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Boosting Your Monthly Social Security Benefit Payment
Getting the highest benefit payment you’re entitled to is a legitimate goal for seniors in their retirement financial planning, but how do you do that? Well, one of the most obvious steps is to defer claiming benefits as long as…
Inadequacy of COLA in the News Again
January Social Security benefits are underway at this point and, once again, observations of the COLA calculation process and its inadequacy to preserve purchasing power for seniors are surfacing. For example, a post this weekend by The Motley Fool’s Keith…
Arguments For and Against WEP-GPO Repeal Continuing to Surface
As noted in today’s headline post on this site, President Biden’s January 5 signing of the “Social Security Fairness Act” of 2023 into law continues to churn the media airwaves in its aftermath. Here are some examples of what’s surfacing:…
CMS proposes $21B payment increase for Medicare Advantage in 2026
CMS has released a new advanced notice to increase payments to Medicare Advantage plans in 2026. CMS expects to spend $9.2 trillion over the next decade in an “effort to provide access to affordable, high-quality care in Medicare Advantage while…
ACA enrollment surges
As of January 4th, almost 24 million consumers have signed up for the 2025 Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace coverage, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Enrollment figures for 2024 were just over 21 million enrollees.…
Breaking News: Social Security & Medicare aren’t Going Bankrupt!!
In the true sense of the word, neither Social Security nor Medicare is in any danger of going “bankrupt.” However, that doesn’t mean that both programs are not having financial difficulties. Indeed they are, but the worst case scenario is…
A Logistics Nightmare: Implementing the Social Security Fairness Act.
Celebrated by all those affected by the elimination Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO), what’s not talked about is the logistics of implementing this new legislation known as the Social Security Fairness Act. Fact is, bills…
For Federal Retirees affected by WEP and GPO
H.R. 82 – The Social Security Fairness Act – was signed into law earlier this week, eliminating Social Security’s Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). These provisions reduced Social Security benefits for anyone with a “non-covered” pension,…
HSAs account balances are increasing
A recent report on Health Savings Accounts (HSA) found that there had been a 35 percent increase in HSA account balances from 2024 to the beginning of 2025. “HSAs have long been a strategy to help offset the high cost…
When Social Security Isn’t Enough
If you’re like most seniors, your Social Security payment sure isn’t enough to live on and, at best, is likely a just a supplemental piece of your overall retirement income. And with consumer prices inexorably going up, it is harder…