The rising price of various commodities, linked in part to the falling dollar, have begun to impact the cost of a broad array of goods in the U.S., from the cost of building construction to gasoline at the pump to food at the grocery store. Now, the decline of the dollar is being felt directly by the U.S. government, with a painful rise in the cost of the penny!
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It just got a little easier to borrow money…
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) has just released the new maximum conforming loan limits, established pursuant to the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which will allow homebuyers in several metropolitan areas to obtain conforming loans as large as $729,750, instead of the former limit of only $417,000.Read More...
Should you withdraw and reapply for Social Security benefits?
An interesting article in the syndicated column of Scott Burns suggests that it may be a wise strategy for those at or around age 70 to withdraw from Social Security and reapply to increase their benefit. Is this a Social Security loophole, a great deal, a trap, or just another good arrow in the financial planner's quiver?Read More...
Does Extra Retirement Spending Follow A Consistent Aging Sequence?
A new study from Sun Life Financial suggests that retirees may have a consistent sequence of extra spending goals throughout their retirement years. Of course, practicing financial planners have acknowledged for years that retirement spending isn't perfectly level from year to year, but Sun Life's new study suggests that there are some consistent patterns that can be gleaned.
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Government significantly reduces availability of savings bonds!
Last month, the Treasury announced that they were significantly reducing the availability of Series EE and I savings bonds, decreasing the maximum allowable purchase from at $5,000 per Social Security number per year (reduced from $30,000), and the new limits took effect on January 1, 2008!
IRS delays for AMT patch may not be as bad as first feared!
Taxpayers awaiting a refund may be delayed in their ability to file early and receive that refund, due to Congress' late passage of an AMT patch - but apparently, the delay won't impact as many taxpayers as first feared.
IRS steps back on non-spouse beneficiary concession!
In its list of required plan amendments for 2008, the IRS has failed to include any mandatory requirement that plans provide for non-spouse beneficiary rollovers to IRAs. This implies a change in position from their Interim and Discretionary Amendments release issued in the fall of 2007, which suggested that the IRS intended to acquiesce in advance of a Congressional Technical Corrections bill that non-spouse beneficiary rollovers from employer retirement plans to inherited IRAs would be mandatory, as covered earlier in this blog.
IRS Shuts Down Wash Sales Including An IRA In Revenue Ruling 2008-5!
The IRS has just released Revenue Ruling 2008-5, cracking down on a perceived loophole in the so-called "wash sale" rules where an individual sells a security at a loss and purchases a substantially similar security in his/her IRA. And unlike a typical wash sale where the rules simply temporarily disallow the loss, in the case of a wash sale with an IRA the loss will be permanently forfeited under the new rules!Read More...
IRS Capitulates On Non-Spouse Beneficiary Rollover Rules And Reverses IRS Notice 2007-7!
Last year's passage of the Pension Protection Act (PPA) allowed, under Section 829, for non-spouse beneficiaries to complete rollovers of inherited employer retirement plans into inherited IRAs to maximize tax deferral.
Unfortunately, though, the IRS' interpretation of the newly created IRC Section 402(c)(11) early this year in IRS Notice 2007-7, declared that such rollovers would only be optional, at the discretion of the employer to allow them or not. Fortunately, though, in the face of a pending Technical Corrections bill in Congress to reverse this undesirable interpretation, the IRS has acquiesced to simply making the treatment mandatory for all employers.Read More...
A new blog is born…
With this entry, a new blog is born in the world. Like most of the 100 million or more others who have created blogs in recent years, I've created this one because I have something to share, and I hope that I will find an audience who finds value in what I have to say.
The focus of this blog will be on all things financial planning. As a self-admitted financial planning nerd, I will share in this space my own commentary on financial planning developments that I believe are relevant to the world, and on development in the world that I believe are relevant to financial planning.
It is my intention, though, to not let this be a purely one-sided discussion. Please share your comments on my posts. Feel free to write me at [email protected]. Tell me about your challenges and your successes, what you're seeing and hearing and reading, and what you're experiencing.
I'm going to share with you whatever insights I can on financial planning issues; I hope you'll consider responding in kind.
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