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Bipartisan bill in Congress would require drug makers to justify, limit price hikes
(By Ed Silverman for STAT) In response to the intensifying outrage over the cost of medicines, a bipartisan group of lawmakers Thursday introduced a bill1 that would require drug makers to justify their pricing and provide a breakdown of their…
5 Bad Reasons To Take Social Security Early
This article at themorningsun.com by Andy Landis talks about some of the bad reasons for taking Social Security earlier than your full retirement age. There are surely some good reasons to start collecting your benefits earlier, but read more here about…
GAO Reports on adequacy of Social Security Administration guidance on claiming benefits
According to an article by Forbes contributor Laurence Kotlikoff, a new report by the Federal Government’s General Accounting Office (GAO) reveals that SSA staff regularly make mistakes when advising people about their retirement benefit options. And in many cases, Kotlikoff…
Postponing Retirement–Women Following the Trend
Ben Steverman, Bloomberg columnist, explains some of the reasons why more and more women are working well past the typical retirement age, noting that the number of women (and men) with college degrees is one of the driving factors in…
Proving to Social Security That You’re Alive Doesn’t Automatically Fix the Problem
We’ve been reading a lot lately about mix-ups and just plain errors in the updating of Social Security’s master file of deceased beneficiaries. The mistake can be fixed, but it’s not a simple–or quick–process, as explained in an article by Palm Beach…
Income Replacement and The Life Cycle Model
Andrew G. Biggs, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), takes a look at how retirement income replacement rates are calculated according to the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Chief Actuary (SSA OACT). His analysis points out a bit of…
Spending Habits of Baby Boomers
Baby Boomers still hold most of the wealth in this nation even as they are starting to become outnumbered population-wise by Millennials. This makes Boomers a target for many businesses, and more and more businesses are restructuring, re-branding, and starting…
Female Boomers Have a Harder Time in Retirement
On average, women have a harder time in retirement than men do, and are even doing worse now than they have done historically. Female Baby Boomers are in more debt now than women of the same age in the 1990s, a…
Social Security Administration staff cuts mean longer waits when calling the SSA
While baby boomers are retiring in record numbers, the Social Security Administration has been losing staff and closing offices due to under-funding. Although many services can now be done online, calling the SSA with a complex question could mean you will…
More on Taxation of RMDs in Retirement
The issue of Required Minimum Distribution (RND) taxation continues to draw attention among people planning their retirement financial cash flow. In an article posted on blogs.wsj.com, Jonathan Guyton (principal at Cornerstone Wealth Advisors Inc.) provides some additional insights into the manner…