Rae Hartley Beck

Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be terrifying. It can also be a wake-up call when it comes to determining if your family is provided for. If you’ve never obtained health insurance before, you may wonder if you can get life insurance… read more…

A Salary Reduction Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SARSEP) is a specialized retirement plan that used to be available to employees of small businesses. While these plans could not be established after 1996, those established prior to 1997 still exist. SARSEPs… read more…

If you find yourself with $1.5 million in retirement savings, you’re doing more than five times better than the average retiree, who only has $279,997. It is true that $1.5 million can last indefinitely in retirement if you don’t spend… read more…

Ensuring the long-term financial stability of a loved one with special needs can be an exceptionally confusing process. Public programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will provide for them and pay for their services for the rest of… read more…

Social Security Disability pays you the amount you’d receive at your full retirement age. If you’re between age 62 and 67, you may find yourself running low on cash while waiting for a favorable disability decision. Taking Social Security retirement… read more…

Investing is frequently filled with complicated jargon that can make it difficult to understand how your investments are actually performing. The Capital Gains Yield is one of these terms. While most brokerages calculate this number for you on all of… read more…

Deferred compensation is a way for employees to reduce their tax burden while ensuring their economic security in their golden years. Deferred compensation plans with a long vesting period are commonly referred to as golden handcuffs because they effectively trap you… read more…

One of the longstanding American dreams is to become a millionaire, even if that doesn’t mean what it used to, but how do you go about it? The median lifetime earnings for all workers is $1.7 million, according to research… read more…

Data from the Federal Reserve shows that the average savings in the United States at retirement age is just $255,200. So if you find yourself with $400,000 in assets at retirement age, congratulations! You’re doing much better than average. But how… read more…

After losing a loved one, responsibilities can quickly pile up during a time when you’d like to focus on grieving. Unfortunately, taxes don’t disappear when someone passes. If you’re the executor of your loved one’s estate, you’ll be responsible for… read more…

Giving money to a good cause can lift our spirits, but can it also lift our tax burden? What about if we’re not donating to a charity, but to a church? Church, synagogue and mosque donations are tax-deductible, as long as… read more…

Working after age 70 could increase your Social Security benefits, if you’re earning a high salary or didn’t have a robust earnings history in your younger years. Let’s break down how you can increase your benefits and how it can… read more…

Working with a professional financial advisor can make or break your long-term financial goals, but how are they paid and how do you pick one? Most financial advisors are paid through a flat fee or by being paid a percentage… read more…

Grey divorce rates are rising fast — the over-50 crowd makes up a quarter of all divorces, according to the American Bar Association. A seismic financial shift like divorce so close to retirement has the potential to be ruinous, but it doesn’t… read more…

Having a large debt balance is never good but it can be incredibly nerve-wracking when your creditor is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Luckily, you may be able to reach a tax debt settlement with the IRS, depending on your personal situation.… read more…

Automated Clearing House (ACH) and Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs) are both terms used to describe the way money moves digitally. An ACH is a specialized form of EFT, meaning that all ACHs are EFTs, but not all EFTs are ACHs. If you… read more…

Since the Federal Reserve has raised its federal funds effective rate to the highest since December 2007, interest rates on various types of loans have also increased. That’s bad news for anyone trying to take out new loans like mortgages or… read more…