Recent Stories
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, -...
Where to get help timing your Social Security claim
The Social Security filing rules are complex, and many of us make decisions about when to claim benefits that cost us dearly in lost lifetime benefits. This is a big problem, since the lifetime value of Social Security benefits significantly overshadows other sources...
Social Security offices are expected to reopen in March
The national network of Social Security customer service offices, which were closed nearly two years ago at the start of the pandemic, is on track to reopen on March 30. The Social Security Administration and unions representing the agency’s work force agreed this...
A quiet experiment is testing broader privatization of Medicare
Millions of retirees have opted out of traditional Medicare over the past two decades, choosing to join a privatized, managed-care version of the program. But the choice might not be in their hands much longer. The U.S. government has quietly launched a large-scale...
Should you pay off your mortgage?
Just a few years ago, anyone looking for safe fixed-income yields in retirement likely thought things were improving. After years of near-zero interest rates dating back to the Great Recession, the Fed began to increase interest rates starting in 2015, and retirees...
Retirement planning amidst inflation
Retirees worry more than most of us about inflation—even though there hasn’t been much to worry about for several decades. This year is different. The economic fits and starts of recovery from the pandemic have produced some hot inflation numbers. Many experts regard...