retirement
The Retirement Withdrawal Fear
Maurie Backman tells the story here about one man’s worry over taking anything from his nest egg, a fear more common than many realize. Social Security will replace just 40% of pre-retirement income, and so savings from a lifetime of…
A Novel Idea to Address The Looming Retirement Crisis
You can only contribute a quarter of what your neighbor can for retirement because of where you work. Is that fair? Well, it’s reality for the more than 57 million U.S. workers who don’t have access to an employer-sponsored retirement account. Eric…
Time to Ready Your Financial Plan for an Increase in Retirement Age?
David Weinstock starts by noting a number of countries are raising retirement ages out of necessity to keep their social insurance programs solvent. The concept rarely polls well with the public, though experts think it critical for keeping programs whole.…
Attention, Millennials: Don’t Give Up on Social Security!
The popular media hasn’t been kind to Social Security in the recent past, using words like “bankrupt” and phrases like “the money has been stolen” to suggest where the program is headed in less than a decade. It’s unfortunate that…
Exploring the Concept of “Unretiring”
So much of the financial news today focuses on ensuring a pathway to financial comfort in retirement. Social Security’s insolvency trajectory aside, there’s quite a bit of rhetoric in the media about saving to reach that goal post or career…
Social Security Reform: A “Rocks and Hard Places” Story
Everyone who has been tracking the progression toward insolvency facing Social Security knows the broad scenario…without Congressional action, the Trust Fund reserves reach zero in less than a decade from now and benefits face an across-the-board cut of more than…
Retired and still working? What happens to your Social Security benefits?
The U.S. Department of Labor reported recently that labor force participation by those in the 65 to 74 age group stood at 17% in 1994 and was projected to increase 73% by 2024. While that’s a significant indicator of what’s…
Thoughts for Those Struggling on Social Security as Their Primary Income Source
The absence of adequate savings to compensate for the shortfalls between Social Security benefits and living expense is a problem widely covered in the media, especially as Social Security’s looming solvency crisis grinds forward. In fact, for the 12% to…
Formula Changes–and an Adjustment–in the Wind for WEP-affected Retirees?
A post today on myfederalretirement.com highlights the reintroduced legislation to reform Social Security’s Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). As the post explains, the bill (H.R. 4260) would provide a $150/month payment to those WEP-affected retirees currently in drawing benefits, and would change the…
The On-Going “When to File” Debate…Another Perspective
One of the most persistent questions we receive here at the AMAC Foundation Social Security Advisory Service is deceptively simple: “When should I begin drawing my earned Social Security benefit?” And as frustrating as it may seem to our callers,…