Dear Liz: My husband is 75 and started Social Security at 62. I am 68 and started Social Security at my full retirement age of 66. My Social Security benefit is the higher of the two. My financial planner says the rules on survivorship have changed. She believes that if I die first, while my husband […]
Recent Blog Posts
This week’s money news
This week’s top story: Smart Money podcast on when to merge finances — or Not. In other news: How fresh tax credits, rebates can launch your eco home update, having a championship savings account, and age of AI: ChatGPT, Bard and how money advice might evolve. Smart Money Podcast: When to Merge Finances — or Not […]
Q&A: Opening an IRA for a retired spouse
Dear Liz: Are spousal IRAs a good idea for a couple when one spouse is retired but the other is working? I’m 63 and work full time. My husband is 76 and retired. I have a Roth IRA; he does not. I contribute the maximum amount to my IRA. If we create a spousal IRA for […]
Family budgeting tips that actually work
When Tom Snyder coaches people in his church about how to budget, he starts by encouraging them to track their spending. “If we don’t track, we don’t know when to stop spending,” he says. The retired engineer and financial coach in Grand Rapids, Michigan, adds that it’s easy to be bumped off track by irregular […]
Q&A: Selling a rental property? Here are the tax consequences
Dear Liz: My siblings and I are considering selling a triplex. It was bequeathed to us by our mother when she died in 2007. There is no mortgage and it is fully occupied. If we sell, my wife and I (both over 50) would get roughly $200,000, and we’d like to minimize the tax impact. We […]
Q&A: Ins and outs of HELOCs
Dear Liz: We have a home equity line of credit through our credit union. I have been paying it down very aggressively and it will be paid off in two months. That is our only debt. I was considering leaving a small ($100) balance. It would cost $7.50 a year to have the loan available but […]