What Jane Says: Retirement

You say you’re too smart to get trapped by a free-lunch “senior seminar?” Guess again. Older people with good incomes and business or professional backgrounds are the tactic’s red meat.
You’re invited by a prominent financial firm (or what sounds like one) for an “educational” session on, say, estate planning or improving your [...]

You can’t turn your back on Congress for a minute. Just when you think an issue will be settled in favor of investors, a Senator oozes under the door and slides a quick pro-business, anti-investor change into a bill.
That’s how the equity-indexed annuity — a costly product with a woeful past — slipped out of the [...]

If you’re saving for retirement and want to lock in a future income on favorable terms, consider buying a tax deferred variable annuity with lifetime guarantees. The prices being offered now are probably too good to last.
Note that this deal might not be best choice for people who need income now. It’s for people looking [...]

Hang on to your wallet, here come the IRA sharks. An email just landed in my mailbox, blaring “ROTH CONVERSIONS ARE HOT! Millions of Dollars are Being Transferred! HUGE commissions are being generated!” Sucker lists are circulating. The next phone call or snail mail you get might be from a “financial adviser,” urging you to [...]

Roth Individual Retirement Accounts are big news this year. For the first time, anyone with a traditional IRA can convert it into a Roth. You can spread the tax effects of a 2010 conversion over two years. And conversion sidesteps the usual 10 percent penalty on funds withdrawn from traditional IRAs prior to age 59 [...]

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"In the five years I have been with the organization, I have never before seen the audience give any speaker a standing ovation." — Ceramic Tile
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Jane’s Book Club

“The Big Short." You'll find no better book for explaining how toxic mortgage investments brought down the economy. Lewis is a great storyteller. You watch the disaster unwind through the eyes of four unforgettable investors who saw that these loans had to fail and invested accordingly.
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Jane’s Bio

Jane Bryant Quinn is a nationally known commentator on personal finance, with books and columns read and trusted by millions.
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