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The COLA Rollercoaster Ride
The 8.7% COLA (cost of living adjustment) for 2023 becomes effective with your January Social Security payment – a welcome improvement in your monthly income to help offset the highly inflated prices we’ve all been paying for a long time.…
Long-term Home Care Isn’t Covered By Medicare
To be sure, Medicare is a complicated program and one that most American seniors over the age of 65 depend upon for their normal healthcare needs. “Normal healthcare needs” includes most expenses while hospitalized, and also most expenses incurred from…
SS Disability Approvals Now Taking Longer
Applicants for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits were, before the pandemic, typically subjected to about 3 – 4 months wait time before a determination was received on their application. This was unless their disability was related to a condition…
How does Medicare affect your Health Savings Account?
A Health Savings Account (HSA) is a type of savings account that lets you set aside money on a pre-tax basis to pay for qualified medical expenses. By using untaxed dollars in a Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for…
The two extraordinary measures Treasury anticipates implementing
The Department of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen notified Congress that the department would take its “statutory extraordinary measures” and suspend investments in some federal retirement programs. What retirement programs are these? And no, it is not Social Security. To find…
Will the debt ceiling affect your finances?
What is the debt ceiling? The debt ceiling is the maximum amount the federal government is able to borrow to finance obligations that lawmakers and presidents have already approved. What happens if the United States defaults on its debt? U.S…
Early retirement may impact cognitive functioning
A recent study suggests early retirement may accelerate cognitive decline later in life. Plamen Nickolov, assistant professor of economics at Binghamton University, said, “ We find that increased social isolation is strongly linked with faster cognitive decline among the elderly.”…
Washington has some big ideas for how to fix the Social Security problem
The Social Security program was never intended to be the sole source of income for American workers in their retirement. However, according to the Social Security Administration, more than 50% of seniors aged 65 and above rely on Social Security…
Should you claim Social Security at 65?
Full retirement age is when you become eligible for unreduced Social Security retirement benefits. Your full retirement age is determined by the year and month you were born. The retirement age gradually increases by a few months for every birth…
Avoiding stealth taxes
The majority of American workers save for retirement in pre-tax savings vehicles such as 401(k) and IRAs, not understanding the potential costs later in their retirement. What are those costs? Stealth taxes can increase your income tax liability and reduce…