Break from the Grind December 14, 2020

SURVEY SAYS: Favorite Holiday Song 2020

NewsDash readers voted for their favorite holiday song.

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Last week, I asked NewsDash readers, “What is your favorite holiday song?”

From the songs listed, Away in a Manger, Ding Dong Merrily on High, Do You Hear What I Hear?, Frosty the Snowman, Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, Here Comes Santa Claus, Here We Come A-Wassailing, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bell Rock, Please Come Home for Christmas, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Santa Baby, Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Silver Bells, Sleigh Ride, The Chipmunk Song and The Twelve Days of Christmas received no votes as the favorite.

All I Want for Christmas Is You, Angels We Have Heard on High, Baby It’s Cold Outside, Carol of the Bells, Christmas Wrappings, Feliz Navidad, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas, Let it Snow!, Mary, Did You Know?, O Come All Ye Faithful, On This Very Christmas Night, The Hannukah Song by Adam Sandler and What Child Is This (Greensleeves) were each selected by 1.9% of responding readers.

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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and The First Noel were each selected by 3.8% of respondents. “Other” favorite songs included:

  • Christmas Time is Here;
  • Fairytale of New York by The Pogues;
  • Last Christmas by Wham;
  • Mariah Carey “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”;
  • Happy Christmas/War is Over by John Lennon;
  • Underneath the Tree – Kelly Clarkson; and
  • God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

And the top selected favorite songs were:

  • The Christmas Song (“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire . . .”) – 5.8%
  • White Christmas” (“I’m dreaming of a . . . “) – 5.8%
  • Little Drummer Boy – 11.5%;
  • Silent Night – 11.5%; and
  • O Holy Night – 13.5%.

Most of the readers who chose to leave comments are still enjoying and stirred by holiday songs, but it is making at least one sad because of the changes caused by the coronavirus. A few shared why their favorite is their favorite. No Editor’s Choice this week.

A big thank you to all who participated in the survey!

Verbatim

Heard Dominick the Christmas donkey for the first time the other day (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca5wXojemRM). I think this needs to become a more common staple! LOL

My birthday is December 22 and that evening carolers were singing in the hall of the hospital; as they passed my mom’s room they were singing Little Drummer Boy. That’s why it’s my favorite!

Just love the message of this song.

All I want for Christmas is my vaccs shots; My two vaccs shots; See my distance and mask Gee, if I could only have my two vaccs shots; Then I could wish you, “Merry Christmas”

While we celebrate a secular Christmas, this song has always been able to stir me in a way that makes me feel the joy and passion of the holiday. That said, while I love this song, I could do without the more contemporary versions (thanks for trying Ms. Carey and Ms. Underwood, but no thanks). Other song faves goes out to Vince Guaraldi for his jazzy tune, “Linus and Lucy,” and Kelly Clarkson for her contemporary song, “Underneath the Tree.”

Gotta go “old school” with Bing Crosby’s White Christmas!

Love the remakes

Write in vote for Snoopy’s Christmas!

O Holy Night has to be by Mariah Carey of course. After that is Santa Baby by Madonna. Both are the best to me, but I just love Christmas music. I start in October!!!

12 Days of Christmas by Bob and Doug McKenzie is the best!

They’re like Lay’s potato chips, hard to pick just one!

Nothing can get a smile out of me like a Christmas song can. Whether it’s a classic or something modern, they’re all great!

The holiday season and songs are wonderful.

O Holy Night still brings tears every time I hear it…..simply beautiful.

Most you listed are beautiful and evoke fond memories from childhood. They’re all a good reminder (or should be) that sometimes things are bigger than ourselves.

Haven’t gotten in the mood much yet. Did a little listening while doing my Christmas cards. Going to try a little harder next week to get in the spirit…the songs are the first way to do it! 🙂

Sometimes it is not the song but the setting in which it is sung (darkened church lit by candles and the officiant playing the guitar while the congregation sings Silent Night) or the performer – Springsteen’s Santa Clause is Coming to Town!

Listening to holiday songs this year is too sad a reminder for me that it won’t be a normal holiday season — and we won’t be able to gather with friends and family. I’m focused on next year.

I love Christmas music and it is too hard to pick just one. A bright spot during the pandemic is that I can have it playing in the background while working from home! 🙂

I love it when young artists come up with new songs! Even though the old standbys never get old!

Our family had the opportunity to hear the song writer sing this in concert at Notre Dame. It was and still is beautiful.

NOTE: Responses reflect the opinions of individual readers and not necessarily the stance of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) or its affiliates.
Compliance December 11, 2020

Retirement Plan Experts Applaud Raising RMD

They say it will give retirement plan participants a longer window in which to increase their savings, tax deferred.

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Retirement plan experts have applauded the regulatory change to increase the required minimum distribution (RMD) age from 70.5 to 72, as directed by the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act. The proposed Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2020, which many are calling the “SECURE Act 2.0” would raise it even higher, to age 75.

Many experts say extending the period in which people are not required to begin withdrawing money from a qualified retirement account gives people a longer window in which to continue to contribute to their plans and grow their money while deferring taxes. Some even say the longer period might give plan participants a chance to think about various types of drawdown strategies, including investing some of their money in annuities with guaranteed lifetime income.

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The Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) has long advocated for increasing the RMD age, says Paul Richman, chief government and political affairs officer at IRI.

“We know people are not only living longer but are working longer,” Richman says. “There is no reason to make them start paying taxes on it under the age of 75, and there are some recent retirees who may not need to take those savings yet.”

Richman said the RMD rule was first enacted in 1962 and set at age 70. In all that time, it was only raised nominally, to age 70.5. “Even as life expectancies have continued to increase in the last 58 years, no adjustment has been made until last year. The bill proposing to increase it to age 75 is what we should have done in the first place.”

Catherine Reilly, director of retirement solutions at Smart, says a longer window is advantageous for everyone. “The thinking about raising the required minimum distribution age is to give people more flexibility about drawing down their retirement savings,” Reilly says. “It is in everyone’s interest to help retirees make their savings last as long as possible. TIAA research has found that when people start complying with RMDs, few annuitize any of their money. This longer period of time might incentivize people to think about annuities or other decumulation strategies.”

However, Paul Sommerstad, a partner with Cerity Partners, says any change in RMD age really only benefits the wealthiest Americans, as most people who retire need to rely on the money in their workplace retirement accounts. “The majority of Americans need to draw down from qualified assets to maintain their lifestyles because Social Security benefits are inadequate to live on,” Sommerstad says. “It has the biggest impact on the most wealthy, who have other sources of income.”

That said, Sommerstad says increasing the RMD age is a move in the right direction as longevity continues to rise, and, he says, noting that a study by the World Economic Forum found that children born in 2007 have a 50% chance of living to age 104.

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