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Medicare Plans Offer Too Many Choices
Tweet Share on Facebook August 31, 2011 Comment (5)Medicare Advantage plans have become an increasingly popular alternative to traditional Medicare. Congress expanded the plans several years ago and included financial subsidies to make them more appealing. Private insurers have since responded with an explosion of plan choices and coverage features. Now, a study finds, seniors are struggling with having too much of a good thing.
[See Social Security's Long-Term Outlook.]
Financially, Medicare Advantage has a clear edge over traditional Medicare, according to researchers at the Harvard Medical School. "By 2007 more than 95 percent of study participants faced lower expected out-of-pocket costs in Medicare Advantage than in traditional Medicare with Medigap coverage," said their study, recently published in Health Affairs, a medical journal.
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Most Active Funds Continue to Trail Index Performance
Tweet Share on Facebook August 30, 2011 Comment (1)Most people's retirement nest eggs are invested in mutual funds as opposed to individual stocks. In seeking the best fund choices, investors have been steadily moving toward low-cost index funds. Besides savings money, a recent Standard & Poor's report indicates that investors may also be gaining superior investment results.
The S&P 500 index has beaten nearly two-thirds of all actively managed large-cap mutual funds over the past three years, the report said. Further, S&P's semi-annual SPIVA (S&P Indices Versus Active Funds) scorecard reported that 75 percent of actively managed mid-cap funds were bested by the S&P MidCap 400 index and that returns for 63 percent of small-cap funds were exceeded by the S&P SmallCap 600 index.
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4 Benefits of a Surging Senior Population
Tweet Share on Facebook August 29, 2011 Comment (4)It is easy to forget that the aging of America (and the world) is mostly a good thing for seniors. We are obsessed with bad news on all fronts—the economy, Washington gridlock, and daily acts of senseless terror, often within our borders. Even the weather has turned against us, first with spring tornadoes, then a century-worst East Coast earthquake, and last but hardly least, Hurricane Irene.
[See The Future of Social Security.]
Any kind of news, good or bad, involving the demographic trends of seniors is suspect. It's one thing to learn something about birth rates and even death rates. This is new information, after all. But to say that we've suddenly discovered something about people who've already been around for six or seven decades is not far off from Congress suddenly discovering that being $14 trillion in debt is not such a good thing.
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Pat Summitt, at 59, Takes on Alzheimer's
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2011 Comment (2)Pat Summitt's disclosure that she has early onset dementia is sure to trigger a surge in attention to Alzheimer's disease. The iconic Tennessee women's basketball coach, now getting ready for her 38th season, provided a characteristically direct and no-nonsense review of her condition. She vowed to continue to make the most of her life and avoid any "pity party" that anyone might want to throw for her.
[See 7 Lifestyle Behaviors Linked to Alzheimer's.]
It is not hard to project Summitt as having the same kind of impact on Alzheimer's that the late Jim Valvano has had on cancer. The charismatic former basketball coach at North Carolina State University died of cancer more than 18 years ago at age 47. Since then, the V Foundation for Cancer Research has raised more than $100 million, and Valvano's enthusiasm and love of life are still very much with us.
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Understanding the Impact of Poverty
Tweet Share on Facebook August 24, 2011 Comment (1)Millions of Americans are struggling with a new visitor to their homes: poverty. The richest nation on earth is now providing food stamps to a record 45 million people—one in seven Americans. More than 25 million people are either unemployed, working part-time when they want full-time jobs, or have simply stopped looking for work altogether. Long-term jobless benefits are scheduled to expire for millions of people at the end of this year, and there isn't much support or money in Washington to extend them.
[See 11 Funds That Top Their Category.]
Prospects of job openings regularly draw thousands of applicants. When 200 dentists recently gathered in an Atlanta suburb to offer free dental care, they were overwhelmed when more than 4,000 people showed up. A common theme among those who spoke with reporters was their bewilderment that they would ever find themselves so hard up as to need free dental care.
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Is It Time to Rethink Your Mutual Fund Picks?
Tweet Share on Facebook August 22, 2011 CommentRetirement investors are at one of those crossroads they'd rather never see. What should they do with their money? Stocks are taking a beating. So-called "safe" investments—government bonds and bank certificates of deposit—are yielding minuscule returns. The economy is weak here and in Europe. Washington seems incapable of leadership.
Virtually all retirement experts say investors should hang in there and not bail on the market. Stocks recovered after their collapse in 2007 and 2008, experts say, and they'll recover from this drop as well.
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Get Ready for 2012 Social Security, Medicare Changes
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2011 Comment (51)Social Security's annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) seems assured of rising in 2012 by a few percent—its first increase in three years. Whether that gain winds up putting many dollars in beneficiaries' pockets is another matter.
[See 10 Ways to Boost Your Social Security Checks.]
There are complex links between annual changes in Social Security and Medicare insurance premiums. Depending on your annual income and when you began Medicare, much or all of your COLA gains could be eaten up by higher Medicare premiums.
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Tips on TIPS: Treasury Inflation Protected Securities
Tweet Share on Facebook August 18, 2011 CommentTIPS, short for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, offer investors the closest thing Uncle Sam has to a sure bet these days. These bonds have the full backing of the U.S. government and provide investors with returns that will keep pace with future rates of inflation, as measured by the U.S. Consumer Price Index. You can buy them directly from the government, but it's easier—and a better investment decision in many cases—to buy low-fee investment funds that hold TIPS.
[See 10 Ways to Get Americans Spending Again.]
TIPS are recommended for their safety and because of widespread concern about the inflationary implications of record government deficits and expansionary Federal Reserve Board policies. The U.S. Treasury says the public held $681.2 billion in outstanding TIPS at the end of July, up about $105 billion over the previous 12 months.
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3 Arguments for Delaying Retirement
Tweet Share on Facebook August 17, 2011 CommentThe financial advantages of deferring Social Security payments have long been noted. Benefits can be taken as early as age 62. But for each year they are delayed up until the age of 70, benefits rise substantially. Despite these higher lifetime payments, large numbers of Americans begin taking Social Security when they turn 62.
[See 10 Ways to Boost Your Social Security Checks.]
Experts have been puzzled about why so many people rush to take early benefits. Now, researchers have concluded that it may just be because no one told people there was a better alternative.
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Seniors Are Saying No to High Tech
Tweet Share on Facebook August 15, 2011 Comment (5)The digital revolution may be changing the way we live and work. But large numbers of older Americans are not going online, using smartphones, or even participating in the benefits of electronic healthcare tools specifically designed to help them.
The costs of not participating in electronic communications are growing. Government and the private sector are shifting to online tools as their dominant form of public communication. It saves time and money, and provides more responsive public services. But surveys of Internet and technology use show that many, if not most, older consumers are bypassed with online communication.
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The Best Life
Philip Moeller, contributing editor for U.S. News Money, writes about achieving success and happiness in older age. He also is a research fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College.
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