Category: Personal Finance

Facts About Social Security, Medicare in the Age of Trump May Surprise You

While the era of “alternative facts” dawned in Washington, experts from across the ideological spectrum gathered in the capital for a review of real facts about our two most important retirement programs: Social Security and Medicare. The annual policy research conference of the National Academy of Social Insurance focused on the group’s new report to the Donald Trump administration and Congress on the future of all our social insurance programs – those that cover retirement, but also those that protect the disabled, jobless, impoverished poverty and frail.

Scam attempts on seniors

Beware of any official looking mailer that is purporting to be from Medicare or Social Security..IT DOESN’T! it’s a prepaid pink postcard to SD Reply Center. PO Box 2528, Rockwall TX 75087-9891. If you receive one of these, throw it away! It’s an attempt ton steal your identity!

A Popular High Dividend Stock for Retirement Portfolios

While it may come as a surprise, history has shown us many of the best long-term investments are not hyper-growth companies but much more boring dividend growth machines. For example, in the last 50 years, Altria Group Inc. has been one of the best-performing stocks on a total return basis , rising an incredible 6,648 fold.

The Latest: Trump budget pick clears 2 committees

The Senate budget and homeland security committees approved South Carolina GOP Congressman Mick Mulvaney for a vote by the full Senate. The move came over the opposition of Democrats who warn of his support for cutting rising costs of Medicare and increasing the age for claiming Social Security benefits.

Ready for Medicare? Not Until You Read This

… ed, consider this: According to a 2014 study from the Insured Retirement Institute, “A 65-year-old male in excellent health can expect to live to age 87, while the same male in poor health (e.g. high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and tobacco use)

Nonpartisan Report Offers Menu of Options to Policymakers for…

In an ambitious new report , the National Academy of Social Insurance provides detailed, evidence-based analyses on a range of policy options for modernizing the nation’s social insurance system. The Report to the New Leadership and the American People on Social Insurance and Inequality takes stock of policy challenges facing the social insurance infrastructure, then discusses potential new directions that policymakers might take to strengthen the programs.

Getting and Spending

William Wordsworth is a great English poet, but one poem he wrote irritates me. It’s the sonnet that begins: The world is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.

The CBO doesn’t deal in ‘alternative’ facts

President Trump during a reception with congressional leaders on Monday at the White House. Federal deficits are expected to rise for the first time in nearly a decade, driving up the federal debt to almost unprecedented levels, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office .

What to consider with ’55-plus’ living

… deal.” a Finances: Sure, a fancy fitness center and a golf course are nice – but is the community in good financial health? You should review the financial records of the homeowners’ association and the minutes of monthly meetings. How big is the …

Prepare For Medical Costs In Retirement

How much money do you think that you need to retire? There are many assumptions involved in answering that question, but one assumption is the greatest of all: how much money will you need for your health care costs? Fidelity projects that a 65-year old couple who retired in 2016 should expect an average cost of $260,000 over twenty years, and that excludes any nursing home costs . Too often, seniors are worried about medical expenses draining their funds and forcing them to become a burden to their families.

Trump budget pick: Cut benefit programs; tax hikes on table

Budget Director-designate Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee. Budget Director-designate Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C. testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Budget Committee.

Some refunds delayed as IRS battles fraud

… longer be valid if they weren’t used at least once in the last three years or if the number was issued before 2013. a HEALTH INSURANCE: For those who didn’t have health insurance in 2016, the penalty, or “shared responsibility” in government …

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As President Donald Trump steps into the Oval Office, a number of issues loom large, but one may stand out head and shoulders above the pack: the United States’ growing national debt. According to the USDebtClock.org, the national debt is rapidly closing in on $20 trillion, which works out to more than $61,300 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. and nearly $167,000 for every taxpayer in the country.

Trump opponents decry ‘Klansman’ at rally

As protesters Saturday juxtaposed the new commander-in-chief with Hitler, and passed literature that described him as “a suit-and-tie Klansman,” a clearly agitated motorist rolled down his car window and told the group to “Let it go.” The driver was speaking about demonstrations throughout the country opposing President Donald Trump, whose tenure in the Oval Office was just one day old.

50 Small Businesses to Start in Your Backyard

For entrepreneurs who want to start a business close to home and maybe spend some time outside too, a backyard business might be the right choice for you. It might sound like a strange concept, but there are actually plenty of businesses that you could potentially run right from your very own yard.

Putting patients back in control of healthcare

… or Obamacare, this experiment has hurt far more people than it has helped. Out-of-pocket costs are skyrocketing while health care choice, competition, and access are all diminishing rapidly as Obamacare’s health insurance marketplaces near collapse. …

Here’s how much Obama’s pension is worth

Obama and every other former president also get seven months of “transition” services to help adjust to post-presidential life. The ex-Commander in Chief also gets lifetime Secret Service protection as well as allowances for things such as travel, office expenses, communications and health care coverage.

Treasury pick Steve Mnuchin: Sorry about foreclosures

Actor and director horrified and PETA calls for boycott of A Dog’s Purpose after behind the scenes footage caught animal ‘abuse’ on camera Bushes on the mend! Barbara is feeling ‘1,000%’ better after her treatment for bronchitis and doctors are looking to move her husband George H.W. out of the ICU Obama’s final hours in the White House: Only a skeleton staff continues to work in the West Wing as the outgoing President’s schedule has been cleared to pack and have one last lunch with Joe Biden Trump’s Treasury nominee says SORRY to people who were foreclosed by the bank he bought – and comes under fire over $100m real estate he did not disclose Steve Mnuchin says sorry over actions of OneWest after he and group of partners bought and ran sub-prime lender in wake of 2008 financial crisis He told Senate Finance Committee when he was quizzed about foreclosures that he had tried to minimize … (more)

slashing government programs

Donald Trump has won the presidency after narrowly carrying a few states to put him above 270 electoral votes.But according… Send a letter to U.S. Senators: Block Jeff Sessions’ appointment as Attorney General. **NOTE: THE FORM LETTER IS BLANK.

Trump Nominee to Face Questions About Obamacare, Stock Trades

Democrats plan to make the Georgia Republican, a leading critic of Obamacare who authored his own conservative alternative to the law in Congress, defend his and Trump’s records on entitlement reform and health insurance. While Trump is in sync with Hill Republicans and Price on the need to repeal and replace Obamacare, he has split with his party on some of the details of reform.