Critical Acclaim for MaxiFi

The best financial planning software allows you to track, analyze, project and play out what-if scenarios to chart a course of action to achieve your goals.

It’s hard to hand over a big portion of your retirement savings when you’re old or getting there. Every fiber in your being shrieks “mistake.” And sometimes it is a mistake, as it was for Bob and Sandy Curtis, who forked out $840,000 in entrance fees for a continuing care retirement community that subsequently filed for bankruptcy.

Would you send the government a big check this year – in return for a potentially far larger future tax break? That’s the simple and essential premise of Roth Conversions – paying taxes now on regular IRAs, 401(k)s, and other tax-deferred retirement accounts (except those from your current job) in exchange for tax-free withdrawals of those balances, plus all their growth, down the road.

For starters, Kotlikoff said, investing in the stock market is highly risky, and the risk of a very large decline in your assets increases over time.

David Goldstein was terminated from his job as an environmental consultant and learned he had terminal bone cancer in the same week last November.

Trump's policies would jeopardize Social Security, report finds. 'Beyond irresponsible,' says one expert.

Caution: Read this column only if the idea of “running out of money” in your lifetime (with the exception of Social Security) keeps you awake at night! Relying on conventional financial planning could give you a 20 percent likelihood of that result.

Retirees can make their provisional income go up or down by changing how much they take each year in distributions from their retirement accounts.