You raise a lot of issues. Some I’m going to deal with very quickly, others I’m going to spend some effort on, but nothing as in depth as a full article would have. I’m going to keep referring to material found in Credit Reports: What They Are and How They Work I’m going to take …
Continue reading “Practical Applications: Credit Cards versus Home Equity Line Of Credit”
In my experience, these are death to your credit rating. Why? Because of how they work. The short story is they get your creditors to agree to accept some lesser number of dollars for your debts. The creditors, for their part, aren’t happy about this. They often mark you as not having paid in full. …
It seems I can’t hardly turn around in the investment world without a paean to Jack Bogle, who preaches the advantage of the index fund. Mr. Bogle’s reasoning goes something like this: Looking at the world of mutual funds, relatively few funds beat the S&P 500 Index, so why not just buy the whole S&P …
Asymmetrical Information has a good article about the political and budget problems faced by pensions everywhere. It touches upon the treatment of annuities, one of the most popular investment vehicles there is. Most defined contribution pensions (e.g. 401k, among others) in the United States are actually funded by variable annuities. Annuities currently have in interesting …
legal information on going through probate without money That was a search hit I got. The problem with this question is that you can’t go through probate without money. The deceased’s creditors want cash. The probate court wants cash. Attorneys and anybody else your executor has to hire want cash. Federal Estate tax may be …
This question brought someone to my site: If my house is going into foreclosure but the house is also in probate, can the lender actually go forward with the foreclosure sale while the house is in probate? The short answer is yes. The Trust Deed (or Mortgage Note) that was signed by the now deceased …
Continue reading “Probate and Foreclosure and Planning Ahead”
Most of what you read on financial planning in the media is garbage, but here is one of those occasionally useful pieces: IRA Rollovers Could Have Tax Implications. Here’s the idea: You keep company stock in your qualified plan aside from any rollover you may do. Leave it with the company. Convert it to non-qualified …
A while ago I talked about Passive Asset Allocation as a way to beat market return as a strategy. So I’m going to write a bit about what it is, why it works, and how to do it. Passive Asset Allocation is very simple at its heart. What you are doing is keeping the balance …
what happen when 401K leave blank on beneficiary Nothing unless you die, and it’s not covered in your will or other documents. Then the state’s intestate code takes effect. Each state has a law for how the estates of those who die intestate will be divvied up. These laws were typically made generations ago, and …
Continue reading “Naming Beneficiaries – Do It, and Keep Them Current”
Found an annuity article in the local paper with an error so glaring that I had to debunk it. Here’s the article:Income for Life And here’s the critical error, conveniently in the first two paragraphs: Interested in annuities? The type known as an immediate annuity may pique the interest of some investors. But the first …
Continue reading “Variable Annuities: Debunking the Ignorant Press”
