Medicare costs in retirement:

Most people don't pay a premium for Medicare Part A, which covers hospital visits. But you will pay monthly premiums for Part B (doctor services and outpatient care), Part D (prescription drugs), and supplemental coverage which may pick up the cost for deductibles, co-pays and medications. These could be taken straight out of your Social Security check.

The premium for Part B is tied to inflation. Most people paid $105 a month in 2015 -- and it isn't going up at all in 2016. You might have to pay more if you don't get Social Security because you receive a government pension, or if your annual income is more than $85,000.
The premiums for Part D and supplemental insurance are set by your provider and vary by plan and by where you live. You can expect these to take up a big chunk of your expenses and are big drivers of rising health care costs.

Courtesy of CNN Money

Time to give Utility Stocks another look...Talk to your financial advisor.
After a 10% pullback, utility stocks are looking attractive again, with total return potential of 8% to 9% a year.

Barron's has some ideas:

U.S. President Barack Obama has recently signed into law the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015, which is legislation that includes a permanent extension of the IRA Charitable Rollover.

The IRA Charitable Rollover allows taxpayers age 70 1/2 or older to make tax-free charitable gifts of up to $100,000 per year directly from their individual retirement accounts to eligible charities.

In order to take advantage of the IRA charitable rollover, persons must make a gift from their IRA on or before Dec. 31.

Call your IRA custodian and have them make a check payable to the charity! 

In 401K plans, that is $18,000 for people under the age of 50 — and in IRA and Roth plans, the contribution max will remain at $5,500 for those age 50 or younger.

More than two-thirds of gas stations nationwide are selling gas for less than $2 a gallon, according to the Oil Price Information Service, which tracks prices for AAA.

Here's how the markes reacted:

• Dow: 17,749.09, +224.18, (1.28%)
• S&P 500: 2,073.07, +29.66, (1.45%)
• Nasdaq: 5,071.13, +75.77, (1.52%)

Markets are volatile this week...

Investors are going to the mattresses, stuffing their money away until they get better clarity on the Fed's intentions for interest rates.

Of course, the move hasn't been to actual mattresses but an intensifying push to money market funds, which have taken in $48 billion over the past four weeks and $212 billion in the second half of 2015, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The $13.4 billion inflow over the past week marks the 10th-straight positive week, the longest streak since March 2008 for the $2.7 trillion money market industry.

Car buyers are borrowing as much as they can. The average loan for a new car purchase hit $28,524 during the second quarter, its highest level in five years.

Consumers are also taking out loans with extra-long terms. The average term for a new car loan is now 67 months. For a used car, it’s 62 months. Both are all-time records.

If you have reached age 70 1/2 this year don't forget to call your IRA custodian or employer 401k or 403b plan and take your first required minimum required distribution MRD.  If you have several plans, you are allowed to  "aggregate" your IRA or 403b plans and withdraw from just one account.  

On a MRD distribution you can elect to withhold taxes or not-it's your decision.  Most plans will send out a check or transfer right to your bank account.!

To use the tool, you simply plug in your birthday and highest annual work income to see your estimated benefit for each age, from 62 to 70. Click on the age you think you'd like to retire, and a new benefit amount pops up to show how your choice affects your check. You can also get more specific and detailed suggestions by answering questions about your marital status and financial particulars.

New online tool.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Planning for Retirement tool.

MotleyFool provides the definition and some ideas:

Dividend stocks could be ideal for a retiree trying to build regular income.  Talk to your financial advisor about using these stocks in your IRA

A Dividend Aristocrat is defined as a company that has raised its dividend for at least 25 consecutive years. We checked in with three of our analysts for their best current Dividend Aristocrat investment candidate. They returned three stock picks from an even more exclusive list, the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.

The oil crash presents a great long-term opportunity for dividend lovers to pick up undervalued shares of Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX), which has raised its dividend every year since 1986.

The power of dividend growth is a huge component of what makes stocks such an attractive long-term investment, and that's especially true among blue-chip stocks like energy giant ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM).

S&P 500 stalwart 3M Co. (NYSE:MMM) is a stable and growing investment vehicle offering a generous current dividend yield of 2.9%.