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Retirement Safety Comes with Earnings Cap
Tweet Share on Facebook February 28, 2010 Comment (8)You probably know that the White House's middle class task force has proposed a new retirement account. It would be funded with an employee's own money, and designed to produce reliable, if modest, returns -- think Social Security Junior. By providing tax breaks and automatically enrolling employees in the plan, the goal is to attract more participants and place them on a safer retirement track. Now, employees could opt out of the program, and it's always possible they could decide to invest their retirement money in something goofy. But the clear goal, and message, of what the Administration is calling the "voluntary Automatic IRA" is that people will sock these funds away for a long time, let them earn safe returns, and build bigger nest eggs.
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10 Trends in Longevity
Tweet Share on Facebook February 26, 2010 Comment (4)The goals of improved health and financial security are to live longer and, presumably, more fulfilling lives. Increases in longevity have certainly been impressive. Not only has 60 become the new 40, but we're well on our way to the day when 80 becomes the new 60. While the victors in the longevity race have many spoils to enjoy, they also have many aches, pains, and other unpleasant reminders of their continued existence. The government pulls together an impressive array of statistical snapshots in its current compendium, "Health, 2009," a 550-page record of the state of the nation's well-being. Here are some of its most compelling findings about the health of an aging America.
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Health Summit Should Be Must-See TV
Tweet Share on Facebook February 24, 2010 Comment (5)On the eve of President Obama's health summit, the need for reforms is growing even as the pathway for enacting them shrinks. Assuming it was possible for Republicans and Democrats to check their partisan animosities at the door, devising smart reforms still would be hard. Healthcare is more than one-sixth of our economy. Rising costs are dragging down major government entitlement programs and making it harder for people to afford private insurance. The ranks of the uninsured have been growing during the recession. And the quality of what we get for this enormous price tag is not very impressive compared with health outcomes in other countries.
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4 Tips About New Credit Card Rules
Tweet Share on Facebook February 21, 2010 Comment (6)New credit card rules take effect this week. While the rules are good news for consumers, they also are forcing cash-strapped banks and credit card companies to look for other sources of revenue. So, if you have and use credit cards, you need to be particularly vigilant over the next few months to make sure you don't unwittingly expose yourself to unnecessary fees, avoidable transaction charges, and higher interest rates.
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8 Steps to Prepare for Your Final Act
Tweet Share on Facebook February 19, 2010 Comment (3)This year, about 2.5 million Americans will die. In rough numbers, that's nearly 50,000 a week—a lot of people, with viewings, religious observances, funerals, obituaries, estates, family reunions, and a host of related decisions and encounters. In many households, this time can be made even more difficult by one's failure to plan for death and to involve family members in the process. Relatives may even reject efforts to engage in such a discussion. It's uncomfortable, it can be emotionally painful, and it can often expose family fault lines that fracture easily.
Yet, as with many important decisions, it is a mistake to wait until the last minute to deal with your final wishes. "We all know we're going to die. We just don't believe it," says Kurt Soffe, whose family has been in the funeral home business in Utah since 1915. Here are several steps and questions to help you prepare.
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What 'Best Life' Choices Do You Recommend?
Tweet Share on Facebook February 17, 2010 Comment (4)Many of us are still struggling with the effects of an anemic economy. Investment markets have not recovered past losses, let alone permitted us to sock away gains for our later years. We may be trapped in our homes, unwilling to sell them at depressed prices but stretched in our continuing ability to afford them. These are not the best of times, to say the least. But it is precisely at these times that people need to step up, and resolve that they will shape their future and not let circumstances box them in and shape it for them. Easier said than done, I know.
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Remember the Estate Tax? It's Still Gone
Tweet Share on Facebook February 15, 2010 Comment (10)We are now nearly 50 days into the new year and the failure of Congress to deal with estate taxes has moved from an oversight and embarrassment to a growing real-world problem. To recap: the estate tax was reduced over the past decade in a 2001 law that said estate taxes would disappear totally in 2010, and then return in 2011 in a very punitive form. Congress repeatedly said it would deal with the matter before the tax disappeared. Most people expected a new law making the 2009 treatment of estates permanent. This would have excluded the first $3.5 million of an estate from taxation ($7 million for a couple) and taxed the excess at 45 percent.
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Growing Reasons to Consider Medical Tourism
Tweet Share on Facebook February 12, 2010 Comment (16)Medical tourism, largely grounded last year by the sharp economic downturn, is expected to make a comeback as people begin to feel more positive about their finances. Medical costs in many nations continue to be far below those in the United States. Other factors that may help spur the comeback include improving medical facilities overseas, stronger accreditation programs, more consumer support services, and maturing relationships between leading U.S. medical schools and foreign partners.
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To date, medical tourism has clearly not been a market for seniors, says Paul H. Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, a unit of the consulting firm that closely follows medical tourism trends. "It's really been a young market," with most customers getting things like dental work, cosmetic surgery, and other one-time elective procedures, he says. "It hasn't really been a senior market."
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Major Income Tax Changes for 2009 Returns
Tweet Share on Facebook February 10, 2010 CommentWith the U.S. Senate unable to agree on much of anything these days, you'd hope that one possible benefit of such gridlock would be to leave U.S. tax rules unchanged. No such luck. As seems true every year, the tax rules we struggled to understand last year have been joined by new and equally inscrutable changes that can affect 2009 tax returns.
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How to Build Your Own Retirement Village
Tweet Share on Facebook February 8, 2010 Comment (6)Thousands of groups of senior citizens around the country are somewhere in the process of developing what have come to be called "villages" -- networks of like-minded seniors who join together in neighborhood-centric groups to benefit from shopping discounts, social activities, transportation, home repairs, and a variety of volunteered support activities. Even five years ago, the Internet had not evolved to the point where such networking could be so easy to provide. But today, the village movement is a textbook example of how technology can help older Americans improve the quality of their lives, remain in their homes as they age, and possibly save a bundle of money in the process. And with the government facing enormous deficits for the foreseeable future, villages also represent a welcome, cost-effective way for citizens to take responsibility for themselves during an era of declining public resources.
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