Headlines
Retirement Changes: Health Care, Social Security, and Medicare in 2014
How much do you know about the three largest learning curves that most retirees must face? In dealing with health care costs, Social Security, and Medicare, there are hurdles that can entangle even the savviest retirement-planner, especially when it comes…
Getting a grip on federal budget realities
The big story about the federal budget this week was the Republican Party’s struggle to deal with raising the debt ceiling. Last year’s big budget story was President Barack Obama and the Democrats coming to grips with the so-called sequester,…
Colleges seek to help students with learning disabilities
Endowed with a new freshman’s hunger for independence, Alix Generous thought she could conquer college without seeking help for the learning disabilities she’d dealt with since she was 11. She was wrong. In her first year at the College of…
Understanding Your Tax Forms: The W-2
Each year about this time, mailboxes across America are filled with tax forms. Sometimes, those tax forms go straight to a tax professional, unopened. Other times, taxpayers may dutifully open those forms and type the information, box for box, into…
A ‘very cruel’ Medicare rule is costing seniors dearly
It’s bad enough to be hospitalized. But thousand of seniors across the country are finding their medical problems compounded with financial frustration and large bills because of a Medicare technicality that can cost them dearly.The problem starts when their doctors…
Elder poverty - however you measure it - is not going away
“Without Social Security, nearly half of seniors would be living in poverty,” President Barack Obama said last month, noting the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty. “Today, fewer than one in seven do. Before Medicare, only half of seniors…
Forget Talk On Cutting Social Security, Campaign Wants Benefits Increased
A new campaign to persuade Congress to increase the benefits provided by Social Security was launched last week by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. With most of the Congressional efforts in the last few years being…
Spending retirement funds can be harder than saving…
Q: My husband and I have accumulated a nice chunk of money for retirement. But I think getting the money was the easy part. Now that we are about to retire we need help managing it — knowing when, where,…
Obama’s ‘myRA’ plan is a start, but it won’t save retirement
I’m an advocate for just about anything that will help people save for retirement. These days we are pretty much on our own, so I am hopeful that a new starter savings account will help people jump-start their retirement savings.…
To Your Wealth: Impact of work while collecting Social Security benefits
Has anyone told you that if you work while collecting Social Security retirement benefits, you’ll lose part of your benefits? If you’re like most people who hear this, you’d probably opt not to work. What’s the sense of earning $1,000…