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Americans Defy Warnings, Still Retiring Early
From Congressional hearings, to research studies, to countless media reports, one would think the American worker would be getting the message that most need to stay longer in the workforce before retiring. But that isn’t at all the case, a…
How Social Security funding affects your retirement
The first person to receive a monthly Social Security retirement benefit, Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, earned quite a return on her tax dollars. Fuller paid $24.75 in payroll taxes, which is used to fund Social Security, over three years…
6 Popular Social Security Myths Busted
Most retirement advice focuses on how to save enough money for your later years and how to make the best use of your pension (if you’re lucky enough to have one). For many Americans, however, the most confusing part of…
Why African American, elderly support for aid programs keeps falling
When it comes to economic aid programs, culture trumps self interest more often than we realize. Most politics are about wealth redistribution. Whether you’re debating Medicare and Social Security, or Defense Department expenditures, the question is not just what to pay for,…
Obama says he’s ready to sign fix of Medicare doctor payments, without endorsing legislation
President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he’s ready to sign good bipartisan legislation to fix Medicare’s doctor payment problem, without endorsing any specific legislation. Without a fix, doctors face a 21 percent cut in Medicare fees, the consequence of a 1990s…
Mullin: VA Change Will Help More Oklahoma Veterans
WASHINGTON — A policy change at the Department of Veterans Affairs will allow more veterans in Oklahoma to receive medical care outside of the VA system, Rep. Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday. The department will now allow veterans whose driving distance to…
Social Security: Key Strategies for Protecting Post-Retirement Income
Recent surveys tell us that working during one’s post-career years is the new expectation for most retirees. In a Merrill Lynch/Age Wave poll conducted last year, three in four pre-retirees (workers aged 50 years and up) responded that some element of…
Social Security will barely cover your health costs
If you need a reminder that Medicare covers only a portion of retiree medical expenses, check out this report. Released Wednesday by HealthView Services, Inc., a Danvers, Mass. company that provides retirement health care cost data and tools to financial advisers,…
Congress moving on long-sought legislation to thwart cyberattacks
The House Intelligence Committee introduced bipartisan legislation Tuesday to grant legal immunity to firms that pass cyberthreat data to the government, as lawmakers expressed cautious optimism that there is finally enough support to pass a bill that the president will…
Kennerly: Sharing bad info does none of us any good
A woman I think a lot of forwarded an email she thought I should mention. Full of mystifying math, it’s titled “Who died before they collected Social Security?” It questions what happens to funds paid by people who died before collecting.…