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Playing Politics With Social Security
Tweet Share on Facebook December 12, 2011 Comment (7)Congress appears likely this week to approve some form of an extension of the 2011 payroll tax cut that put $1,000 more into the hands of the typical U.S. wage earner in 2011. This is a sensible way to provide economic stimulus, but unless Congress suddenly begins behaving like an adult, risks a dangerous game of ping-pong with the country's most important retirement and safety-net program.
[See The Future of Social Security.]
Lower-income Americans pay little or no income taxes. Yet everyone who works pays Social Security payroll taxes, and they take a big bite out of middle-class incomes. When times are hard, cutting payroll taxes is a logical way to provide some relief to working Americans. The tax cuts amount to small income increases each pay period, and are likely to be spent and not saved. They thus provide a steady, if modest, economic stimulus. Given the continued weakness of the economy, extending the cut makes sense. There's also a small matter of national elections in 2012, and neither political party wants to be seen as cutting paychecks next year.
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Tablets and TVs Top 2011 Holiday Gift Lists
Tweet Share on Facebook December 9, 2011 CommentAssembling a list of top gifts for older consumers assumes there's something different about that age group than others. But that's usually not the case. Tablets, including iPads, lots of different Kindles, and the Nook, are popular and prices are attractive for iPad wannabes. And flat-screen TVs flew out of stores on Black Friday.
[See What to Expect from Retailers This Holiday Season.]
U.S. News looked at the most popular gifts for consumers of all ages, based on recent gift purchases on Amazon for different categories. The most popular items and their prices are listed at the end of this story.
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Why Reverse Mortgage Delinquencies Are Extensive
Tweet Share on Facebook December 7, 2011 Comment (7)Government housing officials report that 46,000 reverse-mortgage borrowers under the government's insured loan program were delinquent on their loans as of July. This total is more than 50 percent higher than earlier industry projections and represents 8 percent of all outstanding loans under the Federal Housing Administration's home equity conversion mortgage (HECM) program.
[See 10 Ways Your Home Can Pay You Money.]
HECM loans provide access to home equity for homeowners who are at least 62 years old. Most HECM borrowers owe little or no money on their existing mortgages, which must be paid off before any home-equity proceeds are available to borrowers. While borrowers no longer need to make mortgage payments, they are responsible for paying property taxes and home insurance premiums on their residences. Failure to make these payments is the cause for the delinquencies, FHA officials said in making the agency's first public release of detailed HECM delinquency information exclusively to U.S. News.
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Popular Social Security Claiming Strategies
Tweet Share on Facebook December 6, 2011 Comment (6)People nearing retirement naturally have a lot of questions about the best ways to claim Social Security benefits. Benefits can be claimed as early as age 62, but increase by about 8 percent a year—plus inflation adjustments—for each year you defer claiming until age 70.
Certain advantageous claiming strategies, especially those involving spousal benefits, don't become available until you've reached what's called full retirement age—anywhere from 65 to 67, depending on when you were born.
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Is an Extended Senior Career in Your Future?
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2011 Comment (3)Keeping employees from leaving their jobs has not been a hard sell for employers during the extended U.S. jobless recovery. Most people are happy to have jobs these days, and finding replacement employees is easy except in high-skilled trades.
As the economy slowly recovers, however, employers will face tighter job markets. Millions of baby boomers will be moving into the traditional retirement ages, and the ranks of replacement workers will be shrinking. This is a demographic certainty. Yes, some, perhaps many, older workers will defer retirements. But a labor-supply squeeze of major proportions could be in the offing.
[See 10 Workplace Myths Debunked.]
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How to Cope with Constant Market Turmoil
Tweet Share on Facebook December 2, 2011 CommentWhat's your long-term investment plan for retirement? Given widespread forecasts for economic and political turbulence at least through the 2012 national elections, even the concept of "long term" carries little meaning. Maybe it's through next week? Or maybe you will just hope for the best and do your party imitation of an ostrich during the next year?
[See top-ranked ETFs by category ranked by U.S. News Best ETFs.]
At times of great uncertainty, even conscientious retirees with solid investment plans may scramble for what they should do next. At such times, it can help to have some guiding principles to help carry you into a volatile future.
