You might not have thought much about beneficiary designations — but they can play a big role in your estate planning. When you purchase insurance policies and open investment accounts, such as your IRA, you’ll be asked to name a beneficiary, and, in some cases, more than one.

A Memphis native, John R. Ballew taught history for 25 years in the trenches of the Texas public school system. He is a triple master: a Master of Science from Texas A&M University- Corp u s Christi, a master plumber from Te x a s and a master mason. He and his wife have been a couple since they were 11 years old and have six grandchildren.

The Memphis on TNE Red and Hall County would like to invite y’all to come to Turkey on the last weekend of April for Bob Wills Day. Hotel Turkey would like y’all to “stay all night and stay a little longer, and dance all night and dance a little longer.” Y’all can watch “The Bubbles in My Beer”from “Across the Alley from the Alamo,” and sing “Faded Love”all night.

We all hope to remain healthy and independent throughout our lives – but life can be unpredictable. If you were ever to need some type of long-term care, would you be financially prepared? Long-term care encompasses everything from the services of a home health aide to a stay in an assisted living facility to a long residence in a nursing home.

You’ve probably heard stories about fortunate investors who “get in the ground floor” of a new, hot company and quickly make a fortune. But while these things may happen, they are exceedingly rare and often depend on hard-to-duplicate circumstances — and they really don’t represent a viable way of investing for one’s goals.

Editor’s note: Floyd Killough received the following email from a reader of “The Red River Sun” article, “Blanche Groves: From Lillie to China with love,” published Friday, March 29 on the Columns page.

Euphemisms, by any other name, are terms with extra syllables. Sometimes, extra words.

The Carnegie Library was built in 1912. The Memphis Carnegie was one of 30 such institutions scattered across Texas. In 1911, a Scottish-born American philanthropist established the Carnegie Foundation, which supplied $56 million to build 1,700 libraries in the United States.

As I read about the airmen, soldiers and marines from Collingsworth County who were held as prisoners of war, I realized that there were also those in the “ L o r d ’s Army” who were interned or imprisoned.

One of your important sources of retirement income will likely be Social Security — but when should you start taking it? You can start collecting Social Security benefits at 62, but your c hec k s will be conside rably bigger if you wait until your full retirement age, which is likely between 66 and 67. You could even wait until you’re 70, at which point the payments will max out, except for yearly cost-of-living adjustments.