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Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn I found my calling in the 1960s, after I quit my low-level job at Newsweek. I was 23, and I dreamed of being a real journalist. [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn WHEN STOCKS collapsed in March, why were we surprised? Markets do that from time to time. This is the seventh crash I've covered as a journalist, [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn To all my dear friends at AARP: I'm doing it. I'm retiring. After all these years of reporting and writing about how to prepare for retirement, [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Judging from the email I receive, nothing confuses couples more than the size of the spousal or survivors benefit that a person can expect to get [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn You wrote in the May Bulletinthat the Social Security payment received in the month of a person's death is actually the benefit for the previous month, [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn You're probably tired of my yammering about having the correct beneficiaries listed on your retirement plans. If you die suddenly, will the right people inherit your [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn You have a will (I hope!), but is that enough? Would you and your heirs be better off if you created a living trust? These trusts [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn The single most effective way to maintain your standard of living in retirement is--ta-da!--not to retire. Or at least, not to retire as soon as you [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn What should you do with the money in your 401(k) when you leave your job? Maybe nothing at all. Your instinct may be to take your [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Do you want to help finance college for a grandchild? You can get special tax breaks by investing in certain accounts, which I'll get to in [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Hoping to improve the long-term performance of your investments? Just ditch the mutual funds or brokerage accounts for which you're paying a high price and join [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn About 40 million people are helping to care for older relatives and friends. Some leave their jobs to do so, and some end up as live-in [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Whenever I write about Social Security, I get irate emails from people who paid into the system but find themselves denied full benefits. Most are public [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant QuinnAs a financial columnist, I get asked the same heartfelt question over and over: 'How do I make sure I don't outlive my money?' And that makes [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Let's assume you're well-organized. All your personal papers are in order, your will and living will are up to date, and you've named a health care [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn My wife and I both collect Social Security. If I die first, will she receive survivors benefits in addition to her own? No. She can receive [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn What should you do with your money if you're deathly afraid of stocks and want to keep your capital safe? That's a tough one. No-risk investing [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn If there's no change in Social Security, it will pay only 77 percent of everyone's promised retirement benefits starting 16 years from now. Should I claim [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Almost everyone dies owing at least some debt. Sometimes it's only last month's ordinary bills plus final medical expenses. But there can be shocking surprises for [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn When you say 'I do,' you're entering a financial partnership as well as an emotional one. If you say 'I do' a second time and have [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Here's news: More than 11,000 widows and widowers who are now on Social Security could have had higher benefits if someone had bothered to tell them [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Retirement planning advice for married couples tends to assume two things: You're pretty close to each other in age (with the husband perhaps a year or [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn I preach constantly about low-fee investing. The less you pay in fees and sales commissions, the more you'll save and the longer your money will last. [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn I got an email from a reader that set me thinking about durable powers of attorney. They're essential to your future financial security but don't always [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Here's a surprising question. Do we become too frugal when we retire? Those of us who have spent years pinching our pennies to fatten our nest [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Most of us think about retirement as the last big plan we'll ever have to make. But there's one more thing that's perhaps even more important. [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn We recently sold a rental property and expected a modest tax. But the gain put us into a bracket where our Social Security was taxed, too. [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn What will happen if I never pay back loans issued against a life insurance policy? I'm turning 74 and worry about the tax burden. When you [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn I'm getting mail about an apparent dream investment. It promises gains if stocks go up, zero loss if they fall and guaranteed lifetime income, too. What's [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn I usually encourage people to wait until age 70 before taking Social Security retirement benefits. By waiting, you get the maximum payout. Your monthly check will [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Need a new car? The question is whether--given your budget and lifestyle--you should buy or lease. Here are the two classic rules. To pay the least [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn More and more older homeowners are carrying mortgages into their retirement. The dollar amounts are much larger than they used to be, and the average loan [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Does everybody need a will? The straight answer is yes. That's true even for people who think they don't have a dime to leave to anyone. [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn How do you know if your financial adviser has your best interests at heart? They all say they do. Then some of them turn around and [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn WHAT DO I GET the most mail about? Winner by a mile is the question of when to file for spousal (or divorced spousal) benefits. Lots [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn AFTER THE holidays, I find myself floating happily along in the flush of celebration, and then--boom. The first 1099 form arrives in the mail. Reality bites. [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn THE INVESTMENT world is warming to the concept of socially responsible investing (SRI). That means choosing stocks that reflect your values, regardless of whether they fatten [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn We're moving to a new state. Are our wills, powers of attorney and other planning documents still good there? Wills, trusts, powers of attorney and health [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn I took out a $100,000, 20-year term life insurance policy at 62 for $80 a month. But if I live past 82, the policy can't be [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Are you tempted by overdraft protection (or 'courtesy pay' or a similar nobly named service) for your bank or credit union account? It doesn't save you [...]

For all of us there's the life we're living and a potential, different life. Our normal days--filled with work, family, friends, shopping, movies, sports, books--are the ordinary way of the [...]

Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn As our age group ... well ... ages, the chance of needing help with our day-to-day lives goes up. More of us will be seeking home [...]

Mutual funds are convenient investments that carry variable risks. Investors can manage the placement of their money. Factors to consider when investing in mutual funds are described., Sound, simple and flexible--that's why mutual funds are every investor's bedrock buy I love mutual funds because they're so easy as well as so smart. Anyone can learn enough to [...]

The more simply investments are made, the more confident investors should be. Advice for stock market investment and mixed fund investment that provides a safe and high return with the current economic trends is included.

1 Build your nest egg Consider my favorite sleep-tight mutual funds, target retirement funds. Here's how they work: You decide on a year when you might retire, then choose a […]

You rely on credit cards almost every day. But do you know how they really work? Especially the ones with those tempting offers for zero percent interest? Most companies hide […]

When I say that you can get rich--or rich enough--without lifting a finger, it probably sounds too good to be true. But stay with me for a minute. I'm proposing […]