The White House unveiled a countdown clock this week, tick-tocking away the days, hours, minutes and seconds to a December 31 deadline for extending and expanding the payroll tax cut. It’s a doomsday-style reminder that taxes will jump for an estimated 160 million Americans on January 1 if Congress doesn’t act. President Obama is proposing [...] [...more]
Women face distinct retirement-planning challenges, including higher longevity risk, less access to workplace retirement plans, and continued wage discrepancies. My column at Morningstar.com this month examines the trend, and summarizes expert advice on ways women can improve their odds of achieving a secure retirement. [...more]
Older Americans might be thinking they dodged a bullet when the deficit cutting supercommittee process ground to a halt this week without an agreement. Many were watching the negotiations warily, worried that Social Security or Medicare benefits might be cut as part of a grand bargain on the deficit. But even though the supercommittee has [...] [...more]
Now that the Super Committee has ground to a halt, the threatened “sword of Damocles” is poised to slash $1.2 trillion in federal spending. As we move to this next phase of the budget wars, deficit hawks will rev up one of their most phony arguments — namely, that protecting entitlement programs rewards the old [...] [...more]
Are older workers really faring better in this recession-wracked job market? Just seven percent of workers over 55 were jobless in October, compared with a nine percent national average, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported earlier this month. That’s a sizable gap, and it’s been roughly that size throughout the recession. The health of [...] [...more]
