Tag Archive: retirement income

Retail Sales Data Suggests A Strong Consumer Or Does It

2024-04-26

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2024-04-26

The latest retail sales data suggests a robust consumer, leading economists to become even more optimistic about more robust economic growth this year.

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Immigration And Its Impact On Employment

2024-04-12

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2024-04-12

Is immigration why employment reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) continue defying mainstream economists’ estimates? Many are asking this question as the U.S. experiences a flood of immigrants across the southern border.

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Blackout Of Buybacks Threatens Bullish Run

2024-03-19

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2024-03-19

With the last half of March upon us, the blackout of stock buybacks threatens to reduce one of the liquidity sources supporting the bullish run this year. If you don’t understand the importance of corporate share buybacks and the blackout periods, here is a snippet of a 2023 article I previously wrote.

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Digital Currency And Gold As Speculative Warnings

2024-03-12

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2024-03-12

Over the last few years, digital currencies and gold have become decent barometers of speculative investor appetite. Such isn’t surprising given the evolution of the market into a “casino” following the pandemic, where retail traders have increased their speculative appetites.

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Presidential Elections And Market Corrections

2024-03-10

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2024-03-10

Presidential elections and market corrections have a long history of companionship. Given the rampant rhetoric between the right and left, such is not surprising. Such is particularly the case over the last two Presidential elections, where polarizing candidates trumped policies.

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Valuation Metrics And Volatility Suggest Investor Caution

2024-03-05

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2024-03-05

Valuation metrics have little to do with what the market will do over the next few days or months. However, they are essential to future outcomes and shouldn’t be dismissed during the surge in bullish sentiment. Just recently, Bank of America noted that the market is expensive based on 20 of the 25 valuation metrics they track.

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Fed Chair Powell Just Said The Quiet Part Out Loud

2024-02-16

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2024-02-16

Regarding the surprisingly strong employment data, Fed Chair Powell said the quiet part out loud. The media hopes you didn’t hear it as we head into a contentious election in November. Over the last several months, we have seen repeated employment reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that crushed economists’ estimates and seemed to defy logic. Such is particularly the case when you read commentary about the state of the average...

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2023 Retirement Plan Contribution Limits

2022-11-15

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2022-11-15

Worried about saving enough for retirement? You can put away more next year. The IRS has just announced the new retirement plan contribution limits for 2023. The contribution limit for employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan increases to $22,500, up from $20,500.

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Medicare Part B Premiums Will Go Down in 2023

2022-09-30

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2022-09-30

In a world where the price of everything is going up, Medicare recipients get a price cut beginning January 1, 2023. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) just announced that the monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor visits, diagnostic tests, and other outpatient services, is decreasing $5.20 per month to $164.90.

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Employees Want Paychecks for Life: Pros and Cons of Guaranteed Lifetime Income

2022-09-27

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2022-09-27

Annuities and similar products may help address retirement readiness in an aging workforce. People are living longer, which means they may need their retirement savings to last decades. As a result, nearly half (48%) of participants are concerned about outliving their retirement savings.

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How Could Inflation Impact Corporate Retirement Plans?

2022-09-26

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2022-09-26

Increasing prices may put pressure on employers and delay workers from retiring. Inflation is the increase in the general price of goods and services, which can decrease the purchasing power of American workers. So how does this recent upward trend affect your workplace benefits, employees and retirement plan?

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Be Sure to Read the Medicare Fine Print

2022-09-09

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2022-09-09

Medicare. The government defines it as “The federal health insurance program for people 65 and older.” That seems simple enough. But there’s more to it than meets the eye because Medicare, like so many other things, has fine print that could end up costing you a lot of money if you don’t know about it.

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How Working Longer Affects Your Social Security Benefits

2022-08-31

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2022-08-31

Since 1935, Social Security has been synonymous with retirement. It was always intended to supplement retirement income, never be a person’s total retirement income. Unfortunately, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, about half of older Americans rely on Social Security for at least 50% of their income, and 25% of retirees rely on it for 90% of their income. That’s why more Americans are choosing to work longer.

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Tips for Buying a Medicare Supplement Policy

2022-08-14

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2022-08-14

The clock is ticking and it gets louder the closer you get to the magic age of 65. That’s when you sign up for Medicare. But there’s more than one way to receive Medicare coverage. There are Medicare Advantage plans, sometimes referred to as all-in-one plans, because they provide medical coverage and can also provide benefits for vision, dental, hearing, and prescriptions.

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Another Historic Social Security Cost of Living Increase is on the Way

2022-08-03

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2022-08-03

It’s almost time for the Social Security Administration to break out pencil and calculator to find out how much more it costs to live this year than it did last, and then decide how much of a raise Social Security beneficiaries will get in 2023. For 2022, the Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) was 5.9%, the largest increase since 1982.

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4 Social Security Changes to Expect in 2023

2022-07-15

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2022-07-15

Looking into a crystal ball and prognosticating the future is always a risky endeavor, but when it comes to Social Security and the year 2023 there are 4 things that have a high probability of happening.

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Wasting Money on Medicare

2022-07-07

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2022-07-07

How would you like to waste a lot of the money you spend on Medicare coverage and miss a bunch of the benefits Medicare provides? Crazy question. But that’s exactly what’s happening to millions of Medicare beneficiaries. In October 2021, the insurance website MedicareAdvantage.com published the results of its most recent survey of Medicare beneficiaries.

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Letting Retirees Save for Healthcare Tax-Free

2022-06-29

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2022-06-29

Health Savings Accounts (HSA) for retired folks. Isn’t that a novel idea? But it’s being considered in Congress—The Health Savings for Seniors Act, H.R. 3796.

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Sky High Inflation May Mean Another Hefty Social Security Increase in 2023

2022-06-08

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2022-06-08

In 2022, Social Security recipients got a 5.9% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). That was the largest increase in 40 years. The COLA coming in 2023 may be even bigger.

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Is gold too expensive?

2022-03-22

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2022-03-22

Over the last couple of years we witnessed quite an extraordinary ride in gold prices. An impressive ascent until the last quarter of 2020 was followed by a pullback that scared many speculators away, which in turn transformed into a period of strength and then came another ebb… And recently, once again, we saw the yellow metal shoot up, fueled by inflation fears and the situation in Ukraine. Given that the fundamentals remain unchanged and that...

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