The earthquake that rattled us out of bed Monday morning also served as a reminder: it’s time to check the emergency supplies. And it occurred to me that preparing for emergencies has a lot in common with preparing for retirement. Consider: Most people are woefully unprepared. Not just “under-prepared” but not even being in the […]
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Tuesday’s need-to-know money news
Today’s top story: How to cope when friends and family steal your identity. Also in the news: How to deal with defaulting on your student loans, storing your digital items for free, and five tax credits and deductions you should know about. When Family and Friends Steal Your Identity Dealing with the financial and the […]
Charitable giving can help keep tax deductions steady
Dear Liz: Regarding the reader who was worried about not having sufficient tax deductions: I recommend charitable giving. As our mortgage interest per payment fell, I augmented it with charitable giving to maintain the same annual total for income tax deductions (interest plus charity). As the years go by, our interest decreases and charity increases. […]
How should couple with age gap tap Social Security spousal benefits?
Dear Liz: I am 55 and my wife is 65. She only worked a few part-time jobs as she spent most of her working years raising our nine beautiful children. My question is, since she does not have enough credits to collect Social Security on her own work record, can she claim spousal benefits on […]
Monday’s need-to-know money news
Today’s top story: The pros and cons of couples keeping their finances separate. Also in the news: What you need to know about deducting mortgage interest, how paying old debt will affect your credit score, and when to have the retirement talk. Should Couples Keep Their Financial Assets Separate? The pros and cons. Deducting Mortgage […]
Who offers real chip-and-PIN cards in the U.S.
Most of the rest of the world has adopted more secure chip-and-PIN credit cards–which can cause some problems for Americans traveling overseas. When we were in Italy two years ago, we found our old-school magnetic-stripe cards wouldn’t work in automated kiosks. That included our British Airways card, which had a chip, but no PIN. Without […]