I read “Solve Your Toughest Retirement Puzzle” [April] with interest. My wife and I purchased long-term-care insurance policies, and we were notified after several years that we had the choice of either paying a higher premium or cutting back our coverage. The fact that insurers can do this is simply unfair.

EDWARD BUSCH, Central Point, Ore.

“Rev Up Your Old Computer” [April] was useful. I was pleased to see that you included suggestions for those of us using a Mac. Most advice I see assumes everyone has a computer running Windows.

EDWARD BUSCH, Richmond

A PRUDENT SPENDER

When I read about Doris Partridge’s retirement plans in “The Makeover” [April], it struck me that your planners rarely talk about what people actually spend. Five years before I retired, I began monitoring our family expenses by tracking the outflow from my checking account.

By using this method we were able to motivate ourselves to be careful, and we saved sufficiently so that I could retire on my pension, continue to save, and travel as I wish even though my income is less than it was when I worked.

MARK WOODS, Centreville, Va.

WHAT TAXES TEACH US

I enjoyed “What to Learn From Your Tax Return” [April], But regarding the advice that you should keep bonds in your deferred accounts and equities in your taxable accounts, I think the article should have also noted that tax efficiency is not an excuse to change asset allocation or limit contributions to deferred accounts.

WILLIAM C. FENNELL, Bear, Del.

REFUND MADNESS

In “How Not to Waste Your Tax Refund” [April], I was surprised to see that one of the recommendations was “return the dough to the IRS and prepay your 2010 taxes.” Under no circumstances should anyone give the IRS an interest-free loan! For 2010, in order to minimize or eliminate a 2011 tax refund, people should simply adjust their withholding and/or estimated tax payments to pay approximately what they’ll owe Uncle Sam for the 2010 tax year.

ANDREW GOLDSTEIN, Hoboken, N.J

CORRECTIONS

In “Rev Up Your Old Computer” [April] we said that the Nod32 antivirus program is free. After a 30-day trial, the cost is $39.99. The AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition can be downloaded at free.avg.com.

Also, in the same story, we omitted the final step for managing launches on a Mac. You must click the “minus” button to implement the startup changes. We regret the errors. ■

Spotlight

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