My Comments: The latest budget proposal from the current White House suggests there will be a new effort to partially defund Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. What exactly do they expect to achieve politically from this effort? Those of us already receiving Social Security benefits plus the many millions more who are aging and becoming …
Continue reading 3 Social Security Rules We Can All Agree We Hate
My Comments: Retirement is an increasingly critical topic as more and more of us are closing in on it or are already in transition. The questions are legion: Are we ready for it? Will we have enough money? How safe are our investments? How will we pay our likely medical bills? Will Social Security be …
Continue reading Secrets Of A Successful Retiree: From A Retirement Professional
My Comments: Like so many financial products, annuities come in a variety of forms that have surfaced over the years in attempts to both solve peoples financial problems and to make money for the companies offering them. As you can imagine, the spectrum along which any one of them can be judged is wide, with …
Continue reading The Basic Types of Annuities and How They Work
My Comments: I’ve written about the risks of being alive. Not having enough money in retirement is one of them. This article, featuring comments by Jana Greer, CEO of American International Group, a multinational finance and insurance corporation, can be interpreted as a sales pitch that you may or may not respond to. For me, …
Continue reading Retiring in a down market can mean 2/3 less money for rest of your life…
My Comments: Yes, I’m a registered Democrat and have been since 1963. And, yes, I’m not happy about the growing Federal deficit. Two observations: (1) I’m OK with a deficit if there is bipartisan effort to see it as a potential problem and an effort is made to keep it a reasonable percentage of the …
Continue reading The ‘Yuge’ Republican Lie About the Deficit
Will you be able to pay for healthcare in retirement? If you become physically or mentally disabled, how will you pay the bills to keep you alive? Not being able to pay for health care in retirement is a major existential threat for millions of Americans coming to terms with their pending retirement. If you …
My Comments: My entire professional focus these days is helping people retire. To that end I’ve created two online courses that I’m marketing nationally. This article from nextavenue.org points to one of the channels I’m trying to reach. At the local level, I’m prepared to hold workshops for any organization that sees this as an …
Continue reading Retirement: Most Employers Don’t Have a Clue
My Comments: This is a long and detailed story. But if you care about the national debate about health insurance and whether it’s in our best interest to push toward a system of universal health care, this is interesting. There are basically five stakeholders in the healthcare debate. They are (1) the consumer, (2) the …
Continue reading Why Your Health Insurer Doesn’t Care About Your Big Bills
My Comments: We live where the economic model is capitalism. There is no fundamental economic incentive beyond making money for those who provide goods and services to the general public. From time to time, society has found it appropriate to create transparency or to regulate a level of transparency that effectively mitigates against financial abuse. …
Continue reading Small Fees Can Have A Big Impact On Retirement Accounts
My Comments: As with most Social Security calculations, this one is also prone to misinterpretation and mistakes made. My wife and I are an example. I claimed at my FRA (full retirement age) but my wife, 4 years younger, did not. We’re not sure why that happened but for whatever reason, she elected to file …
Continue reading How Are Spousal Benefits Calculated for Social Security?
Helping Define Your Financial Future 