With your house paid off and your kids no longer living under that same roof, you are limited in the deductions you can take from your income in retirement.  It’s important to understand how your retirement income is taxed in the state you live in so you can make your retirement savings go farther.   [...]

When trying to decide where to spend your retirement years, did you ever think there were certain states you’d want to avoid?  There was an article on “Bankrate.com titled 10 worst states for retirement”  When deciding where to spend retirement, the article talks about “picking a state where life expectancies run high, crimes rates are [...]

The last 12 months were a tough year for variable annuities.  Numerous insurance carriers who sell variable annuities were forced to sell, close shop, sell off blocks of business, buy back policies from some clients, and even give money back to some clients.  To put it mildly, it was a wild year for variable annuity [...]

Track   Tracking your spending is critical if we are going to change our financial choices. Before we can change our choices we need to know what our choices currently are.   Early-in-the-process tracking gives us our starting point. It’s the “You Are Here” arrow on the map. As we move along towards our goals, [...]

A recent report by PwC US called, “Life Insurance 2020: Competing for a Future” revealed some interesting themes about what life insurance will look like in the future.  In particular, four risks that the insurance industry must deal with in order to thrive and survive in the future.  As consumers move toward more of a [...]

According to the Social Security Administration, the number of American receiving disability payments hit a record high of 8,830,026.  This is up from 8,827,795 the month before.  In fact, the last time the amount of citizens receiving disability payments dropped was January of 1997 when the number dropped by 249 people.  What is even more disconcerting is [...]