The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) featured an important provision for divorcing couples to consider. For divorces executed after Dec. 31, 2018, alimony will no longer qualify as a tax-deductible expense, while alimony payments will be tax-free to recipients. In other words, the tax burden on that income will shift from the receiver to…

Unemployment is at its lowest level in years.1 Many Americans are seeing a bump in their paychecks due to the new tax law, and the stock market is remaining resilient in the bullish market. What could go wrong? Inflation, for one, which is why the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates. As part of its…

Retirement savings accounts that allow employees to make pretax contributions have a caveat: At some point, taxes must be paid on that earned income. The Internal Revenue Code generally requires that retirement account owners take a certain amount of money out of those accounts each year, starting when they reach age 70 ½. This is…

According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Americans’ personal savings rates are about half of the amount they once were. For the past few years, the personal savings rate has hovered around 5 percent, but that’s still significantly lower than the savings rate from 1950-2000, which averaged 9.8 percent.1 For many retirees, a big concern…

Retirement is still something most people look forward to, but over the years, some of the reasons for anticipation have dwindled. During the industrial age, more people worked jobs requiring manual labor that were hard on the body. By mid-century, many rank-and-file workers could look forward to a pension waiting for them upon retirement. Workers…