Underutilized Strategy of Retirement Planning: Potentially Prolonging 401k & IRA returns
Jane, a 72-year-old retiree, shared her experience: “I’ve seen my grocery bills go up by almost $100 a month, and filling up my car is costing me a lot more than it used to. It’s been tough to keep up with these rising costs on a fixed income” (source: Senior…
Social Security checks increase the most in 40 years
The gas pump and the grocery store are taking a much larger bite out of our collective wallets this year. At the start of 2021 the average gas price in the US was around $1.85 and currently the average has risen 59% higher in less than a year. The 70…
Indian Food and Inflation
A few years ago my wife and I went to dinner with some friends and were introduced to Indian food for the first time. Off of Tyler and Magnolia in Riverside is a family owned restaurant called “Punjab Palace” that has been there as long as I can remember, having…
Claiming Social Security payments based on the work history of your ex-spouse
There are a few guidelines you need to be aware of when claiming a social security payment based on your ex-spouses income. Here are the most pertinent: You have to have been married for at least 10 years. It doesn’t matter if that was 40 years ago, you just have…
Social Security Increase for 2021
Every year the Social Security (SS) Administration considers a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to all of the social security checks to help your SS check have the same purchasing power year over year. The greatest factor in this calculation is inflation or the rate at which the cost of…
SSA advice on starting Social Security & Medicare benefits
Written By WWW.SSA.GOV At Social Security, we’re often asked, “What’s the best age to start receiving retirement benefits?” The answer is that there’s not a single “best age” for everyone and, ultimately, it’s your choice. The most important thing is to make an informed decision. Base your decision about…
Free Online Retirement Tools from SSA.GOV
When I was 16, I remember waiting in seemingly the longest line of my life to get my Driver’s License. I was eagerly anticipating the independence this permit to drive would give me; the freedom to drive my buddies to the beach, to take a pretty girl on a date,…
0.6% or 5.5% growth on your savings?
So much of our lives are spent in preparation for retirement. As young people, we are taught to get a good education so that we can earn enough to live comfortably and get money saved for the future. Once we graduate and get a good job, we begin to put…
Find out what you will get with this Stimulus check calculator.
We are living in unprecedented times. Due to the COVID-19 Virus, all of California is on lock-down. The US unemployment rate is expected to be around 15% by the end of this quarter. The stock market is dropping and increasing by over 1,000 points quite often. Most importantly, many Americans…
Public & Private benefits checkup program
The Federal government is constantly growing and expanding. In a 2015 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) noted: “The Federal Register indicates there are over 430 departments, agencies, and sub-agencies in the federal government.” How is a retiree supposed to be aware of all of the possible programs…
