Changes are afoot on the Social Security and Medicare fronts for 2016. Both programs are implementing measures that will have an impact on anyone who is currently retired or those making retirement plans over the next few years. Let’s look at Medicare first. Medicare Part B, which covers services like outpatient doctor visits and preventative […]
Take (care with) Your Medicine
Prepare yourself for the paper deluge! If you are a Medicare enrollee, you will probably notice an uptick in the amount of mail you receive during the next couple of months. That’s because we are about to enter that special time of year designated to be the open enrollment period for Medicare plans. Various Medicare […]
The Tooth and Nothing But the Tooth
“Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. A man got those two things, he’s got it all.” Who am I to argue with the hardest working man in show business, Mr. James Brown? James knows what makes the world go around. But I might suggest that perhaps he has the order of importance […]
Give and Take
Lots of important financial announcements came down from the government this week that should be of interest to retirees and those looking to retire in the near future. As usual with Washington, there’s some good news and some bad news. Here’s a quick look… For those who are still working and can contribute to some […]
A Crucial Decade
My 60th birthday is rapidly approaching. Yikes! On most every day, I feel much younger than my mental image of a 60-year-old, but the calendar tells the truth. My birth year of 1954 places me squarely in the middle of the Baby Boomer generation, defined as those born between 1945 and 1964. That placement resulted […]
Half Empty or Half Full?
Is the average Baby Boomer retiree’s glass half empty or half full? After several years of nothing but gloom and doom scenarios and projections for boomer retirees, there is finally some good news to report…maybe. A recent survey conducted by Baltimore-based investment management firm T. Rowe Price concluded that many newly-minted retirees are finding that […]
To Claim or Not To Claim
To claim or not to claim – that is the question. Is it better to postpone collecting your Social Security benefits until you are 66 or possibly 70, or is it better to take the money and run at age 62, the earliest possible moment it is offered? Certainly, popular opinion seems to favor the […]
Your Next Move
If you spend any amount of time hanging out with pre-retirees (and why wouldn’t you – they’re such an interesting group), the conversation will inevitably come around to a discussion about the best places to retire. That topic will come up right after they’ve finished grousing about their knee replacement doctor and comparing notes on […]