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• Consumption Smoothing
• Home Ownership & Mortgages
• Income Investing
• Medicare & Generational Storm
• Q&A (from print)
• Social Security

• Yes, You Can Have Too Much of a Good Thing

  Q. My wife and I have about $320,000 of investments. About a third of that amount is invested in two royalty investment trusts. One is oil-based, and the other is in natural gas. Even after the recent dunking the energy market has taken, we are still... Posted Jan 19 2006, 02:40 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Consumption Smoothing, Government, Taxes & Other Disasters, Home Ownership & Mortgages, Income Investing, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Should You Pay Taxes Today?

  Q. Assuming you take advantage of all of your employer's retirement benefits, are there circumstances under which it would be advisable to take your salary today and invest a post-tax portion in taxable funds rather than place the pre-tax amount in a... Posted May 19 2005, 10:34 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Government, Taxes & Other Disasters, Q&A (from print), Retirement

• Future Retirees Will Pay More Taxes

  If you want to replace your purchasing power in retirement, you'll have to pay more taxes to Uncle Sam today. You'll have to pay still more tomorrow. This will happen because Uncle Sam has had the power to tax Social Security benefits since 1983. Few... Posted Apr 19 2005, 12:28 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Government, Taxes & Other Disasters, Retirement, Social Security

• A Small Fortune in Tax Free Income Is Yours

  Concerned that you might be in a higher tax bracket when you retire than when you worked? Worried about the possible taxation of your future Social Security benefits? Join the club. With all the publicity given to studies showing that many workers will... Posted Dec 30 2003, 12:11 PM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Government, Taxes & Other Disasters, Retirement

• Mother, Daughter, Granddaughter

  It was a simple column. A woman in her late fifties asked if I could "explain today's economic realities to an 86 year-old." The 86 year-old was her mother. So I detailed some of the differences between generations. A torrent of reader rage followed.... Posted Jun 10 2003, 11:48 AM by scottb with | with no comments Filed under: Government, Taxes & Other Disasters, Medicare & Generational Storm, Retirement