.com - Mar 5, 2012
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INTERVIEW; Bad News for Boomers; Demographic trends will depress portfolio returns, this researcher warns
If you're a baby boomer, you've got a big problem when it comes to the investment returns you can expect in retirement: It's the sheer number of other boomers who are also getting ready to leave the workplace and rely on ...
WSJ.com - Mar 5, 2012
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Saving for Retirement; The Ins and Outs of Roth 401(k) Plans; Workers haven't embraced this choice. But maybe they should.
The number of companies offering Roth 401(k) plans has grown rapidly since the retirement plan became a permanent part of tax law in 2006. Employees, however, aren't quite as enamored.
Latest Retirement Planning News
WSJ.com - Mar 12, 2012-
MIXING IT UP; Testing the 4%-a-Year Retirement Rule; The adviser who coined this rule of thumb for withdrawals is watching how it holds up in tough markets
The next five years could determine whether a rule of thumb for retirees' withdrawals from their portfolios remains valid in these turbulent times, says Bill Bengen, a financial planner in Southern California.
WSJ.com - Mar 4, 2012
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How Much You Need vs. How Much You Can Lose
Never gamble unless you can afford to lose. That is essentially the message of a small but growing chorus of academics and financial advisers, who are calling for a new approach to managing investment risk in the wake of the two bear markets ...
WSJ.com - Mar 2, 2012
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IRAs Get Sexier; Disillusioned With Returns on Conventional Investments, IRA Owners Are Turning to Private Equity, Condominiums, Farmland and Other Alternatives. Here's What You Need to Know
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has gotten lots of attention for holding as much as $100 million in his individual retirement account. Less well known is that the account is also chockablock with complex private partnerships rather than ...
WSJ.com - Feb 26, 2012
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To Be Working and Happily Retired
For a growing number of older Americans, retirement is bringing a fresh challenge: learning to juggle. The juggling act in question is how best to continue working and still have the flexibility to relax or pursue other interests that many ...
WSJ.com - Feb 26, 2012
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The Pitfalls of Investing in Your Employer
There are plenty of stupid investments you can make in this world. Stock in Pets.com and Washington Mutual didn't work out so well. Nor did those Las Vegas condos. Some of the social media and Web 2.0 stocks flying high on Wall Street ...
WSJ.com - Feb 26, 2012
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Find Benefits For Seniors
A tool from the National Council on Aging can help seniors tap into billions of dollars in benefits to help pay for health care, food and utilities.
WSJ.com - Feb 25, 2012
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The Pension Health Checkup
How can you check the health of your pension plan? In the Feb. 11 Conquering Retirement column, we looked at red flags that could show a pension might be at risk. In response, readers concerned about their plan asked for ways to check up on ...
Latest Retirement Planning News
WSJ.com - Mar 5, 2012
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