The Curious Cat Investing, Economics and Personal Finance carnival is published monthly with links to new, related, interesting content online.
- Health-care bill in retirement: $240,000 by Elizabeth O’Brien – “Here’s a breakdown of where their $240,000 goes: 32% goes to premiums for Medicare Parts B & D, which cover doctor visits and drugs, respectively; 23% goes to prescription drugs expenses not covered by Medicare Part D; and 45% goes toward Medicare cost-sharing provisions, including copayments, deductibles, other services not covered by Medicare, and any optional Medigap policies purchased.
For all their detail, Fidelity and EBRI’s retirement health-care estimates have a whopping exclusion: the cost of long-term care, which could be provided at home or in an assisted living or nursing facility.”
- We’re Headed For A Disaster Of Biblical Proportions by Henry Blodget – “The rise in population, the ten-fold increase in wealth in developed countries, and the current explosive growth in developing countries have eaten rapidly into our finite resources of hydrocarbons and metals, fertilizer, available land, and water.”
- Save What You Can, Increase Monthly Savings as You Can Do So by John Hunter – “My favorite tips along these lines are: spend less than you make, save some of every raise you get…”
- A Better Way to Deliver Aid by Dr. William Brindley and Douglas Sabo – “To increase the speed of delivery and put decision-making power into the hands of beneficiaries, the international aid community has made a concerted effort over the last decade to transition away from the distribution of in-kind goods to the direct transfer of cash payments to assist those in need”
- 5 below-the-radar-screen global stock market trends by Jim Jubak – “The other big regional growth story is taking place in Africa, specifically sub-Saharan Africa. GDP for Africa as a whole will grow by 5% in 2012, the International Monetary Fund projects with 5.7% growth a reasonable target for 2013.”
- A Free-Market Fix for the Copyright Racket by Virginia Postrel – “A copyright isn’t supposed to be a reward. It’s supposed to be an incentive.”
- Lights Out For China’s Solar Power Industry? by James Parker – “China’s photo-voltaic (PV) industry… serves as a microcosm for many of the troubles afflicting China’s economy as a whole, including government encouraged over-investment, an astounding run up of debt, government support of value-destroying firms, resulting trade frictions, and the tension between central and local government goals.”
- 5 IRA Mistakes by Robert Powell – “if an IRA account owner dies at age 65 and the IRA is payable to the account owner’s estate, which is not a qualified designated beneficiary, the money in the IRA will have to come out over five years” [If a qualified person, or people, (your children for example) are named the beneficiary they can withdraw the funds based on their actuarial life expectancy (which provide the advantage of tax deferral for a longer period). – John]
- How Important is it to Start Funding Your Retirement Early? – “You’re 22 years old, right out of college, and you begin saving $5,000 per year for your retirement, earning an average rate of return of 8% per year. By the time you’re 65 years old, you have $1,718,499.
If by contrast, you wait to begin retirement savings at age 35, saving $10,000 per year with an average annual rate of return of 8%, you will have $1,181,340 by the time you’re 65.”
Street art, Yogyakarta, Indonesia by John Hunter