With more and more baby boomers retiring, more and more people including the Boomers, and their children and families are going to have questions and concerns about Medicare. Questions can range from what Medicare is, what it does, what it doesn’t do, and the nuances that make up our nation’s health care for retirees. Medicare was created in 1965 by the Social Security Act and was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson. Currently, Medicare is funded via taxation and premiums paid by Medicare subscriber. Part A – which we will cover in a future article, is funded by a 2.9% tax on wages. Unlike Social Security tax that has a limit or cap on the amount of income that can be taxed ($110,100 in 2012 and $113,700 in 2013), Medicare has no such wage base. The 2.9% tax is on an unlimited amount of earnings. Eligibility for Medicare typically starts for […]
March, 2013:
How an IRA is Treated When a Beneficiary Dies
When an IRA owner dies while the IRA still has funds in it, the primary beneficiary(ies) have the opportunity to transfer the account to an inherited IRA and begin taking the Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) over his or her lifetime. When this primary beneficiary dies, it can be difficult to figure out who the money goes to. This is known as the successor beneficiary. It’s important to know the difference between a successor beneficiary and a contingent beneficiary. A contingent beneficiary takes the place of the primary beneficiary in the event that the primary beneficiary dies before the original owner does. A successor, on the other hand, takes the place of the primary beneficiary when the primary beneficiary outlives the original owner. So it’s a matter of timing. What we’re interested in is the successor beneficiary. There are four main ways that a successor beneficiary is determined: Successor is named […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Capital Gains and Losses on Your Tax Return
When you sell things, including stocks, bonds, real estate, collectibles, and other items, you may either gain money or lose money from the original purchase price. This gain or loss is known as a capital gain or capital loss, and (with some exceptions) you will report these capital gains or losses on your income tax return. Often the gains are afforded special tax rates and treatment, and the losses provide additional benefits as well. This entire area of tax reporting can be confusing and there are special rules that you need to follow in order to make sure that you report these transactions correctly and pay the appropriate taxes. The IRS recently published their Tax Tip 2013-28, which details Ten Facts about Capital Gains and Losses. The actual text of the Tip is below: Ten Facts about Capital Gains and Losses The term “capital asset” for tax purposes applies to […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Computing Your Social Security Monthly Benefit
When planning for Social Security retirement benefits, it is important to know how to compute the amount of your benefit at various ages. The amount of your benefit will be different depending upon your age when you begin drawing the benefit, as well as your record of earnings over time. Below are the factors that are needed in order to determine the amount of your Social Security benefit: Your Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA Your Full Retirement Age, or FRA, which is determined by your year of birth Your age when you will begin drawing benefits Whether or not the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) applies to your benefits This earlier article has information about the PIA, and you can find your PIA on your Social Security statement. Your FRA, if you were born between 1943 and 1954, is 66. If you were born in 1955 or after, FRA gradually increases […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
The Roth IRA
Once you’ve established your emergency fund, it’s time to continue to pay yourself first but for a sunny day in the future – your retirement. For most people (this includes you) the Roth IRA is going to be a great option to save money for retirement and have a tax-free source of income once they hit their golden years. The Roth IRA was named after its namesake, Senator William Roth of Delaware. The IRA part simply means Individual Retirement Arrangement. Roth IRAs work like this: You save money into your Roth IRA on an after-tax basis. What this means is that when you get paid from your job and you’ve already paid Uncle Sam his share in taxes – you get what’s left over. Of those leftovers (couldn’t help the food reference) you can take some of that money and put it into a Roth IRA. This money then goes […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Adoption Credit for Tax Year 2012 and beyond
As you probably already know if you’re in the position to seek the adoption credit, this credit has undergone some changes for the 2012 filing season. In the past, for tax years 2010 and 2011, the adoption credit was a refundable credit – meaning that you could receive the entire credit regardless of the amount of tax you have to pay. For example, if you had $10,000 of adoption credit and your tax return otherwise indicates that your tax is $6,000, you were able to claim the entire credit and $4,000 would be refunded to you. This was in addition to any overpayment you may have made on your withholding. However, for 2012 (and beyond, unless the rules change again) the adoption credit is back to being non-refundable. Now, in the situation described above, the maximum amount of credit that you could claim is equal to your tax, or $6,000. […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Restricted Application is Available via the Online Application
I learn something new almost every day. Today (well, not today but recently), I learned something about the online application for Social Security that I didn’t know: the restricted application for Spousal Benefits is available as a choice when you apply using the online application system! (If you want more information on why a restricted application is important, see this article about Leaving Money on the Table.) For quite a while now I’ve been telling folks that the best way to apply for the restricted application is to go to your local office. When you get there and explain that you want to submit a restricted application for Spousal Benefits only, the first person that you talk to will likely tell you that you can’t do this, because your own retirement benefit is greater than half of your spouse’s PIA, or something like that. Then my advice has been to […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Your Employer’s Retirement Plan
Whether you work as a doctor, teacher, office administrator, attorney, or government employee chances are you have access to your employer’s retirement plan such as a 401(k), 403(b), 457, SEP, or SIMPLE. These plans are a great resource to save money into, and some employers will even pay you to participate! Let’s start with the 401(k). A 401(k) is a savings plan that is started by your employer to encourage both owners of the business and employees to save for retirement. Depending on how much you want to save, you can choose to have a specific dollar amount or percentage of your gross pay directed to your 401(k) account. Your money in your account can be invested tax-deferred in stock or bond mutual funds, company stock (if you work for a publicly traded company), or even a money market account. Your choice of funds will depend on the company that […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Book Review: Currencies After the Crash
This book is a series of nine essays about the state of currency in our global economy after the 2008-2009 economic crisis. The contributor list is impressive: global currency luminaries such as Anoop Singh of the IMF, Robert Johnson of the Global Finance Project, Jörg Asmussen of the European Central Bank, and many others of similar pedigree. The book is edited by Sara Eisen of Bloomberg. This book doesn’t lend itself well to description, other than that each of the contributors provides a snippet of insight into the global currency situation as it stands today, from his or her professional perspective. Most of the essays point out that the US dollar is not in the crisis situation that the popular press would have us believe. Yes, the dominance of the dollar has diminished in recent years, but a replacement as dominant currency worldwide is not eminent from either the euro […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Social Security Benefits and Taxes
When you’re receiving Social Security benefits, you may be subject to income tax on those benefits. At the end of the year, you’ll receive a form SSA-1099 from the government that details the benefits that you’ve been paid, as well as the amount that has been deducted for Medicare premiums, and any federal income tax that you’ve had withheld from the benefit checks. When you prepare your tax return for the year, if you’re using a software program (does anyone prepare them by hand any more?), the program will give you a place to enter the figures from your SSA-1099 form. Then after you’ve entered all of your other income information into the system, it will calculate how much of your Social Security benefit is subject to income tax. But that’s no fun, is it? How do you know how much of your benefit is going to be taxable? Here’s […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Why You Need an Emergency Fund
You may or may not have heard that it’s wise to have an emergency fund. Even if you’ve heard it, you may not be aware of what it means and why you should have one – and more importantly why you need one. An emergency fund is just that. It’s money set aside for a rainy day, an unexpected bump in the road, or for a real emergency or an expense that you haven’t specifically planned for. Examples of those unexpected expenses (borderline redundant – I know) include a car accident, disability, storm damage to your home, losing a job, being a victim of theft, etc. So what makes up an emergency fund? Generally, a good place to start is to have a goal of at least 3 to 6 months of non-discretionary living expenses put away in a relatively liquid account such as a savings, checking or money market […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Knowing which tax form to file
When filing your own tax returns, it can be confusing to figure our which form you should use. If you are using tax preparation software, most often this choice is made for you, but if you’re doing it the old-fashioned way, you need to know which form to file. The IRS recently issued Tax Tip 2013-04, which helps you to choose the correct form to file. The actual text of the Tip follows (I’ve cleaned up a few formatting issues): Choosing Which Form to File IRS e-file makes it easy for taxpayers to choose which tax form to file. Tax software automatically chooses the best form for your particular situation. Most people e-file these days, but if you prefer taking pen to paper, the IRS has some tips to help you choose the right form. Taxpayers who choose to file a paper tax return should know that the IRS no […]
Share, tweet, print, email, like or pin this post:
Notify Social Security of Major Changes in Your Life
You know how, after you’ve put your kids through college and they go off on their own, sometimes you don’t hear from them as often as you’d like? Major things occur in your kids’ lives and you don’t know about them until after the fact, possibly long after. So you get onto them about it, and ask the kids to call more often (or you call them more often) so that you can keep up with what’s going on… It’s kinda like that with the Social Security. They want to know when major changes occur in your life, as soon as possible. This is primarily due to the fact that, quite often, these changes will result in adjustment to your Social Security benefits. The first one that comes to mind is the death of a Social Security recipient. Naturally you need to notify the Social Security Administration as soon as […]
Sterling Raskie, MSFS, CFP®, ChFC®
The latest in our Owner’s Manual series, A 401(k) Owner’s Manual, was published in January 2020 and is available on 
A Medicare Owner’s Manual, is updated with 2020 facts and figures. This manual is available on 
Social Security for the Suddenly Single can be found on Amazon at 
Sterling’s first book, Lose Weight Save Money, can be 
An IRA Owner’s Manual, 2nd Edition is available for purchase on Amazon. Click the link to choose the 
Jim’s book – A Social Security Owner’s Manual, is now available on Amazon. Click this link for the 
And if you’ve come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed “advisor’s advisor”.