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Getting Personal: Retirement and plastic
Economics editor Chris Farrell
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I have two 529's, one for each of my daughters, opened in 2007 60k each. the maximum growth only one made was 7k. Both dumped below 50k in the crash. Now max profit is 4600 and 1500.
I have consistently made more with stocks. In one case over 200% profit since 2007.
The point: What are both the steps, and ramifications to cashing in both 529's and putting them into stocks to truly make some college money? I have less than two years on one of my girls to do anything.
Both Farrell and Vigeland should be deep-sixed for gross negligence. For sure last entry on Soc Sec applies, and they never asked the most important questions: how much are you spending vs your income = how much you are drawing down on assets (asset depletion being the greatest issue to early retirement),
and how much in financial assets does he have as his pot of gold.
Then they completely screwed up the credit card situation. Someone who has 16 cards, but not using 14 (so presumably no balance) should not close them. While i wouldn't recommend that anyone open that many, once they exist, keep them. But don't carry them! (Put under your sweaters - that's a better solution to possible theft than hosts offered.) If one loses a job, new credit becomes unavailable. Further, as improperly minimized by the hosts, closing accounts does impact credit rating so why do it? Just don't use the acct - except once every yr or 2 to keep it active - and for sure pay the balance when billed!
On today's show, Chris Farrell spoke with a retired Air Force engineer, and indicated that the engineer's SS benefits would not be affected much by whether he continued working. But the caller only mentioned 24 years of active duty as work experience, and SS benefits are based on the top 35 years of earnings. Perhaps the caller has another 11 years of SS credits, but I didn't hear that verified in the broadcast. It sounds to me like the caller's SS benefits could potentially be reduced by about 30% if he does not continue working and does not have another 11 years of work with SS credits and income comparable to his Air Force income. Am I missing something?
