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Social Security: Ingredients for a comfortable retirement
Succulent turkey, savory stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato and pumpkin pie — every family has its Thanksgiving dinner traditions. With a carefully followed recipe, everyone around the table can enjoy their favorite dishes. If you plan poorly, you will end…
Save for Retirement—or College?
The pressure is intense on both sides. College costs continue to outpace inflation, with the average price for four years of private college now at a terrifying $158,000. Meanwhile, the pressure to build a large nest egg for later life…
Proposed Social Security Cuts Facing Strong Opposition
A poll shows strong opposition among older Americans to most proposals that would cut Social Security benefits. The survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 6 in 10 people age 50 and older oppose changing the…
Finding best way to adjust benefits
That’s a question being debated in Washington, and its answer will affect millions of Americans. Last week the government announced that 58 million Social Security recipients — and others whose pensions and benefits are based on the CPI —…
3 tips for coping with premature retirement
Here’s a slightly startling pair of statistics, courtesy of Encore contributor Glenn Ruffenach: In a recent Gallup survey of currently employed workers, the average age at which people said they expected to retire was 66. But in a simultaneous survey of…
5 Myths Surrounding Social Security
Given the fact that millions of Americans count on Social Security to bolster their retirements, it’s a mystery why so many people have a skewed viewpoint on one of Uncle Sam’s most critical entitlements. Certainly, many Americans are counting on Social Security as…
Let’s make Social Security solvent and sustainable: Editorial
It’s not so hard to figure out how to fix Social Security. Plenty of analysts have arrived at ways to keep the nation’s most successful government program from running short on money in 20 years. Many different combinations of policy…
Social Security-wise, 70 may be new 65
Have you heard that 70 is the new 65? If not, you will. Momentum is growing to get people to think that way before retiring. The notion is being trumpeted in the nation’s capital as a way to ease pressure on…
UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL SECURITY: What ‘Chained CPI’ Is – Why It Hurts
Following the recent government shutdown, Congress agreed to appoint some members to a bipartisan committee in an attempt to find common ground to adopt a budget for the coming year. One proposal we keep hearing about is adopting a “chained CPI”…
Inflation boosts payouts to retired feds, Social Security recipients
Federal retirees, Social Security recipients, military retirees and beneficiaries of several other government programs will receive an increase of 1.5 percent in their benefits in January. The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is based on a figure announced this Wednesday by…