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Annuities 101: What Are They?

With the stock market “crash” of 2008, annuities have gained a lot of attention in the last few years. But what is an annuity? First of all, annuities are a life insurance product. Second of all, annuities are complicated and difficult to understand. Let me see if I can help clear up...
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The Goldman Sachs Letter and You

The letter from a resigning Goldman Sachs executive has become quite the Internet rage. Most of us will never deal with Goldman Sachs and the letter may seem to be nothing more than an interesting “rant”. But, is that necessarily true? Maybe not. The letter spends a fair bit of time...
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Should You Take Advantage of the TSP’s G Fund?

Are you invested in the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)? If so, did you realize that you have access to an investment vehicle that others can’t access? You do. The humble G Fund is unique and it is only available to those who invest through TSP. Let me explain… The Treasury Department issues...
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Family Subsistence Supplemental Allowance May Help Some, But Not Many

Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of the Family Subsistence Supplemental Allowance (FSSA) Program. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? You, gentle readers with your hands in your laps, are not alone. The program, outlined in Department of Defense (DOD) Instruction 1341.11, isn’t very well known. The website used to determine...
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Major Defense Budget Cuts A Possibility…or Are They?

As you may be aware, the Congressional “Super Committee” recently failed to meet their deadline to come up with a plan to cut the Federal budget. Congress has until the end of December to come up with and pass the committee’s plan, otherwise $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts (“sequestration cuts”)...
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The 9th Wonder of the World

I’ve been told that Albert Einstein stated that compound interest was the 8th wonder of the world. My 6th-grade teacher, Mr. Rast, helped demonstrate that to me more than a few years ago. He asked me if I would prefer $100,000 or one penny doubled every day for a month....
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Tax Preparation, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Computer

It’s tax time again, which means the countdown to April 15th is on. According to a recent government survey (reported in Forbes magazine), taxpayers will spend a whopping 6.1 billion hours “complying with the tax code.” If you believe the latest census, that’s the equivalent of every man, woman, and...
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3 Tips to Improve Your Estate Plan

I recently attended a day of continuing education conducted by the National Association of Personal Financial Advisers or NAPFA. About one-half of the day was dedicated to the review of an actual estate settlement and several examples of what is called “Post-Mortem Planning”. To be honest, the scenario probably doesn’t apply...
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SBP Payments Don’t Go On Forever

Military Family recently received a question from a reader about the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP). The question involved the duration of SBP payments. The reader wanted to know how long her husband, an Air Force Retiree, would pay SBP premiums. Her husband is 78 years old and retired from the...
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Military Tax Break: Roll-over of SGLI and Death Gratuity to Roth IRA

Nobody likes to think about, or for that matter talk about, their own mortality. But, if something were to happen to you, you certainly would want your spouse to know about special tax benefits available to beneficiaries of Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI) and the military Death Gratuity. Also, if...
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