WHEN I GOT MY FIRST job in 1976, my employer didn’t offer a 401(k) for one simple reason—the plans didn’t exist. By 1985, a new employer did offer one, so I signed on.
Where had the 401(k) come from? Well, I met the man who put the K into the tax code, and he was beyond humble about it. In fact, he’d forgotten all about it.
Barber Conable Jr. graduated at age 19 from Cornell University to join the Marines Corps in World War II.

WHEN I RETIRED 10 years ago, I need to replace my biweekly paycheck. Because I was retiring early, and there would be no pension or Social Security for many years, my goal was to use savings to create a synthetic paycheck.
During my final few years of work, I prepared by channeling most of my paycheck into both taxable and tax-deferred accounts. My pay was much higher than what I needed for living expenses.

I LEARNED SOMETHING new while preparing a tax return recently for a widowed senior citizen. I volunteer for AARP Foundation’s TaxAide program. A widow in her mid-70s had received her 2021 required minimum distribution (RMD) from her IRA—and it consisted entirely of Exxon Mobil stock.
Her account’s custodian, instead of selling the stock and distributing cash, gave her the actual shares. This had never happened to her before, and she hadn’t requested it. Why did the custodian do it?

RECENT NEWS ARTICLES have noted the sharp increase in early retirements, many triggered by the pandemic. Just over 50% of Americans age 55 and older are now retired, a two percentage point increase from 2019, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
I have several friends and colleagues who are bucking that trend and instead delaying their retirement. They’re financially set but concerned about the transition from fulltime work to “doing nothing.” Yet some of these same workers are also struggling with changes in their companies and industries.

NEW HAMPSHIRE’S STATE motto is “live free or die.” But for my wife and me, the first part might be better expressed as “live tax-free.”
We just moved to New Hampshire from Maryland. The move’s main purpose is to be near our kids, enjoy lake and mountain activities, and experience cooler summers. But New Hampshire’s zero tax rate on earned income, pensions and capital gains is a major bonus.
Eight states have no tax on personal income,

AT THE PUBLIC POOL where I swam growing up, each hour’s mandatory safety break ended with the announcement that, “You may slowly reenter the water.”
There were two kinds of swimmers during those hot, humid Iowa summers. One group didn’t even hear the entire announcement. They were already enthusiastically running, yelling and jumping feet-first into the pool. The other group walked to the pool, tested the water with one foot and then waded in bit by bit,

IF THERE WAS ANYONE who should have been emotionally unprepared to retire, it was me. In the years immediately before, I was at the top of my career. I’d been promoted to vice president. I had virtual total control over my job. I was recognized by nearly every employee because of my extensive employee benefits communications and the fact that I’d negotiated benefits for decades. I was among the few who routinely met with the company’s chairman.

I HATE LOOKING AT life through the lens of taxation. But at this time of year, it’s hard to avoid.
I’ve been doing my own taxes for more than four decades. But this year represents a new milestone in my tax return preparation career. We moved from Pennsylvania to New Jersey at the end of March 2021, so I’ve had to prepare 2021 tax returns for both states. Although I’d researched New Jersey’s tax code and made an estimate of what the differences would cost,

MY IN-LAWS AND MY mother all moved into continuing care retirement communities after giving up their homes. My in-laws were not yet 70 when they moved in and my mother was age 75. They lived in two different communities about a 45-minute drive from one another.
Both communities provided excellent care, but had differing levels of service and had different ways of being paid. I’ve garnered further insights as a volunteer board member for a third continuing care retirement community (CCRC),

I’VE FINALLY DECIDED when to claim my Social Security benefit. Along the way, I realized that calculating the ideal start date is easy—provided you can predict your retirement income needs (doable), your investment returns (hard), the inflation rate (hard), your future tax rate (hard), your date of death (hard) and what Congress will do in the future (impossible).
This particular financial journey began when I was preparing a recent blog post on the knotty issue of when to file.

HERE’S A SOBERING statistic: It’s estimated that 50% to 60% of 65-year-olds will require long-term care at some point in their lives. This is defined as assistance with activities of daily living—things like taking a bath, dressing oneself, and maintaining bowel and bladder continence. How’s that for something to look forward to?
Such care isn’t cheap. By some estimates, the average 65-year-old can expect to incur $138,000 in long-term-care (LTC) expenses, with half of that cost borne by families.

LOTS OF RESEARCH has been done on the best way to generate retirement income. It’s one of the most popular topics on HumbleDollar. I think this popularity is driven by two things: its obvious importance—and the fact that there’s no one right answer.
By contrast, figuring out how much we need to save for retirement is relatively easy. It isn’t hard to pick a future retirement date, or at least a range of years during which we’ll likely retire,

THE SOCIAL SECURITY claiming decision is one of the most complex—and contentious—choices that retirees have to make.
I was reminded of that in December, while at a Christmas party. Two former colleagues were discussing their Social Security decision. Both are male, single, childless, retired engineers. Each has a traditional pension, a paid-off home and significant retirement savings. Ted is age 77. Fred is 66.
Ted took his Social Security at 62. His reason was longevity or,

THE DRUMBEAT OF “retirement crisis” is much too loud. While 54% of retirees believe there’s a national retirement crisis, just 4% describe their own retirement situation as a crisis. And whereas 90% of recent retirees are able to spend freely, within reason, or can cover their needs and also engage in some discretionary spending, only 10% say that they’re on a strict budget.
Concern about running out of money is regularly exaggerated by inflated estimates of life expectancy.

WOULD YOU BASE important financial or life choices on false or misleading information? Of course not. Yet, when deciding on key economic and social issues, that’s exactly what people often do.

I’m addicted to social media. I follow advocacy groups focused on Social Security, health care and taxes, as well as the politicians who are especially engaged in these issues.

Some tweets and memes reinforce what people want to believe or provide the easy answers they seek.