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The Retirement Savings Conundrum
You’ve no doubt seen many media articles about what is often termed “America’s Retirement Crisis,” a situation where an inordinate number of families are heading into retirement without sufficient financial resources to sustain a comfortable lifestyle. You’ve probably also seen frequent…
Social Security Disability Insurance–Why It’s Important
With statistics that project 25% of American’s age 25 and over eventually finding themselves in need of disability income, it’s critical that everyone have at least a general understanding of the this Social Security component and how it works. The…
The Nuances of Switching from Disability to Retirement Benefits
In response to a question from a disability benefits recipient approaching her automatic transition to retirement benefits, this post on maximizemysocialsecurity.com outlines the mechanics of the process, and explains the recipient’s inability to defer retirement benefits and continue on disability to…
Negative Viewpoints on Changing the Full Retirement Age
In an article on www.huffingtonpost.com, reporter Daniel Marans recaps the whitewater facing former New Mexico governor and two-time Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson as a consequence of his stance on raising Social Security’s full retirement age (FRA). While Johnson’s position would call…
HSAs as a Retirement Funding Vehicle?
Accumulating retirement funds via a Health Savings Account seems to be coming into its own, according to a post on asppa-net.org by contributor John Iekel. Calling HSAs a “well kept secret, Iekel suggests “Though designed in a health plan context, HSAs are quite…
Social Security–Dependence vs. Basic Understanding
As explained in a recent www.msfiology.com post, it’s important that those planning for retirement do not place excessive reliance on Social Security benefits to carry them through their retirement years, After all, it was never designed to completely replace all of…
Retirement Savings: Improvement, but One Area Needs Work
Fidelity reports that there has been a positive swing in the rate of savings among American households, with the level of money going into defined contribution plans increasing about 12% since 2010. and with higher balances and fewer loans from…
More on the Myth of Social Security’s “Stolen” Funds
It’s an untruth that just won’t go away…that through the years, politicians have “raided” Social Security’s trust funds and redeployed workers’ deposited taxes for other purposes. As explained by The Motley Fool’s Sean Williams in a post on helenair.com, the use…
Dealing with Sub-Par COLAs
While the official announcement of 2019’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment grinds toward its official release date, many of the pre-anouncement reports have been giddy about the possibility of a bump inching toward 3%. Not all of these reports have been…
Interested in the “FIRE Movement?” Here are some helpful thoughts.
The “financially independent, retire early” movement, also referred to as FIRE, pops up in the mainstream media from time-to-time, and it seems to be gaining some traction among younger Americans. The movement’s mantra is “with some strong resolve and a few…