President Barack Obama wants to eliminate, as part of his proposed fiscal year 2015 budget, aggressive Social Security claiming strategies “which allow upper-income beneficiaries to manipulate the timing of collection of Social Security benefits to maximize delayed retirement credits.”
“It’s hard to define, but, you know, it probably means something on the order of around six months or that type of thing.” – Fed Chair Janet Yellen That comment by the new chairwomen of the Federal Reserve sent shock waves through global financial markets. Janet Yellen was answering a question about when she estimated […]
“To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with.” – Mark Twain Not all of us men are big on the “communication thing” with the spouse. For some, a deep conversation may revolve around which reality show to watch or whether they can take the last two meatballs. I […]
A child born in 2012 will cost his parents $241,080 in 2012 dollars, on average, over his lifetime. And children of higher-earning families drain the bank account more: Families earning more than $105,000 annually can expect to spend $399,780 per child.
“Ignorance is the curse of G-d; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.” – William Shakespeare Last summer the investment firm John Hancock conducted an investor survey. The survey was conducted among affluent investors, and lo and behold only 11 percent of them scored an “A” on the eight-question test. A few years […]
“To a contrarian like me, constant advice not to do something almost always starts me quickly down the risky, unpopular path.” – Michael Bloomberg The Russian military takeover of the strategic Crimean peninsula has caused an international uproar. While the focus is on how the EU and the US will deal with the Russian threat, both […]
Today is the day that New Year’s resolutions are still in force. While many will resolve to lose weight, give charity or be a better husband, one resolution that many of us need to make is to become a bit more financially savvy. I have written about this before, but a post on an Israeli […]
The Tel Aviv Marathon is on Friday. In Jerusalem, the excitement is building for the city’s marathon coming up in less than a month. Go outside and you are bound to see people of all stripes running. I think back 15 years, and I feel like I was running around the capital’s Gan Sacher all by myself. […]
“Every time in this century we’ve lowered the tax rates across the board, on employment, on saving, investment and risk-taking in this economy, revenues went up, not down.” – Jack Kemp I just finished a job search to find a replacement for my office manager who will be going on maternity leave. I was inundated with resumes, […]
This is an article written by Abe Katsman ( my brother) in the Jerusalem Post. It deals with FATCA and as I mentioned a few weeks ago, a move is underway by the Republican party to repeal the law. This is being reprinted with permission of the author. For more insightful political analysis check out […]
