HOUSEKEEPING
The basics on long-term-care insurance
A key issue facing many consumers is whether to pursue long-term-care protection. Frequently, consumers are dealing with this issue in connection with their parents, but at a time when they are also reaching an age where they can buy coverage cheaply.
Most experts suggest that long-term-care coverage is right for a certain niche of the population — those with sufficient assets to avoid Medicaid but not enough money to simply pay for care on their own — but note that terms and conditions and circumstances vary from one person to the next.
With that in mind, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has created the “Long-Term Care Center,” a comprehensive, independent information site that does a good job answering virtually all questions associated with care coverage, from costs to Medicaid planning and more. You can get to the site at .
SHORT COURSE
Topple rate
The topple rate is a concept designed to show the rate at which the group of leading companies — whether in a single industry or in a leadership position in the overall stock market — changes over time.
One common measure for the topple rate is membership in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, a position that would show a company to be one of the leading businesses on the market. Yet studies have shown that the rate of change in membership has increased dramatically over the past two decades, a sign that newer technologies have been emerging and growing into dominant industries. A high topple rate is considered a sign of an active economy.
