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Bad news is good news, it’s often said in financial markets. But that adage applies mainly if the news is bad enough. Only developments dire enough to elicit an effective response by monetary or fiscal policy makers can be counted as good news for bulls.

April’s employment data, while assuredly worse than expected, failed to come up to the catastrophic standards that would impel the Federal Reserve to institute further monetary stimulus measures — at least not yet. With the U.S. economy merely limping along and the omnipresent risks posed by the European debt crisis, exacerbated by elections in France and Greece over the weekend, investors fled risk assets such as stocks and took refuge in government securities that provide vanishingly low yields.

U.S. Treasuries rallied Friday on news of an anemic 115,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls for April, about two-thirds of the consensus gain forecast by economists, extending the decline of the past month and a half. While equities slid sharply, the 10-year note yield dropped to 1.88%, about 50 basis points, or a half percentage point, below its March peak. Yields had risen sharply then on sentiment the Fed not only would be averse to further stimulus, but might even back away from its stated intent of maintaining its key federal-funds rate target at 0-0.25% through late 2014. That increase in yields effectively has been unwound in the wake of the generally lackluster economic data released since then.

Delving into the jobs report, the weaker-than-expected April payroll gain was offset by revisions that lifted the tally by 53,000. In addition, the unemployment rate actually dipped by 0.1 of a percentage point, to 8.1%, which no informed observer would be deluded into thinking was an indication of an improving labor market. The jobless rate, which is derived by a survey of households separate from the polling of business establishments that provides the payroll numbers, fell because of a 0.2% shrinkage in the labor force. The household survey found fewer people holding down jobs last month (the numerator in the unemployment rate). But because the labor force (the denominator) shrank owing to dropouts among the ranks of job seekers, the jobless rate dipped.

What more can the Fed can do to put folks on payrolls at this point is unclear given interest rates already at historic lows. Meanwhile, on the fiscal front, governments at all levels have been shedding workers steadily while state and local governments face ongoing budget pressures when most begin new fiscal years July 1. Then there’s the widely advertised federal fiscal cliff next Jan. 1, when the Bush tax cuts are due to expire and spending cuts take effect that will slice several percentage points from 2013 gross domestic product — unless Congress acts.

GIVEN THIS MISERABLE STATE OF AFFAIRS, investors are accepting yields that are well below the Fed’s 2% stated inflation target. Not only are real yields negative on the 10-year Treasury, but the five-year note yields just 0.78% and the two-year note yields 0.26%. Meanwhile, the 30-year bond yields just 3.07%.

This isn’t just an American phenomenon. German 10-year bund yields hit a record low of 1.58% Friday ahead of the balloting in France and Greece. And to show what happens in the wake of the bursting of a credit bubble, 10-year Japanese government bonds yield 0.89%.

The U.S. Treasury market is a testament to how lousy things are — and the lack of available policy responses. Nobody buys Treasuries for yield; they buy them in spite of it. Think of them as parking places for your wealth. New Yorkers are resigned to paying 50 bucks or more to park for an evening in Manhattan to make sure their car isn’t towed away or worse. Even if it’s costly in real terms, investors know they’ll get their money back in Treasuries. 

Comments? E-mail: randall.forsyth@barrons.com

By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS

Michael Phillips for The Wall Street Journal

Lance Cpl. Dave Long, who is 20 years old, vaguely recalls hearing something about 9/11 on TV. ‘I was kind of young at the time,’ he says.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Corey Shaffer was in fourth grade at Cutler Ridge Christian Academy in Miami. Because his mother was cafeteria manager, he was at school early and was enjoying a bowl of Lucky Charms when news of the terrorist hijackings flashed on the television screen. He remembers being confused. “I wasn’t sure what it meant,” he said.

It wasn’t until he was in middle school that the significance became clear, when he read about the attacks in his history book. Now he’s 19 years old and a Marine infantryman, fighting in the longest war in his nation’s history.

The conflict in Afghanistan has dragged on so long that the young Americans fighting on the front lines today often have little personal memory of the event that sparked it in the first place. Since the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush has completed two terms and retreated to private life. The World Trade Center is again New York’s tallest building and Osama bin Laden has been dead for almost exactly one year.

The newest wave of troops hitting the Afghan battlefields are 19 or 20 years old, meaning they were roughly between 8 and 10 when al Qaeda crashed planes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. The fourth- and fifth-graders knew something big had happened but were often unable to understand why it mattered until years later. Such a mismatch hasn’t happened since the country was founded, largely because its greatest wars have tended to be brief interludes, not semipermanent features.

Of the 44 men in Lance Cpl. Shaffer’s unit at Combat Outpost Pennsylvania in Afghanistan—3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment—half are 22 years old or younger. Some 20% of the Marine Corps turns over each year, meaning that since Sept. 11 the service has had to find 35,000 or 40,000 new recruits annually, the bulk of them young men fresh out of high school.

Their vague memories of 9/11 have a flip side in Afghanistan, where many, especially in rural areas where television and literacy are both rare, have never heard of the Sept. 11 attacks or their connection to Afghanistan. For them, the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. and allied troops remains a mystery.

The Marines at Combat Outpost Pennsylvania, in the contentious Helmand Province, are charged with rooting out insurgents along the highway that shadows the Helmand River up to the vital Kajaki Dam.

Lance Cpl. Tyler Hopkins of Las Cruces, N.M., was expecting his mother to deliver cupcakes to his fourth-grade classroom on Sept. 11, his ninth birthday. The school was on lockdown so she couldn’t get in.

These days he never celebrates on his actual birth date; it seems inappropriate to him. Last year he flew home and celebrated on Sept. 6, shortly before he went to war. His mom made apple pie.

Lance Cpl. Dave Long, 20, a machine-gunner from Pottstown, Pa., vaguely recalls hearing something about 9/11 on TV. “I was kind of young at the time,” he says. “It didn’t really affect me much.”

Lance Cpl. Graydon Phillips, a 19-year-old rifleman from Ozark, Ala., was in reading class when his teacher got the news. “The Twin Towers have been bombed by terrorists,” he recalls her saying. He wasn’t clear what that meant. But he remembers being scared that terrorists would go after Ozark next.

Third Platoon’s commander, 1st Lt. Gardea Christian, is just 24. But he is practically a generation apart from his youngest troops. He was 13, in Spanish class at St. Thomas More Academy in Magnolia, Del., on Sept. 11. A voice came over the intercom telling the teacher to turn on the television. The students saw the second plane hit. Then they went to the gym and prayed for the victims.

“Since Sept. 11, we’ve had to find 35,000 or 40,000 new recruits annually—most fresh out of high school.”

Parents came to pick up their kids. Stores closed. Some of his fellow students lost family members that day.

“I was angry and I wanted to exact revenge on whoever did it,” Lt. Christian recalls.

Some of his friends talked about getting guns and fighting against someone, in the style of “Red Dawn,” a movie about Colorado high-school students resisting a Soviet-Cuban invasion of the U.S. A week later, Lt. Christian went online to see if he could enlist. He filled out a form and was automatically rejected for being too young. He ended up at the U.S. Naval Academy, class of 2009.

In December, shortly before the battalion shipped out for Afghanistan, Bravo Company commander Brent Jones gathered his 170 men outside the brick headquarters building at Camp Lejeune, N.C. A Jacksonville, N.C., native, the 33-year-old Capt. Jones was waiting for a slot at the Marine Corps officer-candidate school when the planes hit the towers. By the time he took command of Bravo Company, he already had four combat tours under his belt.

“Obviously we’re going to Afghanistan,” he recalls telling his men. “Does everyone understand why?”

“September 11,” someone shouted back.

The captain explained that al Qaeda militants who hijacked the planes had been based in Afghanistan. “Over the course of 10 years, our national objective has been that this country would never be ripe or have the conditions to allow that to happen again,” he recalls telling his company.

Among the captain’s men was Lance Cpl. Brian Richards, a 20-year-old from Woodruff, S.C. His stepmother was home schooling him at the kitchen table when the planes hit. He came from a family with a long military tradition, and he had always wanted to be a Marine.

He signed up as soon as he was old enough, which was only after his father had served two tours in Afghanistan.

Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared May 5, 2012, on page C2 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: When the Troops Were Very Young.

By EMILY GLAZER

The darts beat the readers’ picks in Sunday Journal’s 45th Investment Dartboard Contest—the darts’ first time in the last four contests—thanks to a strong performance from Medco Health Solutions and Equifax.

But the winner of the contest was Harrisburg Patriot-News reader Richard C. Pagel, with his pick of hotel and casino operator Las Vegas Sands. The stock surged more than 50% in the six months ended March 30.

“Investing billions of dollars for gambling resorts in Macau, China and Singapore really paid off as revenues skyrocketed once those resorts opened for business,” says the retired postal worker from Mechanicsburg, Pa. “Even the Vegas strip saw a comeback in gambling revenue starting with the first month of this year.”

Dan Kuhlmann’s pick, specialty coffee maker Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, fared the worst with a 50% drop. The decline was due, in large part, to accounting issues that came to light. “Any signs of red flags will typically crush a stock as we witnessed in the last six months with this one,” says the staffing manager from Golden Valley, Minn., who reads the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

But Mr. Kuhlmann is still hopeful for a comeback if the company is transparent, citing a deal with Starbucks and overall business growth.

As a group, the six readers’ picks gained nearly 6%, compared with a more than 14% jump for the six stocks chosen randomly by darts thrown at stock pages. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 21% over the same period.

The darts have historically beaten the readers, with 27 wins out of 45 contests.

New Reader Selections Include Wal-Mart and Abbott

Here are the new reader picks, and their prices as of the market close March 30, for Sunday Journal’s 47th Investment Dartboard Contest, running through Sept. 30.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT, $61.29): With talk of splitting up this pharmaceutical and medical device company, Michael Keane of Fall River, Mass., is hopeful oncology drugs in the pipeline could fare well. Mr. Keane, an architect, reads the Providence Journal.

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD, $90.69): This restaurant chain will grow as long as there are 18- to 30-year-old males, the target demographic, and sporting events such as Super Bowls and Final Four tournaments, says Henry Stein, a candy company vice president in Plymouth, Minn., who reads the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Genworth Financial (GNW, $8.32): Many industry reports project earnings-per-share growth for this financial security company and it already has strong cash flow, says Suzanne Nakano, a real-estate agent who lives Honolulu and reads the Star Advertiser.

Infinera (INFN, $8.12): This telecommunications technology company could grow due to increasing demand for data transmission as consumers continue to shift from desktops to mobile devices, says John Brice, a farmer based in Junction City, Ore. Mr. Brice reads the Eugene Register Guard.

Magic Software Enterprise (MGIC, $6.42): Dale Whittredge, a heating and air conditioning supervisor from Haverhill, Mass., who reads the Eagle Tribune, says the smartphone software this company makes should be popular since iPhones and Android smartphones are increasingly commonplace.

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, $61.20): If the economy continues to recover, Cape Cod Times reader Dave Hegner expects the giant retailer to improve. The retired special educator from South Dennis, Mass., says consumers will then buy more discretionary items.

And the darts hit…

Medical-products manufacturer Baxter International (BAX, $59.78), oil and gas company Murphy Oil (MUR, $56.27), online restaurant-reservation provider OpenTable (OPEN, $40.47), transportation manufacturer Dana Holding (DAN, $15.50), carrier JetBlue Airways (JBLU, $4.89) and transportation and logistics company Werner Enterprises (WERN, $24.86).

Veronica Dagher’s Picks

Sunday Journal contributor Veronica Dagher is trying her hand at the contest. Here are her picks:

Apple (AAPL, $599.55): A constant innovator with still plenty of market share to capture among U.S. smartphone  users and plenty of room to grow in emerging markets.

Caterpillar (CAT, $106.52): The company recently reported a record backlog and its investments in mining products in emerging markets are savvy moves.

Chevron (CVX, $107.21): The oil company sports a nice dividend. And if your crystal ball is showing higher energy prices heading into the summer months, this could be a good name.

EMC (EMC, $29.88): A data storage powerhouse with plenty of room to grow in markets such as Asia. Not to mention, corporate IT spending this year could be better than some analysts initially expected.

Intel (INTC, $28.12): Demand for servers in emerging markets and for chips for mobile phones are potential growth drivers.

3M (MMM, $89.21): The conglomerate has a consistent dividend, a diversified revenue stream and steady growth.

Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com

By ANGUS LOTEN

The definition of what constitutes a small business is expanding, but not in the way that some business owners might like.

U.S. lawmakers, banks and the Small Business Administration recently have expanded the scope of what they commonly consider small.

Last month, the SBA redefined small architectural firms as those with less than $7 million in revenue, from $4.5 million. The SBA has made similar upward revisions over the last year in 130 industries, adding at least 27,400 new companies to its definition of a small business. Many of the definitions hadn’t been adjusted since the 1980s despite inflation over that time.

Another change is buried in the JOBS Act, which Congress passed last month to expand startups’ access to capital. The bill, expected to be signed into law on Thursday, would raise the number of investors that private companies can have to 2,000, from 500, before they are required to register shares with Securities and Exchange Commission.

Supporters say the bill’s goal is to make it easier for start-ups to raise capital so they can expand more quickly. It would create a category of “emerging growth companies” that would be exempt from rules governing large publicly traded companies for up to five years after an initial public offering. Businesses with less than $1 billion in gross revenue could avoid, for instance, having to disclose executive compensation.

“Yesterday’s medium is today’s small,” Joseph Grundfest, a Stanford University law professor and a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, says of the emerging new definitions. He supports increasing the private shareholder limit, because he believes it will prevent businesses, like Facebook Inc., from being forced to go public prematurely.

Some banks are reshuffling some firms in their small-business category. Bank of America Corp.,

a major lender based in Charlotte, N.C., in October combined several million small-business clients under its consumer banking group—the biggest of which had less than $5 million in annual revenue—with just the smallest clients in its global commercial banking, which handles companies with $5 million or more in annual revenue. The move created a single group the bank considers “small business” and includes start-ups to firms with up to $5 million in annual revenue.

The change was strictly administrative and has no bearing on the bank’s reported small-business lending data, which includes commercial borrowers with less than $20 million in annual revenue, according to a spokesman. Last year, Bank of America said it loaned $6.4 billion to these small businesses, a 20% increase over 2010.

The SBA says that because of its own revisions, thousands of companies formerly listed as “other than small” are now “small” business. It also has suggested proposed upward revisions to waste management; information; real estate, and rental and leasing, among other industries.

For Russell Davidson, the president of a 20-person Mount Kisco, N.Y., architectural firm, one upshot is this: The competition just got a lot bigger. Because of the SBA’s new size standards, which determine a company’s eligibility for federal set asides for small firms, his company now vies for contracts against competitors as much as twice its size, he says.

“We’ve lost work to larger firms and like any small business, small architectural firms need a boost these days,” says Mr. Davidson, whose 15-year-old firm receives up to 70 federal contracts every year, mostly for renovations to U.S. Postal Service buildings. The contracts range from $10,000 to $500,000, he says.

Despite the added competition, Mr. Davidson says he tries to look at the bright side. Federal officials initially had proposed raising the size standards for architectural firms to $19 million. “That would have been a real disaster,” he says.

“This is going to eliminate smaller firms trying to get government work,” adds John Woods, the founder of Woods Peacock Engineering Consultants in Alexandria, Va. Size standards on engineering firms were increased from $4.5 million to $14 million. Mr. Woods’s firm recently completed a five-year $5 million contract with the U.S. Navy that included 65 projects, from upgrades to the Naval Academy to repairs on the Walter Reed Medical Center. It also worked for the State Department on renovations to U.S. embassies and consulates overseas, he says.

“The rules on who is small are extremely important,” says William Spriggs, a federal contracting consultant based in Sumerduck, Va. For instance, small businesses are given preference for 23% of federal contracts—or roughly $30 billion at the prime contract level—though government agencies have persistently fallen short of that target.

“A lot is riding on whether a business can maintain a position as small,” Mr. Spriggs says.

Write to Angus Loten at angus.loten@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared April 5, 2012, on page B4 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: New Measures Resize Definition of Small.

By MARY PILON

This summer, droves of school-age children will attend summer camp, where they will paddle canoes, play tennis and make crafts from paste and yarn. Others, will go to finance camp, where they will take excursions to a local bank or delve into budgeting and investing simulations. Rather than singing around the campfire, they will chant personal-finance mantras like these sung at Camp Millionaire in Santa Barbara, Calif.: “Financial freedom is your choice” and “Assets feed you, liabilities eat you.”

Ed Koren

In the past, business and finance camps attracted high-achieving high-school students. Now, with the country’s uncertain economy, financial education is expanding to an unlikely audience — younger kids, even grade-school students. They are also reaching out to those from diverse economic backgrounds. And the lessons are surprisingly sophisticated, teaching campers how to rebalance portfolios, invest in real estate and use credit cards without getting dinged on fees.

At Camp Millionaire, campers in five days create a minieconomy based around “moola” — mock currency that features a cow’s portrait — which kids use to spend, invest in stocks and compete with each other. They also use the fake currency to pay their “bills,” running around and depositing moola in large envelopes with labels like “phone bill” and “credit card bill.” Parents spend the real moola to send their kids to the weeklong session, which ranges from $279 to $300. Scholarships are available, based on financial need.

“Adults underestimate kids’ abilities. Investing — they’ll get it and be interested in it,” says counselor Pamela Capalad.

Andrew Adams, of Santa Barbara, attended the camp twice, once when he was 10 years old and again two years later. “He was coming home with words like ‘adversely affect your credit score,’ ” says his mother, Denice Adams.

Andrew pointed out to his mother that her credit-card billing cycle had changed, and that she wasn’t keeping up with payments. Her delays were racking up late fees, jacking up her interest rate and hurting her credit score. After considering her non-discretionary household expenses (his words), Andrew also pronounced that the mortgage on their Santa Barbara home was too high for her income. Now 15 years old, Andrew has launched his own small travel business and is a financial-news junkie.

Gauging Risk

At YoungBiz’s Smart Start to Money Camp in Sarasota, Fla., campers ages 13 to 18 are asked to toss a ball into a bucket, earning more points the farther away they stand. It aims to teach kids about risk tolerance and lead them into a discussion about stocks and asset allocation. How far away from the bucket they’re willing to stand might tell them something about their investing style.

Bonding Over Banking

Girls only? Read about finance camps for girls, and join a discussion on WSJ.com’s Front Lines.

Campers pay $100 to $300 for the three-day session, in which they form teams and compete to create the best portfolio. In 2001, during one of the first camps, one camper pleaded with his teammates to buy stock in a then-risky company, eBay

. His peers lobbied for safer bets, like utility companies. After a fiery debate, the team passed on eBay but agreed on an alternative stock allocation. They won the competition because counselors were so impressed with their cooperation.

Camp Challenge, a joint effort between the North Carolina Bankers Association and 4-H, mixes financial education in the morning with traditional activities, such as horseback riding or swimming, in the afternoon. For $350, kids 10 to 14 years old learn the basics of everyday finance using the FDIC’s Money Smart curriculum.

Robin Diamond

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke with campers from Camp Challenge.

Camp Challenge is also part of the America’s Promise Alliance, a business and nonprofit cooperative that works to reach students at risk of drug abuse or dropping out, for example. The weeklong overnight camp in Westfield, N.C., has drawn the attention of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who have been known to mingle with campers when they’re in the area.

In Denver, the Young Americans Center for Financial Education takes a macroeconomic approach to financial education.

Creating a Ghost Town

In weeklong sessions that cost $185, fourth- and fifth-graders take part in large-scale simulations of the economy of a small town. Campers apply for jobs. They create business plans for 17 different businesses, patronize others along Main Street and even buy health insurance. (It costs two AmeriDollars.) One year, the counselors had a camp of savers, and AmeriTowne turned into a ghost town when the kids refused to spend any money. The incident sparked a fruitful discussion about free enterprise. Counselors asked campers to imagine what would happen to AmeriTowne’s Main Street if no one spent any money in the long term. The grim consequences of an inactive economy soon became apparent, especially when they realized that they, too, were business owners.

Global Economics

The fifth- and sixth-graders take the minitown approach and bump it up a notch to the International Towne. It is like a model United Nations with a robust focus on trade, currencies and deficits. They’re thrown questions about environmental protection and sustainability. When counselors asked campers to write down how they would cope with limited water resources on the planet, they ran out of paper.

“They really run the world at the end of the week,” former banker C.J. Juleff, vice president of programming for the camp, said.

Write to Mary Pilon at mary.pilon@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D1

ASK NEXT | By KAREN DAMATO

My wife reaches full retirement age for Social Security this month. She doesn’t have her own earnings record. I will reach full retirement age in October, but plan to wait to start drawing benefits until I retire in a few years.

As I understand it, my wife’s benefit will not increase by waiting past her full retirement age, so she should file as soon as she can. I also understand that I can apply for benefits but request to have my payments suspended until I retire. Can we do this this month, or must we wait until October?

GEORGE BAUERNFEIND

Louisville, Ky.

Mark your calendar for the fall.

You and your wife are good candidates for this “claim and suspend” strategy. By claiming your Social Security benefit, you make it possible for your wife to begin collecting her spousal benefit.

Then, by suspending, you’ll earn “delayed retirement credits” that will increase your eventual benefit by about 8% for each year you delay, until age 70. Waiting to collect also increases the survivor benefit for your wife if you predecease her.

You’ll have to wait until October to act because you must be at your full retirement age to suspend your benefit. For more on suspending benefits, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/retire2/suspend.htm.

***

I have a contributory individual retirement account and a Simple IRA. My wife has a contributory IRA, a Simple IRA and a SEP IRA. Can we combine these into one for each of us to simplify?

I am 66, and my wife will soon turn 65. She still works; I am retired. Additionally, we each have an unused health savings account. (With the closing of our business, she took a job with health benefits.) Can these be converted into an IRA? Because of their small size (about $12,000 each), it is difficult to invest them rationally.

AL WELCH

Rockwall, Texas

Your wife can shift her SEP IRA into a regular contributory IRA. And for both of you, if more than two years have elapsed since you began participating in an employer’s Simple IRA plan, you can move those dollars into a standard IRA by a tax-free trustee-to-trustee transfer.

Consolidating accounts will make it easier to invest with a coherent strategy, says Ken Hevert, a Fidelity Investments vice president for personal retirement products. And once you reach 70½, he says, “it will allow you to do a much better job of managing your required minimum distributions.”

On the HSAs, meanwhile, there is no provision to transfer the dollars into an IRA. It probably makes the most sense to gradually deplete those accounts with tax-free withdrawals to pay for or reimburse you for qualified medical expenses.

Those charges would include medical expenses not reimbursed by your wife’s plan, as well as Medicare premiums—but not premiums for Medicare-supplement, or Medigap, coverage. Premiums for long-term-care insurance also qualify, up to certain dollar limits. See Internal Revenue Service Publication 969 for more on HSAs.

***

It is my understanding that a person 70½ or older in 2011 was allowed to make a withdrawal directly from an IRA account and donate it to a charitable organization and the withdrawal would not be taxable but the person would not get a charitable deduction. The withdrawal would count toward the person’s required minimum distribution.

Does this law remain in effect for 2012?

JOE SHAMBLEY

Winterville, N.C.

No, it doesn’t, as of now. But there’s a decent chance the provision you refer to, which expired at the end of last year, will be revived later in 2012, maybe retroactive to Jan. 1. That’s what happened in 2010, with Congress not acting until December of that year.

The uncertainty complicates life for some older taxpayers. The gifting option, available for up to $100,000 a year, has applied only to transfers made directly from an IRA to charities. So if you are hoping to make charitable transfers in lieu of taking distributions in cash, you shouldn’t go ahead and pull out money.

You may want to simply wait and see what happens in Washington, probably after the November election. Another option, if you would make the donation regardless of this tax break, is to go ahead now and have your IRA custodian transfer money to the charity. That should qualify if the gifting rule is revived retroactive to January. The worst case, if the law isn’t extended: You’ll have a taxable IRA withdrawal and a tax-deductible charitable gift.

Next welcomes your questions at next@wsj.com. Ms. Damato is a Wall Street Journal news editor in South Brunswick, N.J.

A version of this article appeared April 9, 2012, on page R6 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Claiming Spousal Benefits.