Recent Stories
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...
How do we support people who want to age at home?
Covid-19 had taken the lives of 181,000 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 creativity can save your career
This week on the podcast, we take a look at strategies for rebooting careers disrupted by the pandemic. This is an especially critical question for older workers getting close to retirement. This economic downturn has impacted older workers disproportionately, and...
Medicare’s solvency problem, and what to do about it
This week on the podcast, we consider the most urgent retirement-related issue facing the new Biden administration and Congress: Medicare’s solvency problem. The problem has to do with just one part of Medicare - Part A. That’s the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which...
Creativity and older adults: The story of Encore Creativity’s chorale singers
This is the last newsletter and podcast of the year, and with the holidays upon us, I thought it would be fun to wrap up with something a little different and uplifting, after the awful year that was 2020. So - how about a little holiday music from the country’s...
The 2021 Social Security COLA: How healthcare takes a big bite of your benefit
Healthcare costs are rising at several times the rate of general inflation, and it’s one of the major financial challenges that retirees face as they struggle to maintain their standard of living. Nowhere is this more clear than in the annual interplay between the...
How will the pandemic change financial planning?
This week on the podcast, we take a look at how financial planning for retirement may change as a result of the pandemic. I invited Christine Benz of Morningstar to join me for this discussion after she published a thought-provoking essay on this question on the...