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Athens (GA) Library Hosting Financial Planning Lecture
Athens Clarke Library is offering free, financial planning on Social Security benefits. The library will host “Social Security Planning: How to Maximize Your Benefits,” at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday, August 27th. Chuck Vickery of Vickery Financial Services will be the featured…
Is the U.S. national debt higher than we thought?
The fiscal state of the U.S. generally focuses on the $1 trillion budget deficit and the $16 trillion national debt. But this number doesn’t take into consideration the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The above graph, compiled by…
Faith in Social Security continues slide
Younger generations have written off Social Security as a means of funding retirement, but those 65 and older continue to rely on it as a major share of their retirement income, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2013 Retirement Confidence…
Some seniors may get to keep paper Social Security checks
WASHINGTON — Seniors who were threatened with the loss of their benefits if they did not trade in their paper checks for Social Security benefits paid through a debit card or electronic deposit may be getting a reprieve. The Treasury Department…
5TH DISTRICT RACE: Local 12 Plumbers and Gasfitters Endorse Karen Spilka
Medford — The Plumbers and Gasfitters Local 12 has endorsed Karen Spilka for Congress in Massachusetts’ Fifth District. Spilka now has the support of 27 labor organizations for her congressional bid. “Karen stands up for working families. We trust her to go to…
The Choice Congress Won’t Face Up To
Much of what is commonly being said about the federal budget — including the causes of the mismatch of revenues and expenditures and the options we have for resolving that imbalance — is either mischaracterization or flatly wrong. When you…
California Economist Says Real US Debt $70 Trillion
In a recent paper I examined off-balance-sheet liabilities of the U.S. federal government. I concluded that these came to $70 trillion as of 2012, or 6 times the size of net federal debt held by the public. These off-balance-sheet liabilities take the…
The Choice Congress Won’t Face Up To
Much of what is commonly being said about the federal budget — including the causes mismatched revenues and expenditures and the options we have for resolving that imbalance — is either mischaracterization or flatly wrong. When you slice through all…
Social Security is Going to Need Social Security
Currently, the issue hurting the Social Security fund is the 2008-2009 recession. During that time period the US went through a structural change of employment that decimated the full time workforce. Only full-time workers pay enough in payroll taxes to…
The Senior Citizens League Warns Chained CPI Affects More Than …
Most seniors are aware of the consumer price index (CPI) impact on cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). But a widely-debated deficit reduction proposal that switches to the more slowly-growing “chained” CPI to determine COLAs would have far greater impact than Social Security…