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Retiring with no savings? Here are some locations you can look at.
As the popular media continually points out, there is a fairly large percentage of the population close to retirement with only Social Security as their main (in some cases, sole) income source. Money Magazine’s Aaron Crowe takes a look at some location options,…
How Much Has Medicare Spent on the EpiPen Since 2007?
(By Juiette Cubanski, Tricia Neuman, and Anthony Damico for Kaiser Family Foundation) The latest example of high and rising prescription drug prices to attract significant media and public attention relates to the EpiPen, an auto-injector containing the drug epinephrine which…
The Housing Market and Retirees
Many are entering retirement owing a huge amount of debt on their homes. This could result in dire financial straits for retirees, and could cause the loss of a home. In fact, housing debt for retirees is rising faster than the…
Competition in Medicare Advantage, Part D, and “Extra Help”:
(By Grace-Marie Turner for Galen Institute) Seniors are beginning to get fliers in the mail alerting them to the upcoming open season for enrollment in Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Both programs rely on competition and…
Medicare Advantage Plan Switching: Exception or Norm?
(By Gretchen Jacobson, Tricia Neuman and Anthony Damico for Kaiser Family Foundation) About one in ten Medicare Advantage plan enrollees (11 percent) in 2013 voluntarily switched to another plan in 2014 (Figure 1). Another two percent of enrollees voluntarily switched…
The Social Security “Do-Over”–Understanding the way it Works
One of the more common misconceptions is that you can change your mind after filing for Social Security benefits, repaying the money and then waiting till a later date to re-start. Like many things in life, this is true, but…
Social Security’s Death Master File Hits the News Again
With about 9,000 Social Security recipients mistakenly classified as deceased each year, it’s a more frequent problem than many realize. In this account of what happens when a beneficiary’s financial accounts are accessed after a mistaken classification, you can get…
Preparing for Retirement Years Takes Careful Financial Planning
Narrative Television Network’s Jim Stovall, in an article published on www.tulsaworld.com, provides some insights into the importance of careful, fact-based financial planning for your retirement years. As his article points out, “Living a longer life presents many exciting opportunities and a…
More thoughts on when to file for benefits…
NerdWallet’s Blake Fambrough takes a look at the persistent question of when to start drawing Social Security benefits..age 62, age 70, or somewhere in between. As in all analyses of this issue, it comes down to the fact that there is…
Viewpoints on Social Security’s Long-Haul Situation
America’s Social Security program, so successful for so many years, faces some challenges in the decades ahead. Nobody doubts that, and many have been advocating a wide range of solutions. Here is a succinct anaylsis of the issue by Luke…