Title: How to Cut Your Tax Bill on Your Federal Retirement Income
Article Snip: "...This article will be of more interest to retirees than it will to current federal employees, however, if you’re close to retirement, you will pick up some helpful information if you read it..."
Reference:www.fedsmith.comTitle: The Top 7 Reasons Almost 33% of American Workers Have Saved Nothing for Retirement
Article Snip: "...There are many reasons people do (or don’t do) the things they should. According to GoBankingRates.com, almost 33% of American workers have saved nothing for retirement. That is an astounding statistic and spells trouble for the entire economy down the road..."
Reference: forextv.comTitle: A federal employee retirement plan is a good model for better retirement saving
Article Snip: "...The TSP offers a “target date” investing approach in which the plan automatically shifts federal employees’ savings from stock to bond funds as they approach retirement. And at retirement, the TSP offers annuities that let workers convert their lump sum savings into a monthly benefit that last for life. What’s not to like? A lot, according to Joanne Butler, a former House Ways and Means Committee staff ..."
Reference: www.aei.orgTitle: Military Service and Social Security
Article Snip: "...Under certain circumstances, special extra earnings for
periods of active duty from 1957 through 2001 can also
be credited to your Social Security earnings record.
• From 1957 through 1967,
we will add the extra
credits to your record when you apply for Social
Security benefits.
• From 1968 through 2001,
you don’t need to do
anything to receive these extra credits. The credits
were automatically added to your record.
• After 2001,
there are no special extra earnings
credits for military service.
The information that follows explains how you can
get credit for special extra earnings and applies only
to active duty military service earnings from
1957
through 2001..."
Title: Warren Buffett says investors should stick with index funds
Article Snip: "...Buffett, widely considered one of the world's best investors, said in his annual letter to shareholders. 'Both large and small investors should stick with low-cost index funds.'..."
Reference: www.reuters.comMore Reading: Warren Buffett says The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing
Title: 15 Social Security Stats That Will Blow You Away
Article Snip: "...Social Security pays close to 61 million Americans about $918 billion in benefits annually. If that sounds like a heck of a lot, it is. But it's only about $15,000, on average, per person. 10: In order to qualify for Social Security benefits based on your earnings, you need to collect 40 credits, where a credit is represented by your earning of at least $1,260 (as of 2016) within a year, with up to four credits that can be earned per year. Thus, most of us can qualify simply by working for a decade. Even if you only worked half of each year, 20 years of working could qualify you..."
Reference: www.fool.comTitle: Planning for a Delayed Retirement
Article Snip: "...According to the Office of Personnel Management, the average retirement age for a federal employee between 2005 and 2014 was 60.2 years and average length of service was 27.8 years; 54 percent of those were age 60 or older; and half of retirees had 30 or more years of service..."
Reference: www.govexec.comTitle: White House Throws Weight Behind Cutting Feds’ Retirement, Health Benefits
Article Snip: "...Chaffetz said he would protect employees already vested in their pensions, saying he did not want to “unduly scare” an employee already on the job for seven years and it would be “difficult” to go after existing workers’ retirements. Chaffetz also said his committee is considering ways to shrink the size of the federal workforce..."
Reference: www.govexec.comTitle: Know when to expect your 1099R
Article Snip: "...You need a Form W-2 to file with your return. Not so with Forms 1099. In contrast to Forms W-2, you don’t file Forms 1099 with your return. Forms 1099 remind you that you earned interest, received a consulting fee, or were paid some other kind of income. There are many varieties, including 1099-INT for interest, 1099-DIV for dividends, 1099-G for tax refunds, 1099-R for pensions and 1099-MISC for miscellaneous income. These forms are sent by payors to you and the IRS..."
Reference: www.forbes.comTitle: Social Security Recipients Will Get Less than a $4 Increase next Year
Article Snip: "...The average monthly Social Security payment is $1,238. That translates into a monthly increase of less than $4 a month. More bad news for seniors: Medicare Part B premiums, which are usually deducted from Social Security payments, are expected to increase next year to the point in which they will probably wipe out the entire COLA..."
Reference: fortune.comTitle: Best day to retire, when’s your magic moment?
Article Snip: "...Benefits expert Tammy Flanagan says that although many tend to concentrate on the December-January magic dates, there are other best dates too. She is with the National Institute of Transition Planning , and a regular columnist for Government Executive. She points out that there are different “best dates” depending on which retirement system you are under. ..."
Reference: federalnewsradio.comTitle: Another Excuse To Take Away Your Social Security
Article Snip: "...Bad enough that various left-wingers want to make Social Security “means-tested,” meaning that frugal workers who have saved for retirement get their government pensions clipped. Now we’ve got the Wall Street Journal offering up a case for short-changing retirees. At issue: The 8% boost you get..."
Reference: www.forbes.comTitle: How to apply for Social Security Retirement Benefits
Article Snip: "...What is the easiest way to apply for my Social Security retirement benefits, and how far in advance do I need to apply before I start collecting? ..."
Reference: www.thespectrum.comTitle: Social Security rolls back two-factor mandate
Article Snip: "...Merkley cited Pew data that indicated that just 35 percent of Americans over the age of 65 use text messaging. "With the majority of individuals at or above Social Security retirement benefit age not equipped to text, developing alternative multi-factor authentication methods is crucial to ensuring that all recipients have equal access to their My Social Security accounts," Merkley wrote. SSA has not come up with a new two-factor verification method..."
Reference: fcw.comTitle: FERS Application for Immediate Retirement
Article Snip: "...This application is for you if you are a Federal employee covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and you wish to apply for retirement with an immediate annuity. You should use this application if you want to apply for an annuity which will begin within 30 days of your separation from Federal service ..."
Reference: OPMTitle: Why You Should Try to Tape Conversations With Social Security
Article Snip: "...First, Social Security may be the most complex government policy yet designed by man. It has 12 different benefits, but is chock full of hidden secrets and gotchas that make collecting what you’re owed a user’s nightmare. Second, most people don’t do their homework before approaching Social Security’s 40,000 poorly trained and totally overwhelmed staff, over the phone or in the local office. Third, in my opinion, Social Security staff bats only 50%. Half of their answers are misleading, incomplete or dead wrong..."
Reference: www.forbes.comTitle: Benefits of owning a Medicare supplement insurance policy
Article Snip: "...Medicare pays a portion of your health care costs for hospitalization, skilled nursing facility care and physician’s services and supplies. However, it does not pay all of your expenses and requires you to pay deductibles and coinsurance for many services. A Medicare supplement insurance policy can help pay some of the charges Medicare doesn’t cover..."
Reference: www.myeasternshoremd.com |
| FERS Retirement Application |
Title: Another Glitch in Processing Federal Retirement Applications?
Article Snip: "...As a consequence, you may experience an increase in contact from the Retirement Services for documents that we may need to complete a retirement case. EHRI has informed us that they are in the process of contracting for the resumption of this scanning service, and we will notify you when it restarts.”..."
Reference: blogs.fedsmith.comTitle: Obama Claims Power to Make Illegal Immigrants Eligible for Social Security, Disability
Article Snip: "...millions of individuals who are violating federal law that he will not enforce that law against them now, that they may continue to violate that law in the future and that he will take action that makes them eligible for federal benefit programs for which they are not currently eligible due to their unlawful status..."
Reference: cnsnews.comTitle: Donald Trump on Social Security
Article Snip: "...Cannot change Medicare or Soc.Sec. and still win elections, Social Security isn't an "entitlement"; it's honoring a deal, Pay off debt; put $3T interest savings into Trust Fund, Let people invest their own retirement funds, ..."
Reference: www.ontheissues.orgTitle: Bernie Sanders on Social Security
Article Snip: "...Criminal to not have COLA increases for seniors, Defend against chained CPI, and expand Social Security, No cuts; no privatization; even to deal with deficit , Raise the Social Security cap on taxable income. Despite GOP rhetoric, Social Security is NOT going bankrupt ..."
Reference: www.ontheissues.orgTitle: Hillary Clinton on Social Security
Article Snip: "...During her 2008 presidential bid, Clinton was relatively non-committal about reforms to the Social Security program. She said in 2007 that certain reforms such as cutting benefits, privatizing the program or raising the retirement age were "off the table." There were some articles at the time that gave mixed signals on whether she would be willing to increase payroll taxes..."
Reference: www.ontheissues.orgTitle: Ted Cruz on Social Security
Article Snip: "...Q: How would you protect Social Security for today's seniors and strengthen it for future generations?
A: On Social Security, I am campaigning on a series of very specific reforms. For seniors receiving Social Security or near Social Security, there should be no changes in benefits whatsoever. For younger workers, we need to do three fundamental reforms.
Source: Texas Tribune Interview in 2012 AARP Senate Voter Guide , Aug 24, 2012 ..."