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Poll: What Seniors Want to Supplement Their Social Security Income
A Wells Fargo/Gallup poll conducted in November concluded that U.S. investors “strongly agree that it’s important to have a guaranteed income stream in retirement to supplement Social Security.” Coincidentally, the poll also indicated that only about a quarter of those surveyed…
Retirement Savings: Where is the money?
Despite repeated media accounts of Americans’ inability to save for retirement, the Investment Company Institute reports that the value of funds held in the U.S. retirement market increased by a trillion dollars during the second half of 2017. The total valuation of…
The Taxability of Child’s Benefits
Survivor benefits for children are generally not taxable, since it’s doubtful a child’s total income would rise above the limits set by the IRS, and since taxability is determined based on the person actually receiving the benefits. The rules are…
Spousal Benefits…Clearing Up Some Issues
Forbes contributor and professor of economics at Boston University, Larry Kotlikoff, provides an analysis of a variety of issues assoc iated with spousal benefits in a post today onwww.forbes.com. His comments address primarily “file and suspend” and “restricted applications,” and can be…
Understanding SSDI – A Primer
Journalist Mark Miller, Reuters columnist and Morningstar contributor, provides an overview of the details associated with Social Security’s Disability Insurance provisions. Noting that about 14% of Social Security’s 61 million beneficiaries are in fact SSDI recipients, Millet outlines how the program works and…
Your Medicare Card: The Social Security Number is Gone, but…
Removal of Social Security numbers from Medicare identification cards is perhaps a step in the right direction, but the financial advisory community is supplementing this changeover with warnings that folks need to be aware of. Ranging from telephone calls that…
The Impact of Claiming Strategies–Understanding the Basics
In a post today on www.fool.com, columnist Christy Bieber examines three basic claiming strategies that, if not undertaken with full understanding of the consequences, could have long term and undesirable consequences. They include claiming too early, not having a hefty enough…
An Analysis of the Social Security/Medicare Dilemma
Citing dire projections (“Through 2050, the Social Security trustees estimate that the number of seniors will rise from 48 million to 86 million. The Congressional Budget Office projects that, as a result, by 2047 Social Security and the major federal…
Considering a Reverse Mortgage as Part of Your Social Security Strategy? Read this.
Some scheming financial operations promote the use of reverse mortgages as a strategy to defer Social Security benefits, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau cautions against this. An article posted today on www.bankrate.com explains he concern, and also covers other ploys that need…
What Happened to the $1 Million Benchmark?
There was a time when a plan to accumulate a million dollars for one’s retirement seemed like the model for retirement security. That was then, this is now suggests MSN.com’s Jessica Dickler. Her projection is that attaining this level of cash-oh-hand gives…