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Retirement Planning During Challenging Times
You’ve done all of the planning for your “golden years.” You’ve got it all laid out and are looking forward a future when you can kick back, take naps in your hammock and catch up on all that reading you’ve put off…
Pandemic Special: Medicare Now Covers “Telehealth” Services
Adjusting quickly and nimbly to how the pandemic has changed the face of healthcare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a major update to Medicare’s coverage of “telehealth” services. That’s really good news for both patients…
What Does Retirement Mean to You?
So, what does your future hold? Full retirement with with leisure choices so plentiful that you have trouble choosing which to enjoy? Continuing to contribute to society through philanthropic or volunteer work? Or, perhaps, finding out what type of work you really…
Trustees’ Report on the Health of Social Security’s Trust Fund
Seemingly lost in the clamor over the COVID-19 pandemic is the news that the Trustees of the Social Security Trust Funds have released their annual report on the financial health of this critically important earned benefit program. Based upon last…
COVID-19 and Your Retirement Savings
Unless you’ve been in a cocoon for the last couple of months, you know that the financial markets have been decimated by the Coronavirus and that your retirement nest egg almost certainly isn’t what it was just a few months…
Getting a Lump Sum Social Security Payment
Using a somewhat obscure Social Security rule it is possible, if you have passed your full retirement age (FRA), to get up to six months of benefits in a retroactive lump sum, which could be attractive to those in need…
Checking the Status of your Stimulus Payment
Somewhat understandably because of the volume of recipients and rapidity of deployment, a degree of confusion exists about who is eligible for a coronavirus stimulus payment, and how and when those payments will be disbursed. Payments starting flowing quickly to those who filed…
Stimulus Payments for Social Security Recipients to Start This Week
Good news from the Internal Revenue Service – stimulus payments will start flowing this week to those on Social Security who did not have current banking information on file with the IRS. The first wave of stimulus payments went to…
401(k) balances sink due to COVID-19 but people are still saving
The wild market swings have taken a toll on retirement savers, with the average 401(k) balance plunging19 percent to $91,000 and the average individual retirement account (IRA) alance also falling by 14 percent to $98,900. According to Fidelity, retirement account balances…
Should you wait to claim your benefits now?
The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic havoc it has caused make it both reasonable and necessary to rethink long-held financial plans. If you are between the ages of 62 and 70 and have not claimed your Social Security benefit, you…