Latest News
Recapping the Key Social Seurity Changes from 2024
To many, Social Security seems like a stable monolith, something that’s just always there and never changing. But that’s not the case at all. Anyone familiar with Social Security in any depth will tell you about the many, many moving…
2024 Election Cycle Alert: Likely Harris Moves that Could Affect Social Security & Retirement
The keyword is “could” because most of what’s been said about Candidate Harris so far lacks specific content. But, based on comments delivered in various forums, it appears that a Harris presidency pledges to focus on saving Social Security via…
Saving Social Security: Is the “Soveriegn Wealth Fund” Viable?
The idea of creating a sovereign wealth fund to solve the Social Security funding problem surfces from time to time, usually concluding that it’s generally a bad idea given the need to have surplus funds available to seed the creation. In…
A Look Ahead at the Future of Social Security COLAs
With the Federal Reserve’s progress toward reigning in the inflationary spiral of the past few years, coupled with its 2% long-term target for inflation, the 2025 cost-of-living adjustment is likely to be well below the average of the past three…
Trump’s Plan to Eliminate Federal Income Tax on Social Security Benefits Rings Big With Many
Despite its impact on Social Security’s precarious financial position, Presidential candidate Donald Trump struck a positive chord with Wall Street Journal poll participants with this idea. 83% of those polled favored the move–a tax that impacts about half of all…
Highlighting Legislative Inertia on Social Security Reform
The term “inertia” refers to the natural tendency for objects at rest to remain at rest. Thinking about Social Security reform as an “object,” then, implies that action on corrective measures to ward off the catastrophe projected to hit beneficiaries…
Social Security’s Reduced COLA outlook–Thoughts on the “Pro” Side
Most people know that the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) applied to benefits in January has been higher than the program’s historical increase for the past three years, averaging just under 6%. Most people also know that projections for the 2025…
Social Security Reform–A Call for Congressional Action
That’s not a new call, actually. The Social Security trustees have been making that plea for decades via comments accompanying their annual reports to Congress. For example, these comments were outlined in the summary of the 2024 edition: “Lawmakers have…
COLA Watch – How the 2025 Adjustment is Shaping Up
We’re in the closing stages of the calculation window to determine next year’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), and many seniors are looking forward to the final announcement in October. In the run-up to that point, there has been steady…
2024 Election Campaign – Trump Comments from North Carolina
Speaking at a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, former President Donald Trump delivered remarks focused on the key issues taking center stage in this election cycle. He covered several tax issues, including the “no tax on tips” pledge, the…