Latest News
Social Security Administration again says “beware of scammers”
For the 4th time this year, the Social Security Administration has found it necessary to issue a warning to the American public about schemes meant to lure you into revealing your Social Security or Medicare information or even trying to directly relieve…
An alternative investment strategy: Investing for total return
Looking at two fundamentally different investment strategies to fund your retirement can be perplexing, but changes in economic realities make a closer look a worthwhile effort. The “old way”, investing for income while protecting your principal, worked okay when interest…
Keeping your “golden years” golden
About the last thing that any self-respecting senior citizen would want is for their retirement to turn from their “golden years” to a life filled with a shortage of money, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and sacrificing some of life’s…
What’s your personal information worth on the black market?
We’ve all heard of the many instances of hacking of consumer data bases, the most notorious of which was the Equifax breach which saw information on over 145 million consumers compromised. But aside from instilling fears of identity theft, have…
Doing a retirement plan without Social Security
Sure, if you work and earn money, at some point you’re going to start thinking about your retirement and spend some time planning what kind of income you might need. That’s a good thing. But even though you may know…
“Fixing” Social Security – yet another perspective
There’s certainly no shortage of so-called “experts” who have an opinion on how to fix Social Security’s looming financial issues. As you may know, for the first time in decades Social Security will need to dip into its $2.9 trillion…
Social Security Disability’s Compassionate Allowance list expanded
Many disabled workers applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits may not be aware that the Social Security Administration uses a list of medical conditions which qualify for “Compassionate Allowance” status, meaning that applicants with those conditions will be…
A guide to estimating your Social Security benefit
While there’s no way to know exactly what your Social Security benefit will be until you actually apply for it, you can at least estimate how much your monthly payment might be. Although your base benefit is computed using the…
When it comes to Social Security, one size doesn’t fit all
Few could argue that Social Security isn’t America’s most important benefit program. The fact is that about a third of all recipients depend on their monthly benefit check for 90% or more of their retirement income, and that more than…
Social Security’s major milestone, coming in 2019
Perhaps except for Medicare, Social Security is the quintessential benefit program available to America’s senior citizens. With over 62 million people relying on the program as an important part of their monthly retirement income, few would argue that the program…