Social Security
Found 254 Articles.
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Have You Paid for Government Retirement Benefits?
Ezra Klein of The Washington Post periodically writes provocative columns about Social Security and Medicare. One of his basic points is that seniors haven’t really paid for the benefits they’re expecting to receive during retirement. Most have paid less in Medicare payroll taxes than they’ll receive in benefits. For Social Security, it’s more of a […]
Understanding Stock Market Returns
I don’t spend much attention to discussions in the financial media of stock market returns, especially forecasts of them. They’re so misbegotten it is almost comically. On those occasions when I find a good discussion of equity returns, I refer it to you. This piece from PIMCO explains how the fund firm analyses equity returns […]
Maximizing Spouses’ Social Security Benefits
Most people make the wrong decisions about their Social Security benefits and in doing so leave a lot of money on the table. Married couples have the most flexibility and options. When a couple coordinates their Social Security retirement benefits, they increase by tens of thousands of dollars the amount of lifetime income they receive. […]
The Folly of Stock Market Forecasts and Predictions
One of the themes of my book Invest Like a Fox…Not Like a Hedgehog is that people often misuse or misunderstand statistics. This is particularly true in investing, but it’s also true in other areas. Nate Silver made a big name for himself in 2012 by bolding predicting a big victory for President Obama. Previously, […]
Reducing Medicare Premiums, Social Security Taxes and More
Retirees face the highest marginal tax rates. They use the same tax tables as everyone else, but there are nuances in the tax code that can trigger higher marginal rates for seniors. For retirees in what I call the marginal rate trap zone, reducing gross income or taxable in-come can have powerful benefits. The marginal […]
Why to Ignore Stock Market Forecasts
In my book, Invest Like a Fox, Not Like a Hedgehog, I devote some space to the futility of using forecasts to make investment decisions. In that portion, I refer to the work of Philip Tetlock on political forecasting. For the latest on that work and an update on what Tetlock’s been doing, read this […]
Social Security and Debt Reform: A Laureate’s View
Peter Diamond won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2010 and was interviewed by The Washington Post over the weekend. The interview focused on Social Security reform and the federal debt problem. Diamondis believes that Social Security needs to be reformed to restore actuarial balance, and his preference is to reform it by a […]
Managing, Planning for Retirement Medical Costs
Paying for medical care is the greatest fear of retirees and pre-retirees. Curiously, most of them aren’t doing much about it. The same surveys that report Americans are concerned about retirement medical expenses also report that only about 12% take account of medical costs in their retirement planning. More than half admit to knowing very […]
