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Social Security
A proposal to allow some retirees to receive lump sum Social Security payments would result in higher costs for Old Age, Survivor and Disability Insurance (OASDI) in the short term, but a small net reduction in OASDI costs in the longer term, says Social Security Chief Actuary Stephen Goss.The...
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Being prepared not just for a rainy day but for years — perhaps many — of post-workforce life drives strategies and safety nets. And analyses often warn that all the effort is insufficient. But panelists at a recent discussion concerning studies on retirement income suggest that the prospects for...
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The good news is that the funding level of that critical financial underpinning of the nation’s retirement security didn’t decrease during the past year.On the other hand — and the bad news in the report from the Social Security Board of Trustees — is that the combined asset reserves of the Old-Age...
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The number of workers participating in the Social Security system has risen, as has the number of people receiving benefits. But while the importance of Social Security has increased, say recent reports, individual retirement accounts figure very prominently as well.Social SecurityEighty years...
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The Social Security Administration (SSA) has released an issue paper that examines the similarities and differences between Social Security retirement benefits and annuities, and the factors that determine how much lifetime retirement income an individual would receive.In “Social Security...
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It’s tempting to believe the report that Millennials spend more on coffee than they save for their eventual retirement. Especially if one has even one eye open at Starbucks. But a recent analysis challenges what seems to be conventional wisdom.In “Fake News Fact Check: Do Millennials Spend More on...
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There will be a 0.3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Social Security for 2017, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced on Oct. 18.The COLA is based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W) from the third quarter of 2014 through the third quarter of 2016. The slight...
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In the third of a series of articles that features the insights of American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Resident Scholar Andrew Biggs in light of AEI’s recent paper, “Increasing the Effectiveness and Sustainability of the Nation’s Entitlement Programs,” Biggs shares his views on what can be done to...
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A new survey finds that current retirees are keeping a careful eye on their spending — and feel that they can sustain that approach throughout retirement.Four in 10 retired investors (42%) say they are carefully spending down their retirement savings so it lasts as long as they need it, and nearly...
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The way we approach entitlements — particularly Social Security — could be improved. There may be accord on that, but how to go about it is more of a cacophony. Such reform would have many ramifications — and retirement policy is one of the many shores that would be washed by the ripple of waves it...
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Defined benefit plans can play a key role in providing financial stability in retirement, but their effects may not be widespread, according to a recent study.In “It’s All About Income,” the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) studied 806 Americans age 65-80 who retired at least five years before...
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Much has been written about the need to increase participants’ retirement savings during their accumulation phase and help them better prepare for the decumulation phase after retiring. A recent paper argues that while there are challenges, the sky is far from falling — and in fact there is much...
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Social Security is the last thing on a Millennials’ mind.The only time I hear about Social Security is when I go to my grandparents’ house and when I see it randomly cut out of my paycheck. However, according to the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), 60 million Americans benefit from...
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The Democrats have laid out their party platform — and when it comes to retirement issues, they plan to do a lot of fighting.In keeping with an American political tradition dating back to the 19th Century, the Democrats have released a draft version of their platform ahead of the Democratic...
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In a new report published by the American Enterprise Institute and supported by the Bradley Foundation, I and several of my colleagues — Jim Capretta and Robert Doar of AEI, Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution and Yuval Levin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center — look into how to reform...
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How financially ready are most Americans for retirement? What threatens pre-retirees’ financial stability during the accumulation phase? A May 5 session at LIMRA’s 2016 Retirement Industry Conference offered some hard data on perceptions of — and risks to — retirement readiness.Andrew Peterson,...
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The good news for low income workers is that they may not have the big retirement savings challenge they’ve been worried about. There is bad news, however.In “Retirement Security: Shorter Life Expectancy Reduces Projected Lifetime Benefits for Lower Earners,” a new report by the Government...
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The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has made some corrections to the calculations of replacement rates — the ratio of Social Security recipients’ benefits to their past earnings — that it had released in December. CBO Director Keith Hall made the announcement in a Feb. 10 CBO blog post.It is,...
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Work for decades. Save for decades. Then after those decades and the end of the retirement party, the spending begins. That’s the way it works, at least in common parlance. But some analysts at Vanguard beg to differ.In “Retirement Income: Perceptions vs. Reality,” Anna Madamba, Ph.D. of the...
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Economists and retirement policy wonks gathered at a Washington D.C. think tank Jan. 20 for a presentation and discussion about the distribution of retirement benefits.The discussion focused on new research from Peter Brady, a senior economist at the Investment Company Institute, that examined the...
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