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Try It NOWCategory: Financial and taxes in retirement
January 20, 2023 — The end of the year presented several gifts to well off folks with substantial IRA, 401(k), or 403(b) balances. The biggest is that, thanks to the Secure 2.0 Act of 2022, the new age for taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from those accounts now begins at…
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Category: Downsizing
December 11, 2022 -- One of the best pieces of advice we have heard is to think about downsizing in retirement. Finding a smaller, lower maintenance place to retire can unlock equity in your home so you can maintain a great lifestyle with less income. It can also simplify your life. Less maintenance and yard work, smaller utility bills, lower property taxes, and more time to enjoy retirement, are just some of the benefits. But downsizing is not always quite as easy as it seems. Here we outline some of the costs and headaches that many people do not consider when they start the downsizing process.
Costs to fix up your home for sale. Either you or the buyer might decide to make costly improvements before the sale, such as radon mitigation, roofing, HVAC, structural, etc. These expenses can cost a lot more than you imagined when you put the home on the market.
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Updated Feb. 2025 (Dec. 7, 2022) -- For the people who see red when they think about paying taxes, the good news is that there are plenty of tax friendly states to retire in. There are enough choices that they can pick a state for retirement based on other factors as well, such as climate, environment, proximity of family, etc. This article will cover the states that have the lowest taxes for retirees. But first, let's discuss what kind of taxes you need to consider in retirement.
Kinds of Taxes
Unfortunately, there are multiple kinds of state taxes that can affect retirees. Some will affect different people in different ways:
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
December 4, 2022 — Folks who were born in 1950 face their first Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) from their IRAs and 401(k) type plans. The SECURE Act of a few years ago fixed the age for RMDs to kick in at age 72, starting with folks born after July 1,…
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Category: Active adult communities
Update June, 2023 - In another development, Governor DeSantis recently signed the much anticipated Surfside Glitch Bill, SB 154, into law. The bill relieves some of the ambiguity in SB 154. It also provided relief for some provisions of the law such as allowing a Milestone Inspection to be provided by a team of professionals with an architect or an engineer acting as a registered design professional in charge of the report (the supply of inspectors was an issue). Other clarifications had to do with reserve requirements. In one provision, reserves are not needed for replacement costs for items for which the estimated remaining useful life exceeds 25 years (but reserves are still required for deferred maintenance for those items).
November 13, 2022 -- Hurricanes Ian and Nicole were bad enough, destroying thousands of homes, changing the coastline, and scaring residents and real estate buyers alike. But a new Florida law, SB 4-D: Building Safety, is about to provide a potential killer wave to the Florida condo market.
The Building Safety Law is a reaction to the tragic Surfside building collapse in Miami in 2021. It has several key requirements for condominium associations that most are not yet aware of, especially how fundamentally those will affect their finances. This article will attempt to give a quick snapshot of what is now required, and how things will change. We recommend that if you are on a condo board you get familiar with the law now, because it has several new requirements. As it spells out clearly, failure to meet them is a breach of an officer’s and director’s fiduciary relationship to the unit owners. Sadly, the jailhouse humor going round is that it could cause mass resignations of board members across the state. Even if you are not a board member, you should make sure that your board is working on this issue.
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Nov. 10, 2022- A disturbing statistic emerged in 2021. In that year 10.7% of America’s over 65 population lived in poverty, up from 9.5% in 2020. While that is a lot better than the third of elderly Americans who were in poverty before Medicare came along, it is an alarming…
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Sept. 22, 2022 — Thanks to the pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and other factors, inflation is raging here in the U.S. and everywhere in the world. While early estimates are the 2023 Social Security COLA will be one of highest in history at 8.7%, that will not be…
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
August 17, 2022 – After reaching record highs, the stock market is down almost 12% this year. Perhaps just as bad, inflation is raging at over 8%. Both of these developments make for a terrible situation for retirees, especially for those just beginning their retirement and worried about outliving their…
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 13, 2020 — Not everyone wants to have a roommate in their retirement, but for many they are a great solution. A PBS Newshour feature this week, “High Costs Spur More Baby Boomers to Find Roommates“, highlighted how many homeowners are finding homesharing to be…
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Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 6, 2020 — A new study focussed on the financial issues that retirees should really be concerned about, and then it measured what they actually worried about. The results are interesting – it seems like many people are downplaying the risks that should concern them, like how long they…
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