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Should Social Security Raise Its Retirement Age?
Social Security is an essential part of how people make ends meet in retirement. But some business leaders, including the CEOs of AT&T (NYSE: T ) , Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR ) , and several other major corporations, believe raising retirement age would save the program from financial…
Putting Retirement Health Costs in Context
I’m reminded of our conversations when I consider retirement planners’ admonitions to save more for retirement. The median retirement-account balance for people age 55 to 64 is $120,000—far short of Fidelity’s proposed benchmark of eight times final salary, or the…
Medicare and the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
October 1, 2013 is an important day for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as the Health Care Reform Law. This is the day many health insurance changes went into effect, including the ability to enroll through the state…
Seniors on Medicare Not Affected by ‘Obamacare’
Are you eligible for Medicare? Are you unsure what you need to do now that “Obamacare” has taken effect on October 1st, 2013? Many seniors are asking the same question. Now that the new state insurance Exchange has opened, it’s important for…
A disabling fiscal trend
Social Security Disability payments serve a necessary purpose, and the steep rise in Americans on disability raises serious concerns about the program’s sustainability. The number of former workers receiving Social Security disability benefits rose from 5 million in 2000 to 8.8…
Could shutdown lead to Social Security COLA changes?
Fearing that the federal shutdown negotiations could quickly morph into an entitlement reform debate, advocacy groups for Medicare and Social Security are preparing for battle. On Wednesday the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Foundation put out a report…
60 Minutes Piece On Social Security Disability Coming On Sunday
From the newsletter of the Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ): This Sunday evening, October 6, the television news show “60 minutes” will air a story regarding the SSA disability adjudication system. AALJ Vice-President, Marilyn Zahm and I were interviewed for…
Free Social Security Advice for U.S. Veterans
To celebrate Veterans Day, Kiplinger’s Social Security Solutions will offer recommended claiming strategies free to all U.S. military veterans. “The goal,” explains Knight Kiplinger, editor in chief of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine, “is to help bolster the financial security of the men…
Strategy for Social Security’s WEP and GPO
Ask anyone affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision on Social Security benefits, and you’re likely to get an earful and then some. Most, if not all, household’ affected by GPO and WEP hate…
Obama: Social Security Checks Will Stop When Debt Ceiling Is Reached
President Barack Obama said Thursday that while it’s bad members of Congress have allowed a government shutdown, it would be worse if they failed to increase the government’s borrowing authority later this month. First and foremost, he said, retirement and disability…