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Are you five years out from retirement?
How close are you to retirement? Are you planning to retire in the next five years? If so, you still have time to finalize your retirement plans. You may need to assess your financial situation, create a retirement budget, and,…
Will the 2026 COLA be accurate?
How the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security benefits is calculated is not as straightforward as you may think. First, they only use the data from the third quarter of the year, specifically the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage…
Never Worked? You May Still Be Eligible for a Social Security Benefit.
There are circumstances when someone that never worked may still be eligible for a Social Security benefit. The most common one is a spousal benefit (ex-spousal benefits if married at least 10 years). You can receive a Social Security benefit…
What Medicare does not cover
A recent survey conducted by The Kaiser Family Foundation found that 23 percent of adults under 65 and 45 percent of those aged 65 and older believed that Medicare would cover the cost of time in a nursing home or…
Social Security Increases Repayment Amount on Overpayments
If you find yourself being overpaid by Social Security, you may have to pay it back. These overpayments will start being withheld around July 24, 2025. If you received an overpayment notice issued on April 25, 2025, Social Security will…
Social Security for the Military
Some special circumstances affect Veterans and Military members when they apply for their Social Security benefits. Depending on the years you served in the Military, special additional credits may have been added to your benefit. There are also different standards…
103,000 Medicare Beneficiaries are getting new Medicare numbers
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have notified 103,000 Medicare beneficiaries that their personal information was used to create accounts on Medicare.gov. On May 2, 2025, the Medicare call center began receiving calls from beneficiaries who had received…
Determining the 2026 Cost of Living Adjustment
COLA is determined each year since 1975, when automatic COLA determination began. It is based on the third quarter of the current year compared to the prior year’s third quarter, July, August, and September. The government uses the Consumer Price…
Access to mental health under Medicare
Medicare does not cover all healthcare services for older adults; however, one area of healthcare that is particularly challenging to access under Medicare is mental healthcare. “According to a study in JAMA Health Forum, adults with psychological distress saw a…
July 2025 Social Security Payment Schedule
It’s time for the July 2025 payments to be released. The payments for SSI will be paid on the first of July, and payments that are a combination of SSI and SSDI will be paid on the third of July.…