As Richard says, “It’s a doozy of a tax year.” The IRS will be way behind in issuing refunds, yet the deadline for filing your 2020 federal tax returns is still April 15. For most people, it will be filing as usual, but there are situations where special attention may be required. If you earned $75,000 or less ($150,000 as a couple) in 2020 and should have received a $1,200 government stimulus payment last year and a $600 payment in January but didn’t, you can claim these missing payments when you file your 2020 federal tax return. Even if you made no income last year, you still need to file if you want to claim these missing payments. If you donated to charity last year, you can deduct up to $300 in cash contributions even if you can’t normally itemize deductions. If you’re under age 59½ and took advantage of the CARES Act provision to take up to $100,000 out of your Traditional IRA or 401(k) account without early withdrawal penalties, you’ll still have to pay taxes on this withdrawal. But if you fully reinvest the amount you withdrew within the next three years, you’ll be able to request a refund for the taxes you paid. If you were one of the millions of Americans who received state unemployment benefits last year, you’ll have to pay taxes on those benefits. Unfortunately, if you were working for your employer at home last year, you won’t be able to deduct any money you paid for furniture, equipment or other job-related expenses. However, if your income declined significantly from previous years, you may qualify for tax relief. And if you’re expecting a refund or your missing stimulus payments, make sure you file electronically and allow the IRS to deposit this money into your bank account. Otherwise, you may have to wait months to receive the money you’re owed.

For more information: 

• Terrysavage.com: Free Tax Filing Help 
• IRS.gov/freefile: Provides links to IRS partner sites that let you prepare and file your 2020 returns for free (if you qualify) 
• The IRS VITA program: Offers free tax return preparation for qualified individuals

In January, news from Wall Street was dominated by the GameStop saga. To put it simply, a group of individual investors belonging to a social media forum called WallStreetBets started buying shares of GameStop, a moribund online videogame retailer. This speculation drove the price up from $20 to nearly $500 in three weeks. The WallStreetBets clique pitched a Main Street versus Wall Street story, claiming that they were trying to punish hedge funds, which were making huge bets that the price of GameStop would go down. For a time this worked. Early investors became stock multimillionaires, and some hedge funds were on the verge of bankruptcy before the madness petered out and GameStop lost more half of its value by the first week of February. While the hedge funds ended up okay, individual investors who bought shares right before the bottom fell out were the biggest losers. This saga created a clamoring for regulators to step in and stop this kind of market manipulation, and focused industry ire on Robinhood, a popular, no-cost trading app that many of the WallStreetBets crowd used to buy GameStop shares. While this story is fun to read about, there’s no need for most retirement investors to lose sleep over it. The market is heavily regulated. Over the long term prices reflect what’s going on in the economy, and are rarely impacted by price gyrations among a few small companies. Investors who own a diversified portfolio of stock and bond mutual funds in their retirement accounts have even less to worry about, since these funds hold many different kinds of securities, so if the price of one goes down it will be offset by the rising price of another. If you do want to dabble in individual stocks, research each stock first to see if its current price reflects the company’s real value. If you buy shares, set a target price at which you’ll sell out and stick with it. That way, you won’t get stung when the bubble bursts.

For further information: 

• Next Avenue: What Does the GameStop Madness Mean for Your Retirement Funds?
• Terrysavage.com: GameStop—Revenge of the Nerds

Note: The shownotes for this episode update and clarify some of the statements originally made in the podcast.  

According to the Social Security Administration, the number of retirees who drew Social Security outside the U.S. jumped 40% from 2007 to 2017. While the COVID-19 pandemic has put the brakes on Americans’ plans to more aboard, once the crisis is over there’s likely to be an explosion of retirees choosing to live outside the U.S. part of the year or permanently.

While it’s fun to dream about spending your retirement years in Europe or in a tropical paradise, there are many issues you need to think about before making such a life-changing decision. Your Medicare plan may or may not provide coverage in foreign countries, so it might be necessary to purchase supplementary medical insurance. Even if the nation you’re considering offers free or low-cost government-subsidized healthcare, you may not be eligible for it as a non-citizen. And the quality of physicians and facilities in that country may be inferior to those in the U.S.

If you plan to earn income while living aboard, you may have to pay taxes to both your adopted country and to the U.S. Banks and financial institutions in developing nations may charge higher fees and have lax standards for protecting against fraud.

In terms of protecting your financial interests in the U.S., most countries now allow ex-pats to have dual citizenship, although it could take several years for you to become a citizen in your adopted home. And, if the nation you’re emigrating to requires you to give up your U.S. citizenship, you’ll be taxed on the value of the remaining assets in your estate.

That’s why if you’re still committed to retiring abroad after the pandemic subsides, it’s critical to thoroughly research the financial, healthcare, and lifestyle pros and cons of the countries you’re considering. And even if you find what seems to be the perfect location, consider renting first before you make a permanent investment in your new home.

For further research:

• Next Avenue,  How to Choose Your Ideal Place to Retire Abroad
• Internationaliving.com: Provides rankings of the best places in the world to retire.
• Numbeo.com: A crowdsourcing site providing cost-of-living information for most countries.
• Taxesforexpats.com: Tax preparation services and advice for those living aboard.

According to research from Fidelity Investments, retirees should expect to pay $295,000 for healthcare during their retirement years, and this doesn’t include the costs of long-term care. Guest speaker and author Philip Moeller says that while retirees can find many ways to lower their healthcare costs, it takes a lot of time and effort.

A major decision facing those turning 65 is whether to choose Traditional Medicare plus optional prescription drug and supplemental insurance or sign up for an all-inclusive Medicare Advantage plan. While premiums for Medicare Advantage may be lower, your choice of doctors, facilities and prescription drugs may be limited and out-of- pocket expenses could be higher.

People who aren’t committed to seeing specific physicians in person may save money by using telemedicine providers. If your physician is recommending medical procedures, get a cost estimate from your healthcare insurance provider, or use web sites that offer comparison pricing for these procedures.

For prescription drugs, don’t automatically have your physician send your prescription to a local pharmacy. Bring it there yourself and ask the pharmacist if lower-cost generic alternatives or discounts are available. Prescription drug price comparison web sites can help you find lower prices at local pharmacies and national buying clubs. You may also want to ask your physician to help you legally purchase prescription drugs from Canada, where prices are often significantly lower.

If you’re still working and your employer offers a Health Savings Account (HSA), try to take full advantage of this option. Contributions are pre-tax, and all withdrawals you make for qualified healthcare purposes are tax-free. While you can’t contribute to your HSA once you’re enrolled in Medicare, you can use the balance in your account to pay for most Medicare premiums, co-pays and other out-of-pocket expenses.

Finally, if these decisions seem overwhelming, look for help. Your state offers free counseling services to help evaluate your various Medicare options. If you’re friends with a retired nurse or doctor, see if they’re willing to serve as your healthcare advocate—and pay them for their time. And make sure you fill out a healthcare proxy form that gives someone you trust the legal authority to make healthcare decisions for you should you become physically or mentally capacitated.

For further research: 

• State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP) National Network: Find free Medicare counselors in your state
• Doctor on Demand and Teladoc: Online telemedicine sites and apps
• Rally and Healthcare Bluebook: These sites provide comparison pricing information for healthcare providers and medical procedures in your area
• GoodRx.com: Find the lowest local prices for prescription drugs
• Philip Moeller, Get What's Yours for Health Care: How to Get the Best Care at the Right Price

The start of a new year is always a good time to take a closer look at where you are financially and figure out whether certain changes may help you boost your retirement readiness. While there are many things you can do, here are four steps you might want to move to the top of your "to consider" list.

First, look over your year end investment statements to see if your portfolio needs rebalancing. Even with the economic havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the stock market generated double-digit returns last year. This may have boosted the stock allocation in your retirement portfolio higher than you originally intended. To restore your targeted asset allocation, consider selling some stocks and reinvesting the proceeds into bonds or cash to get your portfolio back in balance. This is something you should do at least once a year, and even more often if you can.

Second, think about converting some or all of your Traditional IRA assets to a Roth IRA. Even though you’ll have to pay taxes on the converted amount, once this money is in your Roth IRA and you’ve held the account for five years, you’ll never have to pay taxes on any withdrawals you make after age 59½. And, unlike with Traditional IRA and 401(k) plans, you’ll never have to take required minimum distributions. The earlier you complete the conversion, the longer you’ll benefit from the Roth’s tax-free compounding.

Third, if you have dividend-paying stocks in your taxable investment accounts, consider using some of this dividend income to help pay for everyday expenses. Since most dividends are taxed as ordinary income whether you spend them or reinvest them, thinking of them as an additional source of annual income may make it easier to rationalize spending them. More importantly, if spending dividends in the years leading to your retirement can help you delay taking Social Security or tapping into the principal of your investments, then you’ll boost the odds of having more money to live on when you’re ready to retire.

Finally, if you’re approaching retirement and are having trouble figuring out these complex financial issues on your own, now may be an ideal time to seek out a fee-only fiduciary financial planner. These professionals can conduct a comprehensive analysis of your investments, projected Social Security and pension payments and your estimated income needs to help you determine if it makes sense to implement any of these new year’s financial resolutions or other strategies to help smooth your path toward a more comfortable retirement.

For further research:

Next Avenue, 3 Smart Money Resolutions for 2021