Social Security
Senior Citizens League pushes for More Effective COLA Process
It hasn’t really changed since cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) became a reality nearly 50 years ago, and the projected 2024 announcement was again based on use of the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), a statistic that…
More on Social Security COLA Implications and Consequences
Now that the excitement of Social Security’s 2024 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) announcement is waning, the smoke is clearing on how the process works–or doesn’t–and what the tax implications are for beneficiaries in 2024. First, a post by The Motley Fool’s…
Social Security’s Overpayment Problem to get Congressional Attention
The much-publicized effort by the Social Security Administration to recover more than $26 billion in payments mistakenly made to beneficiaries will be subjected to a hearing by the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee this week, according to a…
Qualifying for Social Security – 2024 Requirements
Credits are the “building blocks” that Social Security uses to find out whether you have the minimum amount of covered work to qualify for each type of Social Security benefit (retirement, disability, or survivor) based on your own work record.…
Pros and Cons of Working in Retirement
There are many reasons why folks drawing Social Security benefits continue to work. Some relate to financial necessity, some are driven by the need to stay socially connected, and others simply reflect the curiosity of exploring job opportunities and work…
A Look at Some of the 2024 Social Security Limit Changes
Potentially lost in the excitement of the 2024 COLA announcement, there are a number of limit changes ahead for Social Security participants next year. For example, there’s a higher taxable maximum for earners, along with a higher amount those filing…
Social Security Fundamentals for Those Aging In
As we’ve said many times in posts on this site, Social Security is quite complex, especially for those just beginning to take a look at how and when they should claim their earned benefits. For example, there’s the issue of…
Ask Rusty – Can My Wife Claim Her Benefit Now, and Switch to a Spouse Benefit from Me Later?
Dear Rusty: Can my wife claim her benefits now (at 63, and we know about the reduction for claiming early) and then, when I retire at 66 years and 10 months of age almost 3 years from now, can she…
CPI-E vs. CPI-W? A Look at What the Diffrerence would be.
The issue of how best to calculate the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security beneficiaries has surfaced as part of the discussion on reforming this massive senior benefit program, and some have advocated for an approach that better fits…
2024 COLA: Don’t forget about Medicare premiums!
The 2024 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) announced last week has garnered quite a bit of attention in the media, both positively (it will help beneficiaries recover some of the ground lost to inflation) and negatively (the 3.2% bump is…