Recent Stories
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...
The road to Medicare enrollment is paved with unexpected twists: a first-hand account
As a journalist covering retirement, I have written dozens of stories over the years about the ins and outs of Medicare enrollment. But when the time came recently for yours truly to sign up I discovered there was still plenty left to learn. And let me just say this:...
An innovative alternative to nursing homes that works
Covid-19 had taken the lives of 182,000 people in nursing homes, assisted living and other long-term care facilities . . . one-third of the national total. The troubles have intensified a spotlight on long-running questions about how communities can do a better job...
How would higher inflation impact retirees?
This week on the podcast we take a look at the prospect of higher inflation, and how retirees would be impacted. In March, the consumer price index recorded its largest 12-month increase since the summer of 2018, rising at a 2.6 percent annual pace. Some analysts...