Dear Liz: My wife and I have no children to take care of us in our old age, and I am scared to death regarding what will happen to the surviving spouse when one of us dies or we become incapacitated. We are 69 and 67 respectively and I think a lot of “boomers” are facing […]
Recent Blog Posts
Shopping on social media the smart way
When Ziwei Cong bought some sweatpants that caught her eye during a livestream shopping event on social media, she was disappointed when they arrived and didn’t fit well. “It’s very easy for me to become irrational during these kinds of shopping events,” says the assistant professor of marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. […]
This week’s money news
This week’s top story: Smart Money podcast on travel tips and budgeting for a non-traditional life. In other news: Getting more EVs will require recycling more old batteries, June Fed meeting and a pause on rate hikes, and 7 ways for couples to earn travel points and miles together. Smart Money Podcast: Nerdy Travel Tips, and […]
Q&A: Finding a fiduciary
Dear Liz: I am 55 and a single mom of three teenagers. My money has been sitting at a discount brokerage firm unmanaged … ugh!! I need help, but I am afraid to hire someone who will lose my money. Plus, two of my kids are old enough now to open a retirement account. We need […]
Q&A: How to get a debt collector to stop calling about a bogus bill
Dear Liz: I’m getting daily robocalls from a debt collection agency, even though a check of our current credit reports shows that we owe no one anything. (My husband and I both have stellar credit.) Google tells me that this collection agency is known for shadiness and that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has fined it […]
You’ll probably live longer than you think
Women often don’t score as well as men in surveys of financial literacy. One area where we seem to do better is “longevity literacy,” or understanding how long we’re likely to live. Longevity literacy is essential to smart retirement planning. Overestimate your longevity, and you could retire too late or scrimp too much. Underestimate it […]