Raising Your Living Standard

Repay and reapply for higher benefits before it’s too late. This “loophole” could close soon.

Lord knows that with unemployment at 10%, there are lots of us looking for jobs in places to which we hadn't dreamed of moving. But even in good times, Americans are constantly changing jobs. Indeed, one-fifth of the work force typically switches jobs in a given year, many to different cities in a different state.

Social Security’s handbook contains 2,728 rules.

The stock market may be a wild and crazy ride, but it's generally (about 70 percent of the time) an uphill one. The trouble is, market averages lie. Where one ends up capital accumulation-wise depends not just on the market, but on the extent of one's spending along the way. Seems obvious, but too often spending is ignored in discussions of investment performance.

Scott Burns and Laurence J. Kotlikoff: Get real about retirement

Forget what financial planners have told you; a new approach allows for life's peaks and valleys

by Laurence J. Kotlikoff

An economist offers five steps to get one couple's plan back on track.