Recent Stories
The 8.7% Social Security COLA: An inside look
On this edition of the podcast, we take a look at the historic 8.7% cost-of-living adjustment in Social Security benefits announced for 2023. The Social Security Administration announced that benefits will rise by 8.7% in 2023. That’s a big raise for more than 52...
Everything you ever wanted to know about Social Security’s COLA – and then some
Later this week, Social Security will announce the largest inflation adjustment to benefits in four decades. With interest in the COLA running very high this year, I posted a story for The New York Times today that answers a range of questions you might have about the...
Feds crack down on Joe Namath and William Shatner ads
You’ve seen the tv ads - football great Joe Namath - or Star Trek legend William Shatner - pitch you on Medicare plans that will “add money back into your Social Security check,” deliver extra benefits and so on. I’ve posted an example below, just in case you somehow...
How the new landmark Medicare bill will lower prescription drug costs
The climate and healthcare legislation that Congress is set to approve later this week includes the most important improvements to the Medicare program in nearly two decades. The changes aim to address one of the biggest concerns of seniors: the fast-rising cost of...
Big changes are looming in Medicare
Philip Moeller, author of Get What's Yours for Medicare: Maximize Your Coverage, Minimize Your Costs. This week on the podcast, we take a wide-ranging look at important changes going on in Medicare. My guest is a top expert on the program - Phillip Moeller. Phil is an...
Putting a value on time
This week on the podcast, let’s talk about the value of time. Time has value to us - both in personal and economic terms. It’s something we often fail to consider when making decisions about how long to work and when to retire. These decisions often focus only on the...
How much does high inflation really affect retirees?
It’s a truism that high inflation hits hardest for people on fixed incomes—especially retirees. And seniors are telling pollsters that high inflation is among their top worries. But the actual impact of inflation on retirees is more complex. It depends in large...
Want to do something about your ailing retirement investments? Don’t.
When the stock market gets volatile, retirement investors are naturally inclined to want to do something about it. We certainly are at such a point now. The S&P 500 has plunged 21.1% so far this year, as of Wednesday's close. Last week, it lost 5.8%, its...
Controlling your career in the pandemic labor market
My guest on the podcast this week is Kerry Hannon, an expert on the future of work and careers. Kerry is a columnist for Yahoo! Finance - and the author of an excellent and timely new book that considers ways that older workers can succeed in the pandemic labor...
The end of traditional Medicare as we know it?
Last week, Medicare announced the next phase of its plan to transform traditional Medicare. Critics argue that the planned transformation of the fee-for-service program will amount to a dramatic expansion of privatization. And, if you are enrolled in traditional...
For retirement planning, keeping it simple would be so much better
When you're trying to build toward financial security in retirement, complexity is the enemy. That message came through loud and clear in an opinion delivered last month by the U.S. Supreme Court in a case brought by employees against Northwestern University. The...
A conversation with Bev Jones on the balance between work, retirement and happiness
If you’re wondering whatever happened to my podcast - wonder no more. I put the program on hold last spring while I worked on the manuscript for my new book about retirement, which will be published in January 2022. I finished up the book just before Thanksgiving, -...