How your spouse handles an inherited IRA can shorten—or extend—your children’s tax-deferred growth.
I read, but did not comprehend the article (link below) which I received from Morningstar this morning, but think it may be of value to others.
Bottom line for me is I will inform my wife this morning that after my death she should not do anything with my traditional IRA until she discusses this issue with our estate attorney.
PS Does anyone else despise the term Kids as my wife and I do?

I recently explained some facts about Social Security spousal benefits and upon doing so discovered there were some questions related to the linkage of spousal and survivor benefits. I delved deeper into survivor benefits and found some interesting facts about them as well.
Survivor vs spousal benefits. Survivor benefits are separate from spousal benefits. While spousal benefits are capped at 50% of the workers full retirement amount (FRA), survivor benefits can pay up to 100 % of what the deceased was receiving or entitled to receive.

In 1966, our family moved from Richmond, England, to Maryland after my father accepted a position with the World Bank—an opportunity too good to turn down. His early work took him across Africa, but in 1972 he was assigned to Bangladesh for what was meant to be a two year posting. It became four. For three young boys and our four year old sister, it proved to be an experience that stayed with us for life.

According to the 2025 Trustee Report, the actuarial deficit for the combined Social Security trust funds under the intermediate assumptions is 3.82 percent of taxable payroll for the 75-year period 2025-99.
We could discuss endlessly how and why we got to this point, but I hope we can agree there is no excuse having had thirty plus years to deal with a coming crisis.
I have a suggestion to get on the right track- take a concept from private pensions.

When my husband and I bought our brand-new condo in Davis, California in 2019, the move made sense to a lot of people in our lives. We were empty-nesters in our late 50s, our youngest child having left home for college in 2014. The four-bedroom home we’d purchased in 1998 and where we’d raised our kids was more than we needed and was getting older. Our dog had died in 2018, so we didn’t need a yard as much anymore,

I’m going to display my ignorance to a few of my most trusted friends…..
AGNC a REIT with a 4 yr history of 12-13% dividend payouts that currently pull out 98% of earnings, like most REITs.
Why doesn’t everyone flock to this stock?

We recently had another meeting with my wife’s financial advisor. At our previous meeting I’d been fairly open about my opinion that he hadn’t delivered meaningful investment gains compared to my own self-managed Vanguard portfolio, and at considerably higher fees. I suspect he wasn’t thrilled about that.
He came prepared. He presented a multi-sheet analysis of how his firm had managed my wife’s investments in the lead-up to the 2022 bond crash: aggressively de-risking into ultra-short duration bonds and cash-like instruments,

“We lament the grocery-store coupon left at home, and yet we’ll raise our bid for a house by $10,000 without a second thought.”
This was one of Jonathan’s quips that appeared at the top of the blog a few months back. I immediately was reminded of a day spent with my pal Kenny and his wife in Las Vegas, sometime in the early 1990s. Ken and I were seated at a $5 blackjack table when his wife approached,

I suspect like me, most HD members are against paying large yearly fees to investment advisors. I have made all of our investment decisions and have done pretty well. I also do our taxes.
While I have no immediate plans to stop, because my wife has no interest in any of it, and is considerably younger, chances are she will be left alone at some point to figure out RMDs, SS, taxes, asset allocation etc.
I have looked at Vanguard,

I’m a diy 66year old new retiree. I’m also a proud follower of Jack B. I started out investing with the mentally of invest first the live off the rest. Borrowing from my 401k wasn’t an option and it bothered me to see others do it with no problem. My annual salary during my working year never exceeded $40k. But we never had to live off a budget. If the money wasn’t there, we didn’t buy it.

On August 13, 2025, my husband and I found my sister unresponsive in her home.
The moment was traumatic and terribly upsetting. My thoughts immediately turned
to my mother, how would I tell her she had lost her daughter while dealing with
her son’s terminal cancer diagnosis?
That was the personal side of loss. Days, weeks and months later came the
business side of dying.
My sister, Victoria, Tory to everyone who knew her, lived a full and colorful life.

This was my third season as an AARP volunteer tax aide…and my third post about my experiences. I volunteer two days a week from February 1 to tax day at two different senior centers which draw from different socioeconomic strata: one is definitely middle class; the other has many clients living on very little.
I began the season wondering how the Big Beautiful Bill would impact our clients. Since most are over 65, I expected the new $6000 senior deduction to have a big,

This month I am hosting a couple evacuated from the Iran/US war zone. They each (ages 40 and 29) have been saving money, but not systematically, and asked for some coaching on how to get their affairs organized.
We’ve had one session so far. Here is what we covered:
– Understanding that 15% of gross income should be saved for retirement.
– First, set up an emergency fund. (How much, why, where, have all been covered)
-Second,

This month I am hosting a couple evacuated from the Iran/US war zone. They each (ages 40 and 29) have been saving money, but not systematically, and asked for some coaching on how to get their affairs organized.
We’ve had one session so far. Here is what we covered:
– Understanding that 15% of gross income should be saved for retirement.
– First, set up an emergency fund. (How much, why, where, have all been covered)
-Second,

Those words are repeated in video after video on Facebook by seniors (possibly actors) complaining they can’t pay their bills because Social Security is inadequate and does not keep up with rising costs. “We worked our whole lives and paid into SS and this is what we get?” they ask.
What is disturbing to me are the thousands of “likes” the videos receive and the hundreds of agreeing comments posted every time.  In essence,