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Liz Weston

This week’s money news

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This week’s top story: Smart Money podcast on seasonal housing market trends and travel credit card tips. In other news: How to survive a strike, act fast to preserve credit when a credit card issuer decides to close an account, and home hospital care is on the rise.

Smart Money Podcast: Seasonal Housing Market Trends, Travel Credit Card Tips
Seasonal housing market trends can have a big impact on homebuying (or selling!), which is why NerdWallet data writer Liz Renter joins today’s episode to discuss the latest patterns.

How to Survive a Strike
The more savings you can set aside in the event of a strike, the better you’ll feel about supporting the cause when the time comes.

Issuer Closing Your Credit Card? Act Fast to Preserve Credit
When a credit card issuer decides to close an account, there may be a narrow window of time to safeguard credit.

Home Hospital Care Is on the Rise — Is It Right for You?
The pandemic gave a boost to the concept of sending patients home for certain types of care. Here’s what to know.

This week’s money news

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This week’s top story: Smart Money podcast on student loan repayments and midyear money review. In other news: What disability lawyers to and how much they cost, women’s soccer games are way cheaper than men’s, and  how can U.S. airport terminals be better.

Smart Money Podcast: Student Loan Repayments and Midyear Money Review
Learn how to conduct a midyear financial check-in with help from hosts Sean Pyles and Liz Weston, who offer practical advice for reassessing your financial situation and getting back on track if you’ve fallen behind.

Disability Lawyers: What They Do and How Much They Cost
A disability lawyer assists you with your SSDI application and appeal process. Their fees are capped by federal law.

Women’s Soccer Games Are Way Cheaper Than Men’s, So Cheer Them On
The National Women’s Soccer League is home to some of the best players on the planet.

Ask a Travel Nerd: How Can U.S. Airport Terminals Be Better?
Airport terminals across the country need improvements, starting with better infrastructure and quiet airport programs.

When to repair or replace your appliances

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When our 17-year-old refrigerator started wheezing, I fully expected we’d need a new one. I was shocked — and frankly a little disappointed — when a repair technician fixed it for less than $200. I had to postpone my dream of a shiny French-door replacement, but our no-frills Frigidaire is still working fine eight years later.

Our experience illustrates that the decision about whether to repair or replace major appliances can be more complex than general guidelines may imply. Getting more useful years out of your existing appliances can save money and keep potentially dangerous components out of landfills, where they may harm the environment. But on the other hand, a replacement could be much more energy efficient, repairs sometimes can be expensive and prices for new appliances have been falling recently.

All this makes the choice of repairing versus replacing a tricky one, says Dan Wroclawski, home and appliances writer for Consumer Reports, a nonprofit member organization that tests consumer products. In my latest for the Washington Post, learn when to repair or replace your appliances.

Q&A: Taxes and inherited IRAs

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Dear Liz: Thanks for the recent column concerning children getting an inherited IRA, because I’m in that situation. Is the attorney for the estate required to include tax information with the distribution, or is it up to my accountant to sort things out? And since I don’t really need the money right now, would I have options as to how I receive the funds to avoid a tax hit?

Answer: You can’t avoid a tax hit with an inherited traditional IRA. The money has to come out and the withdrawals are taxable. For beneficiaries who aren’t the surviving spouse, the account typically must be drained within 10 years. (There are exceptions for beneficiaries who are minors, disabled or chronically ill.)

You have some flexibility about how rapidly you take the money out, however. If the account owner hadn’t started required minimum distributions before dying, you can withdraw money at any rate you want, provided you empty the account by Dec. 31 of the 10th year following the year of the owner’s death.

If the account owner had started required minimum distributions, you must take a minimum distribution each year. These are typically based on your own life expectancy. In addition to those annual withdrawals, you’ll need to take out the remaining money by the end of the 10th year following the year of death.

There was initially some confusion about whether beneficiaries had to take yearly required minimum distributions or could wait until the 10th year to withdraw the funds, said Mark Luscombe, principal analyst for Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. Because of that confusion, the IRS has waived the penalties for failing to take required minimum distributions when the IRA owner died in 2020, 2021 or 2022. The waiver of penalties would not be available if the IRA owner died in 2023, Luscombe said.

Leaving money in the account as long as possible means the balance has longer to grow tax deferred. But you also could face a whopping tax bill in that 10th year. Definitely discuss your options with your tax pro. While the attorney for the estate may help with some details — such as arranging to get the money transferred from the deceased owner’s account — it will be up to you to set up your own inherited IRA and to arrange for distributions.

Q&A: Where should you put your extra cash? Here are some ideas

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Dear Liz: At 82, I am selling my house and moving to a senior community. For the first time in my life, I will have a substantial amount of cash. Given my age and the fact that certificates of deposit and savings accounts are currently paying more than 5% interest, does it pay for me to start investing in other ways?

Answer: How you figure out what to do with your money is mostly the same whether you’re 28 or 82.

You start with your goal and your time horizon, or how long you have until you need the money.

For example, you may have to put aside some of the home sale proceeds to pay capital gains taxes if your home has appreciated more than the $250,000 that’s normally exempted from tax. Since the tax bill will be due within months of the sale, you shouldn’t take unnecessary risks with this cash. A high-yield savings account would be a good solution for any money you need to keep safe and liquid.

You also may want to earmark some money for long-term care. This goal is much more ambiguous, because it’s impossible to predict how much you’ll need or when. You may want to consult an elder law attorney, who can discuss your options.

Once you settle on a figure, you’ll want that money to be somewhere safe and readily accessible. Certificates of deposit that mature at different times could be an option, as could the high-yield savings account mentioned above.

If you have a goal that’s many years in the future, you could consider a mix of stocks and bonds. Stocks in particular offer long-term returns that historically beat inflation.

Most working people who want to retire will need to invest in stocks to accumulate and maintain a sufficient nest egg. They can take the risk of losing money in the short term because they have many years ahead for their investments to recover.

And that’s where your situation differs from that of a 28-year-old. The average life expectancy for an 82-year-old male is about eight more years, while the average life expectancy for an 82-year-old female is around nine more years, according to the Social Security Administration.

You may have enough time left to ride out a bad market. But if you don’t have to take such risks to achieve your goals, consider playing it a bit safer.

How to stay safe from financial scams

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One of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to protecting yourself from financial scams is thinking you’re too smart to be duped by one.

“We’re all vulnerable — we can all fall for a scam given the right set of circumstances,” says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that provides advice and assistance related to identity theft. Keeping yourself safe starts with accepting that fact, she adds.

“You look at the profiles of victims who filed complaints and it runs the gamut from highly educated, high-income people all the way down to the most vulnerable people in our population,” says John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League, a nonprofit advocacy group that speaks out about consumer concerns.

While there isn’t a “foolproof solution to stay safe from all scams,” as Breyault puts it, there are strategies you can employ to reduce your risk. In Kimberly Palmer’s latest for the Washington Post, learn how to stay safe from financial scams.