money column

Bucks Blog: Physician, Heal Thy Financial Self

August 27, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

In this weekend’s Your Money column, I tick off a list of character traits that many doctors share that may cause them financial harm.

Physicians may be impatient to acquire the trappings of success without stopping to consider longer-term financial goals. They may place too much faith in other professionals who pitch investments to them, given that doctors come from a unique environment in which the first principle is to do no harm. And they may have too much confidence. After all, if you can bring someone back from the brink of death, how hard can investing be?

If you’re a physician or know one well, please share your financial war stories (and ones of triumph) below.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=696a2daf8b9509db8e8e71aeb25ef951

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: brink of death, financial harm, money column

Bucks: How to Build a Better Regulator

July 15, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

In this weekend’s Your Money column, I look at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s efforts to become a sort of open-source regulator, where consumers help make the rules and suggest tweaks to regulatory works in progress.

The bureau has already put a fair bit of work in on this. There is its blog, which accepts comments (unlike, say, the White House’s). And the bureau has asked for input on its efforts to create a simpler mortgage disclosure form and figure out which nonbanks are big enough to fall within the bureau’s statutory purview.

Matt Stoller, whom I quote in the column, says he hopes that the bureau will do things like create a forum for consumers to post, for instance, recordings of calls that debt collectors have made to them so that the bureau can listen in, too.

What else would you suggest that the bureau do to help bring the public (both banks and consumers) in on its everyday activities?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=bb3b2830b0876a9d5adf42dc2da9f4dc

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: debt collectors, money column, white house

Bucks: Shining a Light on Your 401(k) Costs

June 4, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

In this weekend’s Your Money column, I’m back on the topic of 401(k) plans and how to bolster returns by making them less costly.

This week, I look at the continuing regulatory and legal discussions about how to disclose workplace retirement plan fees and under what circumstances they are simply too high.

I’m still in the market for war stories from people who have tried to decipher the data from their own plan and persuade the powers that be to make changes. If you have a tale to tell, please post it in the comments below.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f87e99f9a4515c81f2604d1864d030be

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: circumstances, money column, retirement plan

Bucks: Friday Reading: Raising Good Cholesterol May Not Help Fight Heart Attacks

May 27, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

May 27

The Right Model for Lower Cost Investment Management

A look, in the Your Money column, at two of the latest efforts to bring investment management to the merely six-figured.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=3b92c97c111d30255759442663f3a041

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: cholesterol, money column, raising good cholesterol

Bucks: More Employers Equalize Health Benefits for Gay Workers

May 21, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

This week’s Your Money column looks at the growing number of companies that have decided to equalize the cost of health benefits for their gay employees.

Why is that even necessary? While many big companies offer health coverage for domestic partners, employees must pay taxes on the value of those benefits because the federal government doesn’t recognize their unions.

Over the last year, more companies have begun to shoulder these costs for their same-sex employees. Other companies, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, are reviewing their current policy. I’ve also heard that Zynga is considering it.

We’ve been keeping tabs on who is doing what on this chart. We’d like to continue to heap praise on the companies that are adopting this generous policy, so please let us know of any others that do. You can e-mail me through my page on this Web site, or drop the names in the comment section below.

What other benefits would you like to see employers adopt for its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e4b74d0af728451c766e0464b67fc1b4

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: goldman sachs, money column, morgan stanley

Bucks: New Questions About Prepaid 529 Plans

April 2, 2011 by NewsMaker Leave a Comment

In this weekend’s Your Money column, I review the curious case of the College Illinois prepaid 529 college savings plan.

A number of families had not realized that the state did not guarantee the protection the plan offered against tuition inflation. The plan, however, markets itself aggressively, so much so that many people don’t read the fine print. And now that the plan is underfunded due to losses in its investments, everyone is worried about this program and similar ones.

So should the state be marketing “peace of mind” when there is no true guarantee behind it? Should any new families be buying in at this point? And should taxpayers be liable for half a billion dollars, as they now are in Alabama, to protect the interests of families who probably paid less than they should have for the plans in the first place, back when nobody realized that tuition was going to rise as fast as it has?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=ed6f7907d88a9dfc9621ba191b7f4f4a

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: 529 college savings, money column, tuition inflation