What the experts say

A fight over IRA advice

Some financial advisers who administer individual retirement accounts are pushing back against tougher consumer-protection rules, said Ian Salisbury in SmartMoney.com. A widely cited study released last year claimed that a proposed Labor Department rule requiring advisers to act in a client’s best financial interests would “sharply increase costs for investors” in IRAs. The study suggested, for example, that investors with accounts worth less than $25,000 would see costs increase around 70 percent—to an average of $135 a year—if the rule went into effect. But consumer advocates have cried foul, calling the study’s methodology “gimmicky and flawed.” They say many IRA investors are unaware that their advisers can double as salesmen, “earning commissions from products they sell.” With IRA accounts holding some $4.9 trillion, “the stakes are huge” in whether or not the rule is applied.

Inheriting a digital library

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Your iTunes library of books and music may follow you to the grave, said Quentin Fottrell in MarketWatch.com. Anyone owning physical books and vinyl records has no problem passing them to heirs, of course, but because “most digital content exists in a legal black hole,” bequeathing an iTunes or e-book collection is far more difficult. Apple and Amazon grant only “nontransferable” rights to digital content, so despite your Beatles collection being a real asset with value, it can’t be shared or divided among descendants. There are a few legal and practical work-arounds, however, the simplest of which is to “just use your loved one’s devices and accounts after they’re gone.” But with an increasing portion of our assets going digital, the need for legal reform “is only going to become more pressing.”

Brown-bag your way to savings

It’s a fact worth repeating: Bringing your lunch to work can save you thousands of dollars a year, said Dan Kadlec in Time.com. If you eat out every day and spend an average of $15 per lunch, brown bagging at a cost of $3 per day will save you $31,200 over 10 years. “This is math that every worker, especially young ones starting their careers, should consider.” And if you save $2,000 a year on lunch and put it in your 401(k) beginning at age 22, assuming a $34,000 salary and a 50 percent employer match, your lunch savings could grow at 7 percent a year to more than $600,000 by the time you hit retirement age.