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You Could Pay a Higher Medicare Premium
Many beneficiaries, especially new ones, aren’t aware that Medicare Part B is a “means tested” program, which means that if your income is high enough, you will pay more than the standard Part B premium ($170.10 for 2022). This is…
How to Qualify for Social Security Benefits
The fundamentals of Social Security are pretty simple – you contribute to the program from your earnings during your working years, in return for which you get a monthly benefit payment when you retire. Simple, right? Yes, except that there…
“Unretirement” is the New Trend
Whether for financial reasons, or because aging seniors simply want to continue being productive and interactive, a rapidly emerging American phenomenon is retirees returning to the workforce. Some seniors retire from a long professional career only to find they need…
Retirement Planning: Is Your 401(k) Sufficient?
A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement plan which allows you to contribute and invest funds from your current earnings for your future retirement. Often, employers will also contribute a percentage of what you contribute on your own – a great…
Deciding When To Claim Social Security
The most frequently asked question at the AMAC Foundation’s Social Security Advisory Service is “when should I claim my Social Security?” The response is almost always “It depends” because a number of factors should be considered when making that decision,…
Check Your Social Security – Even If You’re Younger
Despite all the doomsday predictions by “armchair experts” about Social Security going bankrupt, the program can’t, and won’t, go bankrupt, although some future changes are definitely needed and will surely be made in the program’s financial structure. Statistically, about 50%…
When You Shouldn’t Wait Until Age 70 to Claim Social Security
If you follow Social Security articles at all, you’re sure to see that most financial advisors will suggest waiting until age 70 to claim your Social Security benefits, and that’s because age 70 is when your SS benefit reaches maximum.…
Some Pre-Retirement Thoughts on Finances and Social Security
Anyone beginning to think seriously about that life phase called “retirement” needs to take a deep breath and focus on some fundamentals, beginning with what happens when the regular paycheck stops. Dealing with this shift in livelihood requires some careful…
COLA Watch, 2023 Edition. An expected announcement date.
The airwaves continued to be pummeled by forecasts of a substantial cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security beneficiaries in January, along with a few that caution against expecting too much. In any event, The Motley Fool’s Sean Williams puts a…
Calculating cash needs in retirement…maybe it’s not as bad as you think?
Here’s something different…an article suggesting that you may be over-preparing for your cash needs in retirement. The thinking is that many of the projections for how much you’ll spend in your later years (80% of your pre-retirement earnings level is…