Author: Money Mechanics

Most affluent retirees don’t have an investment problem. They have a structure problem. That distinction matters.As a financial adviser with more than three decades of experience in investment strategies, tax-efficient retirement income planning and legacy wealth building, I’ve seen many portfolios that look strong on paper but leak wealth in retirement.The account balances may be high, the allocation may look reasonable and the investment performance may be acceptable. But if the structure is wrong, money can quietly drain away through taxes, forced distributions, Medicare surcharges, Social Security taxation, poor withdrawal sequencing, survivor-tax penalties and inefficient legacy planning. From just $107.88…

In 1776, the American colonists did something remarkable, not for the reasons most people think. They did not rebel impulsively.They spent 169 years living under a functional system that governed, organized and provisioned their lives in exchange for something they had not fully understood: The systematic extraction of their labor, resources and future.The exact moment of realization, when it finally occurred, was encapsulated by Thomas Jefferson in a single sentence: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” From just…

Your 30s are a great time to take stock of where you are now and what you want your future to look like. You’ve still got decades to go before retirement, but you’re also likely in the early stages of things like saving up for a house and building up a college fund for your kids.That means you’ve got time on your side when it comes to achieving your financial goals, but you may also be feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of goals you’re juggling right now.If you have no clue where to start or you just want to…

Welcome to Kiplinger’s My First $1 Million series, in which we hear from people who have made $1 million. They’re sharing how they did it and what they’re doing with it. This time, we hear from a single 52-year-old healthcare administrative director in El Paso, Texas, making $178,000 a year. She’s originally from Long Island, New York, and has lived in El Paso for two years. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE Sign up for Kiplinger’s…

Retirement often comes with a long list of financial decisions. You’ll need to determine how to generate income from savings, evaluate healthcare coverage and decide how you’ll spend your newfound free time.One question many new retirees overlook is technology. If you’re preparing to leave the workforce, your technology needs may change significantly. Your employer may have provided a laptop, smartphone, software subscriptions or even internet reimbursement. Once you retire, those tools become your responsibility.Fortunately, most retirees don’t need the latest gadgets or the most expensive devices. The right setup depends on how you plan to spend your time, whether that’s…

‘Who has the time?’ isn’t something retirees often say. Or do they?Many people in retirement are busier than ever, saying yes to everything from volunteering and consulting to babysitting their grandchildren, all while juggling multiple responsibilities as they search for purpose. Others overcommit out of fear of downtime. They were so busy during their working years that the thought of free time scares them.”I definitely know retirees who were easier to get a hold of when they were working,” says John J. O’Hare, wealth manager at O’Hare Wealth Management at Steward Partners. “They are now on six different boards, traveling,…

Retirement can turn the search for investment income into a delicate balancing act. A portfolio needs to generate enough cash to support withdrawals, but reaching too aggressively for yield can expose retirees to credit risk, price swings, dividend cuts or investments that fail to keep pace with inflation.”It’s essentially a trade-off between the income versus risk,” says Roland Chow, financial planner and portfolio manager at Optura Advisors in Burlingame, California. A 10% distribution may look attractive on paper, but income is only useful if it’s sustainable, tax-efficient and paired with a level of risk you can live with.”The key is…

A new report from S&P Global Ratings highlights a structural shift in the sidecar market, as casualty reinsurance sidecars have grown to account for approximately 10% of total sidecar capacity. Driven by a wave of recent high-profile launches these vehicles are attracting alternative capital by offering returns largely uncorrelated with broader financial markets.Unlike traditional property sidecars that require high short-term liquidity, casualty sidecars leverage the long-tail nature of their underlying liabilities. This extended claims development period ultimately allows investors to deploy capital into higher-yielding, illiquid asset strategies, effectively capturing both underwriting profits and enhanced investment income over a multi-year horizon.…

Real estate developer Randall “Randy” Kendrick recently drew the national spotlight, after reports emerged of his engagement to former Bravo reality TV star Yolanda Hadid.For several years, Kendrick has been working on an extraordinarily ambitious project in Rockdale, TX, where he is building a 34,000-acre master-planned community dubbed Sandow Lakes, about 60 miles northeast of Austin.Described as the “resurrecting of an industrial ghost town,” Sandow Lakes is being built on the site of an enormous, defunct Alcoa aluminum plant. The planned community will contain advanced manufacturing; commercial, retail, and leisure spaces; residential villages; and workforce housing.The community has been compared to…

Artie Beaty/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysAndroid Auto now has a PDF app.The app is audio-only and doesn’t show any text.It’s perfect for catching up on notes or dense documents.Android Auto has a number of surprising apps, including ones for finding a parking spot, ones for tracking storms, and even games. One of the most recent additions, though, may just be the most surprising of all.Google’s smart driving companion recently added support for the Adobe Acrobat app. When I first saw it, I had the same question many other people did… why? Trying to…