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Liz Weston

What Can You Quit Today?

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For many years, I tried to personally answer as many reader emails as possible. I couldn’t offer personalized advice – I’m a journalist, not a practicing financial planner – but I wanted to at least point people to helpful articles, agencies or sites.

As my readership grew, this task became Sisyphean. I’d spend hours at it and barely make a dent. One morning, I was plugging away while listening to a babysitter play with our young daughter. I had an epiphany: I was giving away hours of my time. MSN, the site I wrote for at the time, certainly wasn’t paying me to answer emails. And those were hours I could spend with my kid.

There was no contest. I created an automated email message and put a note on my site, alerting people that I could not respond personally to messages.

I’ve tried to do regular audits of my time since that day. The goal is to figure out what I can quit so there’s more time for the stuff that offers the best payoff, personally or professionally. At work, my mantra became “If anyone else can do it, someone else probably should.” That allowed me to focus on the things I do best and that brought the most value to my employers or clients. At home, I looked for ways to automate, outsource or just stop doing time-sucking tasks without a lot of payoff.

What tasks could you quit today?

This week’s money news

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This week’s top story: Avoiding 4 Prime Day pit falls. In other news: How to use buy now, pay later like a pro, 60/30/10 budget, and a court ruling that blocked lower student loan bills under the SAVE repayment plan has been overturned.

Avoid These 4 Prime Day Pitfalls
Protect your wallet this month by steering clear of these four shopping mistakes.

How to Use Buy Now, Pay Later Like a Pro
Buy now, pay later is a form of credit that should be used strategically and only on certain occasions.

Is the 60/30/10 Budget Right for You?
The 60/30/10 budget may help you better manage your expenses in an economy with high inflation.

Lower SAVE Student Loan Payments Can Proceed, Court Rules
A court ruling that blocked lower student loan bills under the SAVE repayment plan has been overturned. Meanwhile, 10-year forgiveness is still on hold. Here’s how else SAVE borrowers are impacted.

Q&A: Old inherited IRA is safe from “drain it in 10 years” requirement

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Dear Liz: You have written that non-spouse beneficiaries are now required to drain their inherited IRAs within 10 years. Is this requirement retroactive?

I inherited an IRA from my mother in 2015. I have been taking out the minimum required each year. If I must drain the account within 10 years, will the increase in yearly income affect my Social Security benefits?

Answer: The 10-year requirement applies only to accounts inherited from people who died after Dec. 31, 2019.

IRA distributions don’t affect Social Security benefits, but could affect Medicare premiums if the withdrawal is large enough. Taxable income above certain limits triggers a Medicare surcharge known as an income-related monthly adjustment amount, or IRMAA.

Q&A: The GPO can wipe out survivor benefits

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Dear Liz: My husband passed away 10 months ago. I applied for widow benefits.

The Social Security Administration sent me a letter that said they cannot pay because my Social Security benefit would equal two-thirds of the amount of my pension. Please help me with this.

Answer: This is known as the government pension offset, and it applies to people who receive a pension from a job that didn’t pay into Social Security. Any survivor or spousal benefits you might receive are reduced by two-thirds of the pension amount. In your case, your entire benefit was offset.

People are understandably upset to learn they don’t qualify for survivor or spousal benefits through Social Security. But since your pension is large enough to offset any benefit, you’re financially better off with the pension than without it.

For more information, see the government pension offset pamphlet, available online at SSA.gov/pubs or by calling the Social Security Administration toll-free at (800) 772-1213.

Q&A: Missing the paperwork on your IRAs? All is not lost

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Dear Liz: I have four daughters, now in their late 30s and early 40s. When they were very young, I started investing for them. As they began to earn their own money, I started Roth IRAs for them as well.

A decade ago, due to an unexpected divorce, a 30-day escrow and a move, I lost the paperwork for their accounts. After the investment company was acquired by another in 2015, I forwarded the new company’s contact information to my daughters. One transferred her account to another investment company, while her sisters left theirs in place.

Recently I found the old investment paperwork. The company has changed hands again, but the new company says it has no information about my three other daughters’ accounts. Can anything be done?

Answer: Since the latest company can’t find the accounts, your daughters should contact the escheat office of the state where you lived before your move.

Perhaps you didn’t update your address with the original company when you moved and the account statements or other mail were returned as undeliverable. If the company and its successor couldn’t find you — and some companies don’t look very hard — the accounts would be considered unclaimed and would have to be turned over to the state.

Links to state escheat offices can be found online at unclaimed.org, the website for the National Assn.
of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

The good news is that there’s no time limit for claiming previously unclaimed property.

The bad news is that some states will liquidate stocks and other investments after escheatment. If that’s the case, then the three daughters who didn’t move their accounts will have missed out on nearly a decade of investment returns.