A recent widow in her seventies came into my office in Jerusalem for an initial meeting on how to increase her investment income. She said that the $25,000 per year from her portfolio and pensions was simply not enough income to maintain her lifestyle.
The pension stopped – Oy!
Her husband’s pensions stopped when he died,… Read more
When you withdraw money from your IRA (or if you inherited an Individual Retirement Account from someone and you take yearly distributions), don’t fool yourself.
Just because you withdraw money from a retirement account does not mean that you actually made that money. Rather, you might just be pulling out your principal…. Read more
What should you do with your American IRA account (Individual Retirement Account) when you live in Israel?
Your initial thought might be to cash out your IRA account and transfer the funds to Israel. But that’s probably not too wise because of the tax-deferred nature of an IRA.
Moving your retirement account to Israel may be expensive
IRAs are good vehicles for retirement saving because they let you defer paying American taxes on capital gains,… Read more
Retirees who diversify globally protect themselves from investing with too much home bias.
If you are saving for a future retirement, your goal is probably to grow your capital. If you only focus on higher returns, though, you may take risks you cannot afford. Markets can be volatile. Diversifying globally may be a good way to lower volatility and smooth out returns…. Read more
Knowing the right time to let go of financial responsibility to a trusted individual is one of the biggest challenges that an investor may face.
Why should you want to let go?
As you get older, it becomes more difficult to keep on top of your finances. Most senior citizens,… Read more
Much has been written as to whether women should retire at the same age as men or earlier. Currently, both American social security and Israeli bituach leumi begin at an earlier age for women than for men. But regardless of how old a woman is when she retires, often women have a more difficult time financing retirement than men do…. Read more
Though the difference between retirement planning and all-inclusive financial planning may seem slim, people often plan too much for one target.
If you focus excessively on your future retirement, you might forget that you have other bills and goals before then. Obviously, the less money you spend today will mean the more money you’ll have tomorrow…. Read more
The typical image of retirement used to be of Grandma sitting on her rocking chair knitting, supporting herself with the sizeable pension checks Grandpa received in the mail. However, this picture no longer represents today’s retirees.
While life expectancy has steadily grown longer, people often continue to retire at the same age that they did decades ago…. Read more
Many aspects of retirement planning are based upon actuarial charts and life expectancy calculators that tell you how long the average person lives. It’s difficult to plan for a phase of your life based on an assumption that may or may not actualize. Even if the statistics were correct, they don’t take into account the chances of something unforeseen happening that may alter original projections…. Read more
