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Tips on dealing with the Social Security Administration
The workings of the U.S. Social Security Administration can be clouded by jargon and bureaucracy. Check these sites for answers to big questions and how to deal with those bureaucrats. • The retirement “estimator” at Social Security’s SSA.gov site will give…
Seniors facing retirement amid savings crisis
Over the years, Beverly Beiderbeck and her husband, Edward, put away what money they could. When Nabisco was bought out, they rolled Edward’s company retirement savings into an individual retirement account. In the last 10 years of Edward’s life, as his…
Social Security column for March 30
The World Health Organization held the first World Health Assembly in 1948, and, beginning in 1950, every year on April 7 the world comes together to observe World Health Day. Each year, World Health Day focuses on a particular subject…
Retirees headed for rough times
Fifty years ago, Americans could count on a three-legged stool to rest upon in retirement: Social Security payments, a solid pension and the savings they had accumulated during a lifetime of work. Today’s American retirees are about to land on…
10 things you need to know about Monday’s federal health insurance sign-up deadline
Here are 10 things you need to know about Monday’s Health Insurance Marketplace deadline: 1. It’s only sort of a deadline. Anyone who has started the registration process online or by phone, but isn’t able to finish by March 31,…
Eyeing disability backlog, GOP rep. pushes VA accountability
Citing a backlog of disability claims that leaves many disabled veterans waiting months to receive their benefits, Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., slammed the Department of Veterans Affairs for mismanagement Saturday, saying the VA has “become the epitome of bureaucracy run…
An Aid Program Too Often Neglected
When Telma Lopez could earn a modest living cleaning houses, she got along without food stamps. But now that she’s 64, suffers from chronic back pain and relies on Social Security disability benefits, “everything is too much money at the…
Disability monitoring websites show autism prevalence in children
Among the Autism and Developmental Disabilities monitoring sites, the overall prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder is one in every 68 8-year-old children for 2010. Overall ASD prevalence varied among sites from 5.7 to 21.9 per 1,000 children aged 8 years.21.9…
Think Your Retirement Health Care Costs Will Be Under Six Figures? Think Again
My grandmother always told me that if you have your health, you have everything. She was right. In fact, if you do have your health, you’ll have a better chance of being wealthy in retirement. According to a new study by…
The Mary Poppins Tax
When you employ someone to work in your home, such as a nanny or a housekeeper, you are required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on their wages. What I call the Mary Poppins Tax. If you hired the worker and pay…