Social Security
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…
Ron DeSantis on Social Security
“Talking about making changes for people in their 30s or their 40s so that the program is viable, that’s a much different thing, and that’s something that I think there’s going to need to be discussions on. We got to…
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.…
Thoughts on Avoiding the Age 62 Filing Impulse
Statistically, filing for Social Security at the earliest possible age (62) has always been popular, and still about a third of all new filers are that age. The proportion of early filers has been declining in recent years, doubtless because…
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…
That “Final” Benefit Check—A Source of Some Confusion
A Social Security beneficiary’s passing is generally a traumatic time for all concerned, and a variety of details and things that need to be addressed often create stress and concern on the part of the survivors. One of them is…
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…
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…