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By Scott Burns As long as our government is spending $1.35 trillion it doesn’t have, let’s ask some rude questions. What do we want more of? Saving. What do we want less of? Debt. Then let’s have tax policies that encourage more saving...
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By Scott Burns Q. My wife and I are retired, in our 70s, and live comfortably on Social Security, dividends, and some CD interest. We have recently received an offer through AARP to invest in a fixed immediate annuity, with a cash refund feature that...
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By Scott Burns Sloth was a bit disappointing in 2009. The Couch Potato portfolios can usually be relied on to score in the top 25 percent to 30 percent of competing managed funds. But they had no edge in 2009. Mind you, there were no disasters. It’s...
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By Scott Burns Q. How does one go about setting up an IRA consisting of the Couch Potato funds or another low-expense portfolio? Most financial advisers are at least as interested in their own revenue as they are their clients’. They are not particularly...
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By Scott Burns Senior America has a problem. The end of the money is coming before the end of the month. Strangely, the more savings you have, the bigger the problem. Why is this happening? Call it “The Great Investment Income Famine.” Retirees...
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By Scott Burns Q. My husband and I are both retired. We are tired of paying various "investment consulting firms" to lose our savings. However, I am a retired accountant, and I am afraid I do not know how I can get control of our retirement...
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By Scott Burns “You see, this consists of a multibillion-dollar matrix of space age technology that is so sophisticated even we can't handle it. But that's your problem, isn't it? So the next time you complain about your phone service...
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By Scott Burns Q. My husband and I have a portion of our retirement money invested in variable annuities, one for each of us held in IRA accounts. We have another in a non-qualified joint account. I have read several of your articles dealing with annuities...
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By Scott Burns Have you noticed that things aren’t working quite as you hoped? I have, and it has made me want to hit back. When the prescription drug act was passed in December 2003, I had big-time misgivings. It bothered me that a Republican president...
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By Scott Burns Q. I have a 33-year-old friend who is a schoolteacher. She contributes the maximum amount every month in the Teacher's Retirement System of Texas. She is afraid that she still won’t have enough money when she retires because this...
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By Scott Burns I’ve been writing a newspaper column since January 1977. That’s 33 years, 29 of them for syndication. It has definitely not been the same year, repeated 33 times. But there are patterns. And there are rules. There are things...
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By Scott Burns Q: My husband and I will soon join the ranks of retirees. We are in our upper 60s. We have no debt. We will have adequate income from Social Security and pensions— at least for now. But after consulting with different investment advisers...
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By Scott Burns Well, now. We've made it, just barely, through another year. But it was really close, so I'm keeping my supply of candles, dehydrated meals, bottled water and extra propane for the outdoor grill/emergency kitchen. Buying more bullets...
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By Scott Burns Q. I sold an equity-index annuity (EIA) to a doctor in August 1996. He put $470,000 into a contract linked to the S&P 500. His annuity value in August 2008 was $940,000, a 6 percent annual return. Had he invested in the index directly...
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By Scott Burns If you’re about to make the plunge into a variable annuity with living benefits, I’d like to make a suggestion. Don’t. Just as people were once urged to buy term life insurance and invest the difference rather than buy...
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