My Comments: My experience with our health care system comes from two sources. The first one is my 43 years as a licensed insurance agent. I saw health insurance premiums increase roughly 10% every year. The health insurance premium increases were largely a result of ever increasing costs, driven by the hospital industry, the pharmaceutical …
Continue reading 70% of Americans say our health care system is in a “state of crisis”
My Comments: I feel very fortunate in that I have few regrets after 77 years of life on this planet. Which is good since I can’t go back and do things differently. I suspect that’s why my entire focus today is what I can get done today and perhaps influence the future. I have no …
Continue reading This Is What Retirees Would Do Differently If They Could Go Back in Time
My Comments: This was clearly written by someone not yet fully versed in the subject. He’s young with expertise in picking stocks for future gain. Unfortunately, this is typical of what a reader finds when searching for ideas about their retirement and how to make critical financial decisions. There are far more than 3 questions …
Continue reading 3 Things That Affect When You Should Apply for Social Security
My Comments: There are some well known market pundits out there whose advice can be taken seriously. But not always. We know historically stocks outperform most other kinds of traditional investments over time. That if you are accumulating money to use in the future, and that future is a few decades down the road, then …
My Comments: This comes from the Washington Post which you will agree is not a right wing publication. Almost every day there is a statement or observation that runs 180 degrees from what I’ve learned over the past five decades in business. It’s frightening to me to realize we are going backwards as a nation …
Continue reading Trump’s ‘America First’ means Americans lose
My Comments: For those of us who preach retirement planning, much of this is old hat. But for those of you just starting to get serious about thinking retirement, these are all valid concerns. But before you rush out and spend money, you need to better understand how you want your life to play out. …
My Comments: readers of my posts know that I’m a progressive, whatever that actually means. As an economist, I choose to call myself a social capitalist, in that I strongly believe unfettered capitalism is as dangerous and corruptive as communism. This is written before trump appears on national television to tell us why his wall …
Continue reading The Coming Bankruptcy of the American Empire
My Comments: Social Security was created in 1935. Apart from one in 1939, since 1950, there have been 30 Amendments across the years. The one I best remember happened in 1983 when the Full Retirement Age changed from 65 up to age 67. Additionally, the income percentage that we paid (FICA), along with the upper …
My Comments: We know for a fact that very little in life is free. And that’s certainly the case with annuities. Add to that they’re hard to understand, and are often sold for reasons that are not always in the best interest of the buyer. None of that, however, means you shouldn’t consider annuities when …
Continue reading Equity-Indexed Annuities As a Retirement Strategy
My Comments: Yesterday, I posted Part I of a three part series from the staff of Fortune magazine. I was struck by it’s relevance in today’s America in terms of it’s expose of where we are as a nation, both politically and economically. In my opinion we have roughly two years to figure out whether …
Continue reading The Shrinking Middle Class: How We Got Here, And Why
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