They say money can’t buy happiness. As a financial planner, I imagine being broke is miserable. Given a choice, let’s at least strive for financial freedom.  Either way, here are the 12 worst reasons for you to ignore retirement planning. Admit it, you’ve probably said a few of these over the years. Reason #12:  “I don’t have the time to deal with planning for retirement.” Today, it seems we are all [...]

Knowing how to spend your retirement money is often harder and more confusing than knowing how to save it. The basics for saving for retirement are pretty simple. For four, five or even six decades, you painfully learn how to spend less and save more. But once you reach retirement, there are few really good guidelines about how to wisely spend the money you’ve saved. “Most financial plans are fundamentally [...]

There are no rules of thumb as it relates to your Social Security planning, and each and every situation is different. You get one chance to make the correct claiming strategy, and you don’t want to get it wrong. But over the years of helping people plan for the overall Social Security claiming strategy, below is a list of life hacks as it relates to Social Security. GENERAL Social Security [...]

Officer Loretta Cool was the first female to hold several positions in the department, including first female K-9 officer and first female SWAT team officer: A trailblazer for the Tacoma (Wash.) Police Department ended her career this week. In 35 years, Officer Loretta Cool was the first female to hold several positions in the department.

Norman “Dusty” Young Jr. stands at the law enforcement memorial outside the Blair County Courthouse. Young spent nearly 40 years in law enforcement positions throughout the area, starting at the Altoona Police Department and retiring Jan. 8 as a county detective for the District Attorney’s Office. Mirror photo by Greg Bock In his nearly 40-year career in law enforcement, Norman “Dusty” Young Jr., who retired Jan. 8, was never one to [...]

There’s one tax mistake that can trigger a 50% penalty. I think it’s the steepest in the tax code. Of course, you might owe interest on top of that penalty. The mistake is to fail to take at least the required minimum distribution (RMD) from a qualified retirement plan, which includes IRAs and 401(k)s. The penalty is 50% of the amount that you should have distributed but failed to. To [...]