Social Security
Found 257 Articles.
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Using Social Security Estimates with Caution
You can receive from the Social Security Administration an estimate of your retirement benefits. You can call, wait for an estimate to be mailed, or go online and use Social Security’s calculator. The estimates are helpful in retirement planning. But remember these are only estimates. They are based on a number of assumptions that might […]
June 2014
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Social Security Shortchanges Some Spouses
Spouses are losing thousands of dollars annually because Social Security is not paying the maximum payouts for which they are eligible. The Office of Inspector General of the Social Security Administration said in a recent report that about one-third of spouses ages 70 and older who had their own earnings records weren’t receiving their maximum […]
Using Home Equity to Fund Retirement
Key changes recently were made in reverse mortgages. You should be aware of the changes and how they affect the way reverse mortgages can help in-crease your financial independence. Properly used, they are tools for employing home equity to enhance your retirement. The first change is that the Federal Housing Administration restructured the program again […]
Coping with Lower Long-Term Stock Market Returns
Much of Bill Gross’s latest monthly essay is devoted to a eulogy for his recently-deceased pet cat. After this touching section is the meat of the essay. Gross states that returns from assets (all assets, not only stocks) are likely to be lower in the relevant future than they have been over the course of […]
Estate Planning with Roth IRAs
An IRA, especially a Roth IRA, is valuable for more than your retirement planning. Your estate plan can be much better when a Roth IRA is shrewdly used. Instead of looking at the front-end tax benefits and costs, take the long-term view. While converting a traditional IRA to a Roth can save estate taxes, Roth […]
Surprising Facts About Social Security
Over the years, from time to time I wrote about maximizing Social Security retirement benefits. Those pieces didn’t receive much of a reaction. More recently, Social Security strategies draw a lot of attention, presumably because of the large number of people now at or approaching traditional retirement age. There are recurring questions and issues that […]
Avoiding Social Security Mistakes
We write in Retirement Watch a lot about strategies for claiming Social Security retirement benefits. That’s because you have choices, and married couples have a lot of choices. The difference between the optimum choice and other choices can amount to tens of thousands of dollar or more over your lifetime. Unfortunately, people make a lot […]
