So – you’ve gone through the effort of calculating and filing your tax return, or maybe you went to a tax preparer (just hopefully not the one with the clown in a statue suit!) and your return has been filed. You see that you’re going to be getting a sizeable refund this year – in [...]
Real Estate Investing in Your IRA
From time to time this question comes up: why can’t I use my IRA account to purchase a retirement home? After all, for many folks, the IRA represents a pretty large account, possibly even enough to purchase a retirement home outright – so why not?
No Personal Use
This is a thorny question, because there are lots [...]
The File and Suspend Tactic for Social Security Benefits
This is another provision of the Social Security system that is filed under the “Little Known Facts” section – although it is becoming more known these days. How it works and what’s important about it is the subject of this article.
How File and Suspend Works and Why It’s Important
Any worker can establish a benefit amount [...]
7 Tips About the First-Time Homebuyer Credit
The First-Time Homebuyer Income Tax Credit has been really popular with lots of folks – and there is still time to take advantage of it. As you may be aware, the name of the credit is misleading – it’s been expanded to include folks who owned a house for a significant period of time and [...]
IRAs Do Not Pass Through Your Will
Here’s a little fact that you may not realize: when you assign a beneficiary for your IRA account, you are effectively bypassing any outside action against that account – assuming that the beneficiary assigned is appropriate.
For most assets that you own, when you pass away, your last will and testament determines who will receive the [...]
Social Security Survivor Benefits
The Social Security system has provisions for taking care of surviving spouses of workers who have earned credits under the system. There are two particular benefits that you should be aware of – a small death benefit of $250, and a Survivor Benefit based upon the worker’s Primary Insurance Amount. It is the latter benefit [...]
The Downside of Prepaid Tuition
When planning to save for future college expenses, you may run across several options – including insurance policies, savings bonds, retirement accounts and specific education accounts, such as Coverdell Education Savings and Section 529 plans.
Among the options for Section 529 plans are two types of account: savings and prepaid tuition. Following is a brief explanation [...]
Choosing a Beneficiary for Your IRA
One of the very important tenets of estate planning is to ensure that you’ve made an appropriate choice, or set of choices, for beneficiary(s) of your IRA account(s). The title of this article could be a bit misleading – the point of this article is to list some of the consequences of various choices for [...]
Social Security Eligibility
In order to be eligible to receive Social Security benefits – retirement, disability, or survivor benefits – a worker must earn eligibility to receive the benefits. The general rule of thumb is that for full benefits, the worker must earn at least 40 quarters of credit within the system.
Social Security Credit
Generally speaking, a quarter of [...]
Missing a W2? Here’s What to Do…
So – you’re all set to do your taxes. And then… you realize you’re missing something. One of your W2’s hasn’t shown up in the mail. Maybe it was a short-term or a part-time gig, or maybe the business changed hands – or maybe it just got lost in the mail.
Whatever the reason, you’re short [...]
