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It’s Medicare open enrollment time
Before reviewing options for next year’s Medicare coverage, it’s important to understand how Medicare fits with the Affordable Care Act often called Obamcare. With all the media attention focused on shoppers in the individual market and their troubles navigating the…
Social Security as a Civil Right
Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. argued that the isolation experienced by people of color living “on a lonely island of poverty” is unjust in a nation blessed with a “vast ocean of material prosperity.” Fifty years later, the…
Public employees pay into Social Security
I respond to the Saturday letter “Public-pension folks escape duty to subsidize the poor” from Sam A. Chickerella Jr. He said he has been a financial planner for 30 years, and that “Only the public employees have pensions, and none…
Federal Compensation Cuts Could Save Billions
The government could save almost $280 billion during the next decade by paring the size of the federal workforce, spending less on federal pay raises and pensions, and adopting a more conservative inflation gauge to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for civilian…
Five things we learned in our post-Doma finance chat
The supreme court’s decision to strike down part of the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma) earlier this summer means that federal government agencies – including the IRS, the Department of Labor and the Social Security Administration – will recognize same-sex…
4 Keys to Scrutinizing Medicare Advantage Cuts
Ominous warnings about Medicare Advantage plans have sounded for more than a year. Health insurers say federal funding cuts to these privately run versions of Medicare will force them to whack plan benefits, hike premiums or leave some geographic markets entirely…
House GOP pushes distractions over policy
At the start of every Congress, the leadership of both chambers generally set aside bill numbers as a way of designating their biggest priorities. The House Republican majority, for example, will set aside H.R. 1 through H.R. 10 for their…
Ahead of the Bell: US Budget Deficit
The Treasury Department reports the U.S.budget deficit for October. The report was released at 2 p.m. EST. DECLINING DEFICIT: The deficit fell in the budget year that ended Sept. 30 to $680.3 billion. It was the first time in five years that the…
The biggest retirement planning mistake
When it comes to retirement planning, the biggest mistake you can make is doing nothing. Not spending any time learning how much retirement income you might receive from Social Security. Not determining how much you should save to make your retirement years…
Principles for the Budget Conference
For the first time in years, lawmakers have agreed to convene in a budget conference to reconcile differences between their respective budget proposals, as presented by House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan (R–WI) and Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray…