I have three kids. We are in the midst of college planning for my middle child, Peggy. October 1 was the first time you could complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). It’s one of the important steps in selecting the best college for your child. As regular readers know, I’m a financial …
7 Year-End Tax Tricks
While you may be thinking about the kind of tricks mischievous kids play on houses that don’t give out Halloween candy, now is also a good time to consider how your taxes for 2018 will shape up. With two months left in the calendar year, tax time will come around faster than teenagers emptying the …
Five Things to Know About Your 401(k) in a Divorce
Retirement accounts are often the largest asset a person owns, so it’s no surprise that they routinely get split as part of a divorce settlement. But under law, a retirement account is the property of the “worker” and can only be assigned to somebody else under specific conditions. In a divorce, the process of “splitting …
Can I Retire Early?
As always, whether or not you can retire early depends on your situation. How do you want to live in retirement? How much do you have saved today? How long do you plan to live? When I was a young person just starting out in my career, it was the mid-1980s. Inflation was high and …
Four Reasons You Need a Beneficiary Form
If you participate in the retirement savings plan at work such as a 401(k), 403(b) or Simple IRA, you own an IRA, or you own life insurance, you have been asked to fill out a beneficiary form. But why? If you are married, you might think that everything would go to your spouse anyway, so …
4 Ways to Cope with SALT Limitation
In Minnesota we are accustomed to paying lots of state income tax. We have the 20th highest state tax. Typical state and local taxes in Minnesota amount to 11.57 percent of adjusted gross income — about 7.56 percent more than the national average according to wallethub.com. While it stinks to pay so much in state taxes, …
