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Mid-year estimated payments checkup

Apr 02 2018

estimated payments checkup calculator As a retiree, you may have a bit more difficulty determining if your withheld tax throughout the year is going to be enough. This is especially true in 2018, with the new tax tables and rules associated with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. For this reason, you may want to do a mid-year estimated payments checkup, to help ensure you’re having enough (but not too much) tax withheld.

If you’re not retired or are retired and still working part-time, you may want to check out the Mid-year withholding checkup article to help make sure you have enough …

Early Withdrawal from Retirement Plans

Mar 28 2018

Six-twenty is an early withdrawal time. If you are retiring before the “normal” retirement age of 59½ or older, or if you find yourself in need of money, you may need to make an early withdrawal from your retirement plan. An early withdrawal from your retirement plan is not without consequences – there will be taxes for sure, and quite possibly (likely?) penalties (referred to as “additional tax on early withdrawals” below). For exceptions to the early withdrawal penalty for IRAs, see this article. Otherwise, for exceptions to the early withdrawal penalty for a 401k, see this article.

Recently the IRS published …

Working Women and Our Current Tax Code

Mar 27 2018

A Slate article on the ways in which our current tax code hurts working women points out:

“The biggest roadblock to fixing the system is that most people don’t even know it’s broken—or at least in which particular ways it’s broken.”

You may think of filing taxes as something you must do as an individual but really, our system taxes families as a whole.

While someone might argue that our tax system is fair because it penalizes the second earner in a family (no matter who that person may be), because more often than not, that second earner is a …

What’s Going on in the Markets March 25, 2018

Mar 25 2018

With the threat of a trade war, the appointment of a new National Security Advisor, and potential war drums being pounded, the markets took a pounding of their own last week. After a robust recovery, the stock markets now seem intent on re-testing the February 8th lows.

As stocks went on sale again, there didn’t seem to be a lot of bargain hunters stepping in to take advantage of the lower prices. The S&P 500 lost 5.9% over five days, its worst week since January 2016.

S&P 500 weekly change

This action follows a by-now-familiar pattern: the Trump Administration announces tariffs—this time on Chinese …

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