There will be no cost-of-living increase for 57 million Social Security beneficiaries next year because consumer prices have fallen, the Social Security Administration announced on Thursday.
Question: I had the good fortune to be able to retire early at age 52, but last year's market meltdown has made me rethink the decision. I may still be okay, but I don't have the same level of certainty I once had. My question is this: How will Social Security be calculated for me and how does the fact that I haven't worked the last few years fit into the calculation? --Jack Ford, West Newbury, Mass.
A report earlier this week that a pair of academics had discovered a way to figure out a person's Social Security number based on information people commonly post online has raised new concerns about identity theft.
You've probably spent a lot of time sweating over your 401(k) and IRA. But have you given much thought to the way Social Security will fit into your retirement plans?
I was snowed under by e-mail from readers of the Social Security article I wrote last month, which appeared online just as I was starting my vacation and in print a few days later.
"We worked hard to get it and we're going to keep it," said Nancy Snyder, one of the protesters attending this summer's health care town meetings.
The Department of Defense may have paid more than $15 million into invalid civilian employee accounts over a six-year period, an investigation has concluded.
Big companies, ranging from AT&T to Dell to FedEx to Tyson Foods, are among those cashing in on the billions of dollars of federal stimulus money that is rolling out the door.
Maybe it was the baby in "Friends." Or perhaps it was a thirst for comforting words that sound like "mama."
When the $787 billion stimulus bill was passed by Congress in February, $317.2 billion in spending provisions were appropriated for various federal agencies. Take a look at an overview of the numbers, where available:
There will be no cost-of-living increase for 57 million Social Security beneficiaries next year because consumer prices have fallen, the Social Security Administration announced on Thursday.
Question: I had the good fortune to be able to retire early at age 52, but last year's market meltdown has made me rethink the decision. I may still be okay, but I don't have the same level of certainty I once had. My question is this: How will Social Security be calculated for me and how does the fact that I haven't worked the last few years fit into the calculation? --Jack Ford, West Newbury, Mass.
A report earlier this week that a pair of academics had discovered a way to figure out a person's Social Security number based on information people commonly post online has raised new concerns about identity theft.
You've probably spent a lot of time sweating over your 401(k) and IRA. But have you given much thought to the way Social Security will fit into your retirement plans?
I was snowed under by e-mail from readers of the Social Security article I wrote last month, which appeared online just as I was starting my vacation and in print a few days later.
"We worked hard to get it and we're going to keep it," said Nancy Snyder, one of the protesters attending this summer's health care town meetings.
The Department of Defense may have paid more than $15 million into invalid civilian employee accounts over a six-year period, an investigation has concluded.
Big companies, ranging from AT&T to Dell to FedEx to Tyson Foods, are among those cashing in on the billions of dollars of federal stimulus money that is rolling out the door.
Maybe it was the baby in "Friends." Or perhaps it was a thirst for comforting words that sound like "mama."
When the $787 billion stimulus bill was passed by Congress in February, $317.2 billion in spending provisions were appropriated for various federal agencies. Take a look at an overview of the numbers, where available:
Question: I've been having an argument with a co-worker about the difference between living "within your means" and living "below your means." I'm hoping you can settle the issue for us. What do see as the difference between the two terms? --Mark E., Peoria, Illinois
When it comes to retirement, I've got a whole laundry list of issues I wish President-elect Barack Obama and his counterparts in Congress would tackle as soon as they are sworn in this month. But the U.S. deficit has hit record levels, so I'm trying to be realistic about what we can afford. With that in mind, I'm paring down my retirement wish list to three things that can make a big impact - without blowing a hole in the nation's finances.
Consumer prices were flat in September as retreating costs for gasoline, clothes and new cars helped to offset rising prices for food, medical care and other things
I'm worried about my wife. Not that she really has any problems. She's educated, professionally savvy and, thank goodness, perfectly healthy. In fact, according to the Social Security Administration, she can expect to live to 2050. Trouble is, I'm scheduled to kick it in 2047. And that's if we're both average. She's in better shape than I am, so she could be on her own for a lot longer.
It's an old crime with a new twist. Never missing an opportunity, fraudsters are hitting the phones and the Internet looking for victims.
On the heels of the government's plan to stimulate the economy by sending out special tax rebates, authorities say crooks are posing as officials from the Internal Revenue Service or Social Security Administration.
Small business owners will have an opportunity to sound off about "no match" immigration rules that force employers to face heavy fines for not verifying workers' immigration status within 90 days if social security numbers didn't match.
On Wednesday small business owners nationwide caught a break of sorts when a federal judge blocked the implementation of a recent Bush administration initiative that would use the Social Security system to go after employers of illegal immigrants.
Bliss Nicholson flies to Mexico every year, not to soak up the sun in Cancún but to recruit legal migrant workers for his landscaping business in Middleton, Wis. With the local unemployment rate under 4%, few legal residents in his area care to work long hours in the hot sun planting trees or laying irrigation pipes for $10 an hour. Unlike many in his industry, Nicholson chooses not to hire illegal immigrants. So the annual road trip is his only recourse.
The Social Security Administration cannot start sending out letters to employers next week that carry with them more serious penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants, a federal judge ruled Friday.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a new workplace rule today, imposing penalties on employers who knowingly hire those who cannot legally work in the U.S.
Question: When I retired, I chose a lump-sum from my company's pension plan and rolled the money into an IRA instead of taking an annuity. I did this because it's my understanding that if my wife and I were to die after receiving just a couple of months of annuity payments, none of the annuity's value would be passed on to our children or other heirs.
Question: When I read about the amount of money required at retirement age to fund a desired lifestyle ($1 million, $1.5 million, etc.), I always wonder what counts toward that amount. Like many people, my wife and I will have a mix of investments as well as several small pensions and Social Security.
If you get an e-mail announcing the cost-of-living increases scheduled for 2007 Social Security benefits and purporting to be from the Social Security Administration, don't answer it and don't click on any links in the e-mail.
The more than 53 million Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 3.3 percent cost-of-living adjustment in 2007, the Social Security Administration reported Wednesday.
Did you know you can start collecting Social Security benefits as early as age 62? Many Americans do it, but it may not be the best plan of action for YOU. And get this - every year you delay collecting Social Security, the amount you'll eventually receive increases. That happens up until you reach "full retirement age," usually 67.
The first test for newlyweds is often not where to store the china, but rather facing Uncle Sam as husband and wife.
ich that the average worker retires at 62, four years earlier than his grandfather did. That other byproduct of prosperity--a longer, healthier life--has stretched retirement three more years at the other end as well. This is progress. The only problem is, within the next two decades, those seven "bonus" years of leisure will collide with the 76 million baby boomers now hurtling toward their sixties. It's going to be awfully tough for the economy to support so many nonworking people for so long. This is the reason pretty much every economist who studies the subject is convinced that the American style of retirement is about to change. ...
Tomorrow seniors can begin signing up for Medicare's drug benefit plan. Whether you're eligible for benefits or your parents are, you may be looking for direction because the choices are overwhelming.
We are living in a golden age of early retirement. Like it or not, though, that era is about to end--and we have only our own prosperity to blame. In just three generations, America has grown so ri...
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - More than 52 million recipients of Social Security and supplemental benefits will see a 4.1 percent bump in their monthly payments come 2006, the Social Security Administration said Friday.
Hurricane Katrina victims may find themselves with little more than the clothes on their back. Starting over is challenging especially without any documents proving your identity. It may be difficult getting your local banker to recognize you.
The Social Security Administration allowed the FBI to search its files as part of the terrorism investigation after the September 11, 2001, attacks, according to government documents released Wednesday by a privacy group.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The Social Security trustees, in their 2005 report released Wednesday, offered an earlier date for trust fund exhaustion and revised upward estimates of the shortfalls facing the system over the next 75 years.
Here's what you need to know if you're tempted to fib. Plus: Will outsourcing to India end soon? And more on how to spot a phony diploma.
When George W. Bush submitted his whopping $2.57 trillion proposal to Congress last week, it showed how the war on terrorism has come home to roost.
Wealthier Americans should take the hit to bolster Social Security, according to a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll conducted over the weekend and released Tuesday.
House and Senate Democrats rallied Thursday against President Bush's plan to revamp Social Security, to show they would not let it pass without a fight.
It's arguably the most important question retirees face. No, not "What time does the senior breakfast special start at Denny's?" I'm talking about Social Security: Should you begin collecting benef...
It's arguably the most important question retirees face. No, not "What time does the senior breakfast special start at Denny's?"
SOCIAL SECURITY IS A MESS. WITH THE OLDEST babyboomers now four years away from qualifying for benefits, the program faces a shortfall of $12.7 trillion. To close the deficit, the program would nee...
For most new widows, the only thing that rivals grief is fear.
Alan Greenspan may have touched the third rail of American politics this week by calling for cuts in Social Security benefits, but most economists weren't shocked.
Q. I am in the process of refinancing a home loan. Although I locked in a great rate in mid-June that was good for 60 days, it took the lender longer than that to get the appraisal and legal work...
STARTING OUT 20s and 30s The greatest asset you have right now isn't money--it's time.
You know what creeps me out? (Well, lots of stuff, but let's stick to retirement here.) It's when I get the statements from ye olde Social Security Administration that declare something like, "Here...
Baby-boomers have ushered in most every major trend over the past 50 years. But it was their grandparents who initiated the most radical demographic change of the past half-century--a dramatic decl...
Is the government using Social Security numbers like bar codes? Are there secret formulas in those nine digits to mark Americans by religion, race, gender, and other personal stuff, like dog/cat pe...
Q I began using an online discount firm with really low commissions because I wanted to save money on my stock trades. Then a friend told me that I was probably losing more than I was saving. He sa...
Some 35,000 filing cabinets (including the ones at left) containing records of $350 billion in federal employee retirement benefits are literally buried in Boyers, Pa. The facility is officially na...
Since her husband Robert died last year, Joan Rosener, 69, of Coconut Creek, Fla. (shown on page 137) has tried mightily to educate herself about financial issues. One of her first moves was to vis...
You're not asking much, simply for the details of your finances and private life to remain private. That's how readers overwhelmingly reacted to August's "Protect Your Privacy." It revealed the fiv...
THIS MONTH: --Read investing news delivered free to your PC.
Okay, so you've lied about your age. People do it all the time. Trouble is, your little secret can cost you big bucks when you're ready to retire. So it's generally best to sacrifice vanity and tel...
Q. Our nine-year-old son received a $28,000 settlement following an auto accident. We'd like to invest the money for his college education. How should we proceed so that there's enough money in nin...
MAYBE THE GETTYSBURG Address would not have been any better had Lincoln written it on a laptop. But if today's crop of federal Websites had existed back in '63, Abe would have had access to a lot o...
Readers who wrote in about MONEY's ninth annual ranking of U.S. cities ("The Best Places to Live Today," September) were generally in a combative mood. A major point of contention was the sudden ri...
THE COMEBACK OF ENGLISH
The fellow whose breakfast one eats every morning recently turned 70, prepared to receive Social Security benefits, and became instantly suspicious of the monthly amount the Social Security Adminis...
If you are interested in learning the projected amount of your future Social Security benefits, you can ask for your Personal Earnings and Benefit Estimate Statement (PEBES) from the Social Securit...
''Can you top this?'' was the note attached by a Bay State correspondent to the article clipped from the Boston Globe, and the answer has to be -- it's tough. The article concerned certain weirditi...
Watch out: To keep the Social Security retirement trust fund from running in the red, House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski has just lobbed the biggest grenade yet in the battle ...
After you complete the worksheet on page 25 to estimate the percentage of today's income you will need when you leave work, use this worksheet to set an annual retirement savings goal. The workshee...
-- Require all companies to offer defined-contribution plans; end costly ''discrimination'' tests.
When Zoe Baird got shot down for malefactions relating to domestic help, it suddenly occurred to your servant that he himself was now a logical candidate for the job of U.S. Attorney General. Well,...
The long arm of Social Security embraces nearly all of us. Yet, learning how to deal with the 63,000-person Social Security Administration can be daunting. For tips on getting the most out of Socia...
AGE HEALTHFULLY, retire earlier, and bank on ever richer government benefits. For nearly 50 years, political leaders in North America, Japan, and Europe have promised their citizens varying version...
New York Senator Daniel Moynihan's proposal to cut Social Security taxes provides an unpleasant reminder of the enormous bite that they take out of your paycheck: up to $3,924.45 this year if you e...
Q. I am a 20-year-old college student who has just won a $62,000 out-of-court personal-injury settlement. Because I painfully earned it, I am planning on spending $5,000 or so on a used car and a c...
We have been following the latest big issue to agitate the country's senior citizens -- the issue being who should finance the cost of their catastrophic medical coverage -- and have a forecast abo...
Smart financial planning demands that you and your family understand how Social Security's retirement, survivor and disability systems work. But Americans have become increasingly confused about th...
One of the biggest aggravations in retirement planning used to be getting an accurate estimate of your Social Security benefits. If you knew the right questions, you could write to the Social Secur...
Bright young comrades will soon be receiving their MBA degrees from Karl Marx University in Budapest. Eager to adopt the West's business acumen, Hungary recently asked the University of Tennessee t...
It is an article of faith that a lifetime of hard work will be rewarded with a comfy retirement financed largely by pensions and Social Security. But this long-held belief is not as well founded as...
SILVER Q. My husband and I would like to start investing in silver. What is the best way to do it? KIMBERLY A. BROOKHART Mechanicsburg, Pa. A. You have two choices. You can buy one-ounce U.S. Silve...
The purpose of life insurance is to guarantee your family a comfortable life if you die young. Consequently you should err on the high side when calculating your coverage. That does not mean sacrif...
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