Year: 2024

Traditional IRAs and 401(k) and similar retirement plans have the wonderful feature of using pre-tax income to maximize the retirement nest egg. Eventually those deferrals—and their earnings—must face the tax man. For those turning 73, or those that are older than 73, Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) must occur every year. The minimum amount that must…

Those who have been caregivers become familiar with the needs of the aged, and they know caregiving can be time intensive. Should one not have family to rely upon, concerns may grow about who is going to fulfill that role of caregiver for them. However, as the number of people aging alone has grown substantially,…

Did you know that the sandwich’s supposed inventor was John Montagu, the fourth earl of sandwich? If John knew the extent to which sandwiches have progressed since he died in 1792, or even how we’ve expanded the use of the term beyond its culinary applications, he might be quite impressed by his legacy. When it…

The economy is a bit big for anyone to conceptualize all that well. It’s easy enough to go from $10 to a hundred, thousand, or even a million. One can still think of individual products that can be purchased in those terms and the people that interact with those products and their wealth levels. The…

Americans are generous and charitably minded. How charitably minded? According to the latest annual report Giving USA 2024: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2023, last year we broke the record once again in terms of total dollars given of $557.16 billion! Although the record for total dollars given was broken, the increase…

A little over 50 years ago, an experiment was run at Stanford University regarding delayed gratification, known as the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. The idea behind the experiment was to see if children would be willing to wait about 15 minutes and not eat a marshmallow in order to obtain an even larger reward, a second…

There is no “best” way to experience grief. It can be almost unbearable at times. However, those that have experienced the passing of loved ones know that that pain comes from missing the cherishing of another. They may wish to mitigate that pain, but not experiencing grief would diminish the relationship that causes it as…