Kiplinger's Personal Finance

my beef with my broker

This month, I’m sharing the story of how more than $32,000 disappeared from my E*Trade brokerage account last May and made its way to the Dutch Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands. It’s a cautionary tale about the perils of investing in a foreign stock and the frustrations of dealing with a fully automated online broker. I’ll share some blame, too, for not delving into the fine print about stock tenders.A tender tale. In 2015, I bought 500 shares of Mobileye, an Israeli company that developed camera-based driver-assistance technology. We highlighted the stock in our April 2015 issue in “Cash In on the Future” (see page 46 for an updated version of stock picks that will benefit from long-term trends). In March 2017, Intel offered to acquire Mobileye at a…

look beyond retiree taxes

I have friends who left Connecticut, one of your “least tax-friendly” states, to move to “most tax-friendly” Florida (“Countdown to Retirement,” Feb.). But the reality of living in their newly adopted state has set in. What they save on taxes goes to pay higher home insurance premiums because of the threat of hurricanes. Their housing costs now include a monthly exterminator, a pool person and a person who checks for mildew. Perhaps they’ll save on inheritance taxes. I hope their kids appreciate the sacrifice.TEDD LEVYOLD SAYBROOK, CONN.Tax-friendly Tennessee? In your retiree tax map, you omitted Tennessee as a very tax-friendly state. Yet Tennessee levies no income tax on IRAs, 401(k)s, Social Security and pensions. The only tax in which Tennessee is a “loser” is sales tax.PAUL ALBRIGHTLOUDON, TENN.EDITOR’S NOTE: Tennessee…

expect aftershocks from the shutdown

THE LONGEST GOVERNMENT shutdown in history is now history—but its impact on the economy may linger well into the year.According to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, the 35-day partial shutdown that ended January 25 will ding the U.S. economy by about $3 billion. But Tony Roth, chief investment officer atWilmington Trust, says the actual damage could be two to three times higher than the CBO’s $3 billion figure. That’s because the CBO looked at only the direct costs of the shutdown, not the harder-to-measure indirect costs, such as travel plans that were called off or executives who delayed or canceled spending to maintain or expand their businesses.Roth says he still has a positive view of the economy and the U.S. stock market, although he reduced his outlook for gross domestic…

how much cash is in your wallet?

Joseph Bailey is associate research professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland.According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, nearly 30% of Americans say they make no cash purchases during a typical week. How does the use of electronic payments in the U.S.compare with other countries? The U.S. is moving quickly toward more cashless transactions, but it still lags some European countries, such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Sweden has reached a tipping point at which only about 2% of transactions are conducted in cash. In part, that’s because the Swedes are technologically savvy, they have a relatively small market, and the government encourages electronic payments of its currency. Chinese cities are also embracing the cashless life, with a mobile-phone system that uses…

you may pay more for your drugs

IF YOUR INSURANCE PLAN covers prescription drugs, you may be in for sticker shock the next time you go to the pharmacy. Express Scripts and CVS Caremark, two large pharmacy benefit managers that provide drug coverage for many health plans, dropped about 90 drugs from their preferred formularies (the list of drugs they cover) in 2019.These changes can affect people who have coverage through their employer, as well as people who buy an individual policy. Specifics vary, but many insurers adopt the pharmacy benefit managers’ preferred formularies for their own coverage. (The drug lists can be different for Medicare Part D. The Trump administration has proposed new rules for Medicare plans that would require PBMs that receive rebates from drug companies to pass on the savings to consumers.)If several drugs…

banks battle elder fraud

The new year brought old news for older Americans: Financial fraud targeting senior citizens is still climbing, with a 12% uptick in 2018, according to the U.S. Treasury. But there’s a silver lining: Financial institutions are now doing more to stop elder fraud.That’s due in part to the federal Senior Safe Act of 2018, which protects professionals from lawsuits after they’ve taken training to recognize red flags, such as sudden wire transfers, among older customers. “One of the first signs of cognitive decline is in your ability to manage finances,” says Michael Pieciak, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association.States have been making their own moves to combat elder fraud, often with stronger protections than at the federal level. Since 2015, at least 19 states have enacted legislation to…