Dear Liz: My wife and I are blessed to have a very significant income from real estate holdings that will provide us with almost enough money to live on very well for the rest of our lives. That leaves retirement accounts and Social Security as mostly discretionary or extra income. Currently, we have 90% of our […]
Recent Blog Posts
Q&A: Can a QCD be made to a donor advised fund?
Dear Liz: I read your column about qualified charitable distributions, where you can send a required minimum distribution to a charity so the RMD won’t be taxed. I have a donor-advised fund and would like to know if I can put my RMD into that, rather than send it directly to a charity. The funds in […]
Q&A: Why you should file a tax return, even if you don’t have to
Dear Liz: Here is some further consideration in the discussion about older people not filing tax returns. I am old, live in Maine, have a low income but high housing costs. In 2024 I had zero dollars withheld to the state, yet received a $2,210 credit from the state. There was $2,000 for a “Property Tax […]
Q&A: Should I delay my pension payments as long as possible?
Dear Liz: I work for a local government and my job offers a pension as well as a 457 deferred compensation plan. If I delay starting my pension, will it have the same 8% growth that Social Security offers? Is my 457(b) plan much better than 401(k)? Answer: Government pensions and Social Security both offer guaranteed income […]
Q&A: How disability income affects survivor benefits
Dear Liz: My wife and I are essentially the same age (62), high school sweethearts married 44 years. She had a severe stroke at 57 and I became her full-time caregiver. She began receiving Social Security disability benefits about nine months later, at 58. I began taking my Social Security retirement benefits this year. I had […]
Q&A: Was it a mistake to incur a large tax bill?
Dear Liz: We are a retired couple in our late 70s. I worked as a carpenter and my wife worked as a nurse. We saved and invested for the long haul with a well-known discount brokerage. Last summer, we were wooed by another financial services firm with a “much better idea.” Our combined portfolio at the […]