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Understanding Social Security’s Marital Benefits–An Important Element of Retirement Planning
Social Security can be a complex area, with its thousands of rules, regulations, and options that should be understood to make the best claiming decision for each individual’s situation. While there is the immediate option of spousal benefits and the…
New bill endorses CPI-E as a means to avoid steady loss of seniors’ purchasing power
At last week’s Aging Committee hearing on preserving and protecting Social Security, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) summarized the newly-introduced Boosting Benefits and COLAs for Seniors Act as intending to “help seniors contend with rising costs by changing the way that Social…
Here’s Social Security’s Payment Schedule
Social Security sends out millions of benefit payments all month long and, obviously, payments to all beneficiaries are not made on the same day each month. Fact is, the Social Security Administration has a very specific schedule for who gets…
Social Security Revamps Process for Collection of Overpayments
Much has been reported lately about how overpayment of benefits due to Social Security’s slowness catching errors has created financial hardship for many beneficiaries. Social Security’s newly appointed Commissioner has taken steps to mitigate the issues related to collection of…
Planning for Retirement – Here are some helpful ideas
Retirement planning can be intimidating, especially if you are mid-life looking at the horizon and wondering what you can do to better your chances of comfort in your golden years. But retirement planning is more than simply “crunching the numbers”…
Social Security for Divorced Spouses
“Your ex is worth twice as much dead than alive” proclaims one Social Security pundit, and guess what? That is true. Although there are specific criteria which must be met for a divorced spouse to be eligible for benefits from…
About Medicare Advantage Plans
No doubt about it – many seniors have selected “Medicare Advantage” as their preferred type of healthcare plan. Essentially, Medicare Advantage replaces the federal government’s “original Medicare” with healthcare coverage from a private insurance company. Medicare Advantage plans usually offer…
“SSI” vs. Social Security retirement or “SSDI” benefits
Social Security certainly can be a confusing program, with over 2800 rules codified in over 100,000 SSA website pages. Then add in that the Social Security Administration also administers other assistance programs on behalf of the federal government, and the…
How much will your Social Security benefit be?
The average retiree actually gets a benefit likely much smaller than you think. Many believe that after contributing to Social Security for an entire lifetime, they will be able to retire in financial comfort, but the reality is much less…
Speculation about COLA for 2025
Admittedly, it’s way too early to say with certainty what next year’s Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Social Security will be. COLA is, after all, based on inflation as measured in the 3rd quarter (July – September) of each…