Blog

  • It’s not the plan. It’s the planning.

    Plan may be a noun. But to us, it’s always a verb. It’s action and change, response and recalculation. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near one.” – J.R.R. Read more

  • Terms and Acronyms

    (This is a work in progress. We are adding to it and cleaning it up as we go. Please feel free to make suggestions!) Agencies SSA == Social Security Administration CBO == Congressional Budget Office BLS == Bureau of Labor Statistics IRS == Internal Revenue Service DOL == Department of Labor (regulates a lot of Read more

  • What is the Social Security COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) and How Is It Computed?

    How is the COLA for Social Security Computed? It’s important to recognize how big a deal this is.  Social Security benefits automatically increase with inflation.  Almost no other product or pension available to the public does that.   This is huge.  If you were getting a fixed dollar amount every month forever, when prices go Read more

  • “Mutual Funds” – open, closed, ETF – what’s the difference?

    “Mutual Fund” – a pooled investment structure, with professional management and typically holding a diversified portfolio allowing multiple share holders to own a slice of such a portfolio easily. But we often hear people talking about mutual funds and comparing them to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Closed-ended funds (CEFs). First, note that ETFs and Read more

  • US Treasury Series I Savings Bonds

    US Treasury Series I Savings Bonds US Savings bonds are bonds you purchase directly from the US Treasury.  They are a little different from buying ordinary treasury bonds, in that you buy them directly from the treasury, and you cannot sell them to anyone else — you hold them until you redeem them, again, directly Read more

  • Social Security Benefit Basics

    Sure, you get a periodic statement from the SSA indicating what your benefit will be if you continue working to 62, to your full retirement age (might be as high as 67) or to 70. And they tell you those benefits in today’s dollars. But how did they come up with those numbers? Read more