Latest News
Congress Prepares to End Automatic Cuts to Medicare Provider Payments
After successful votes in the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees last week, Congress is on the verge of permanently eliminating the system of Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) cuts to Medicare providers. The Senate and House Committees each passed…
Baby names & getting a SSN for your newborn
Every year near Mother’s Day, the Social Security Administration posts popular baby names for the prior year based on Social Security number (SSN) card applications. If you are expecting a New Year’s baby in the family and still need a name,…
Votes in Washington
Readers have told us they want to know how local and Ohio members of the U.S. House and Senate are voting on major issues. In most Monday editions, we will publish a list of votes. Last week only the Senate…
7 Things You Need To Know About Your Finances If You’re Turning 65
Age 65 is not as special as it used to be. Mandatory retirement has long since vanished for most jobs. Social Security’s Full Retirement Age is gradually rising to 67. Many 65-year-olds pursue active lifestyles that would have seemed fantastic…
5 Ways Other Countries Do 401(k)s Better
If you were to design a retirement program from scratch, you probably wouldn’t create what we have now. The problems with the 401(k), IRA, Social Security “system” — or hodgepodge, if you prefer — are almost too numerous to count. The result of its flaws…
Retirement Planner: For retirees, stick to tried-and-true strategies
At the five-year anniversary of the Bernie Madoff tragedy, major news publications have published interviews with victims regarding how their lives have been altered, in some cases, by losing everything. It brings us to the question of how much money…
Social Security Begins Paying Claims of Same-Sex Families
Social Security has begun processing claims and awarding payments to the surviving spouses of same-sex marriages in what is the latest change made by the federal government to better reflect a post-DOMA legal landscape. “I am pleased to announce that, effective…
Dem predicts smooth debt-ceiling increase
A high-ranking Senate Democrat predicts a smooth debt-ceiling increase in early 2014.Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that Republicans “learned their lesson” with the government shutdown in October and will not play politics with raising the nation’s debt ceiling.Schumer told “Meet…
WorkZone: Broaching retirement
There’s nothing wrong with having a workplace discussion with employees to find out where they see themselves in the organization over the next few years. It’s also a good way of raising the issue of retirement with older workers. But employers…
Military Retirement Cuts: Prelude To Coming Social Security Changes
As someone who is constantly researching retirement, I find the recent funding cuts to military retirees very disheartening. Worse yet, I see this as a move to establish ground zero for the testing of changes to Social Security benefits. On Wednesday,…