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How Some of Your Decisions Can Have a Negative Effect on Your Social Security Benefits
The Motley Fool’s Maurie Backman, in a post on www.fool.com, takes a look at three unfortunate ways actions on your part could reduce the value of your earned Social Security benefits. From having zero earning years in your record to procrastinating…
Social Security Scam Alert…Again!
Here’s another one…this time affecting Dubuque, Iowa residents (but likely to surface anywhere in the country). Dubuque Telegraph Herald’s editorial staff provides a recap of the scam in a post on their website. Check it out here… Notice: The link provided…
Getting a lump sum payment after suspending benefits
In his regular Forbes column about Social Security, Laurence Kotlikoff answers a reader’s question about whether he can receive a lump sum payout back to his full retirement age if he has suspended his benefits. As with so many Social Security…
Social Security Disability: How to make your claim
Statistically, about 1 in 5 workers will end up needing assistance due to a disability, and it may be comforting to know that part of the FICA tax you pay from each paycheck acts as a premium for Social Security Disability…
About Social Security’s accuracy rate
It should be no surprise that in a benefit program as massive as Social Security, there are a certain amount of errors. Of course the program tries to keep those errors as few as possible because in addition to the…
Getting a new Social Security card
Many parents get a Social Security number and card for their children while they are very young, even as an infant. And that’s a good thing, because the one’s Social Security Number (or “SSN”) will be needed for many things in life, including…
Data breach at Healthcare.gov
There seems to be no end to the ongoing security breaches by cyber-criminals these days, and the Government’s own Healthcare Marketplace electronic files are the latest victims. It seems that personal data of over 75,000 individuals, including names, birthdates, addresses, and…
Getting the most you can from Social Security
So who wouldn’t like a little bigger Social Security benefit? Of course, the answer is “no one”, but the key is that you need to understand how Social Security works before deciding to claim benefits, and also know which states…
Retirement planning: Live for today, but plan for tomorrow
Continuing advances in medical science are constantly moving longevity forward, and this is certainly a blessing. But it’s a blessing that can create substantial risk to your retirement, unless you have a solid retirement plan which will sustain you in…
Don’t let election results alter your retirement planning
While the mid-term elections turned out well – or not so well – depending upon your personal view, the reality is that politics and the emotions which often surround it shouldn’t affect how you plan your retirement. Changing your investment strategies…