A digest of timely information and insight about finance, investing, and retirement.
Good news and bad news for people thinking about retirement | CNBC
Nearly half of Americans anticipate an uncomfortable retirement. Don’t listen to them. People are pessimistic about their financial future, but when their later decades finally roll around, well, they’re not so bad, according to new findings from Gallup. After retirement, the share of people who report being comfortable swells to nearly 80 percent, the survey discovered.
What retirees need to know about rising Medicare costs | CNBC
This year, high-income retirees can expect to shell out even more money to cover their Medicare premiums. That’s because as of 2018, there is a shift in the income brackets that are used to determine how much older Americans will pay for their Medicare Part B (preventive services) and Part D coverage for prescription drugs, according to a recent analysis by HealthView Services, a provider of health-care cost projection software.
The best countries to retire in (America’s not on the list) | MarketWatch
You may want to pack your bags because the United States did not make the list of 50 countries where it’s cheapest to retire. India ranked first, as ex-patriots would pay 93 percent less in rent than they would for a New York City apartment and save 70 percent on groceries, according to personal finance site GoBankingRates. Also ranked high on the list were Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Czech Republic, Germany, Turkey, and Taiwan. What makes them so great? The low cost of living, the less expensive health care, and the purchasing power Americans would have, to name a few.
How rising rents are impacting retirees | MarketWatch
Boomers and Gen Xers are now the most “rent-burdened” Americans, according to a new Pew Charitable Trusts report, Americans Face a Growing Rent Burden. And things have only been getting worse for them. Pew defines rent-burdened as spending 30 percent or more of your income on rent; people who spend 50 percent or more on rent are, in Pew’s words, “severely rent burdened.”
This map shows how long $1 million in retirement savings will last in every state | Time-Money
Location, location, location. It’s the battle hymn for buying real estate and a huge factor for retirees looking to make their savings last. All things being equal, $1 million in savings will last nearly twice as long in “low-cost” states such as Arkansas or Kansas than it will in Hawaii, according to an analysis of state-by-state retirement cost-of-living data by HowMuch.net. What mattered most? Not surprisingly, housing costs and healthcare are the biggest variables to extending retirement savings.
No luck finding the right nursing home? Maybe Yelp can help | The New York Times
Can you really select a quality nursing home by reading Yelp reviews? Gerontologists at the University of Southern California have been looking into Yelp nursing home reviews and think they make a useful addition to the homework any prospective resident or family member needs to undertake. It’s not that reviews posted to online platforms like Yelp are such reliable guides to nursing home quality, said Anna Rahman, senior author of a recent article in The Gerontologist. It’s that the supposed gold standard, the five-star ratings on the federal government’s own Nursing Home Compare website, remains so faulty.
Here’s the bad news. Even sound planning and careful decision making is no hedge against sudden, irreversible breach of contract by your state government and the PERA board. At retirement, I had a written agreement for an annual 3.5% increase in my pension benefit. This, by my calculation would help keep pace with inflation and healthcare. Mind you, this was not a “promise”, or an “optimistic outlook”. These were the terms of my retirement package, without any language to the effect of unilateral breach by the state, and never mentioned as a possibility IN ANY of the pre-retirement meetings, put on by PERA that I attended. I heard the question asked repeatedly, “is the annual benefit increase subject to change?” “NO” was the consistent answer. After careful consideration of these facts, I retired.
in 2010 this was reduced, in 2018 this was completely taken away for a period of two years and capped after that at 1.25% or just under 1/2 of the average annual inflation rate over the last 20 years. That’s right, Your fully vested “pension” will actually lose value, as opposed to even “keeping up with inflation”. Colorado has defiled the concept of “pension”, and the very meaning of the word “contract”.
Now the young teacher will pay even more into the system, will be eventually forced into a “Defined Contribution” or predatory 401K plan, and will be forced to work in the classroom beyond the age of the energy, fitness, and currency of knowledge necessary for the job. All this, and will probably still rank near the bottom of the pay scale for US teachers overall. PERA is / and was perfectly “sound” considering their obligation. The goal of “Full Funding” simply isn’t necessary at any given moment. These obligations are amortized over years and can and should ALWAYS be backfilled (as necessary) by the Taxpayers who are the recipients of this service. This veteran teacher is appalled and ashamed of the Colorado Legislature and PERA.
I invite discussion, especially from those who are similarly situated, or from any current teachers in Colorado who are looking into this dismal forecast for their own careers. I will be happy with no less than a retro-active repeal of legislation that, beginning in 2010, breached the contract of PERA with it’s fully-vested retirees.
Well stated, the employees did what was required and the State of Colorado lied and stole from us.
Barry, Nicely put. No one told me that my retirement salary was going to change from 3.5 % to 1.25%. I was aware that Colorado stinks for teacher salaries nationwide. Colorado legislature, where are you? I’d like to talk to you about your children. Is there anything more important to you than your kids? Who teaches and guides them 9 months of the year? Who makes Colorado system of education so good? Not perfect but all considered we have a great education system. Why do foreigners come to USA colleges? In summary, I feel taken for granted by the state, parents who vote down education bills, and by our governor. Meanwhile our kids and teachers are terrific. The legislature, PERA and governor are cheapskates!
Thanks Randy, and remember the cap comes AFTER two years with 0%, so if your benefit is, say ( for example), $35K, in the first year, you lose the contracted 3.5% (or $1225), by the second 0% year, your loss is compounded to $1268, for a two year loss of $2495. In the third year, with a 1.5% cap you will only recoup $525 of what was taken, in year 4, you will recoup only $532, and so on. The 2 years of 0% will take 4 year just to make it back to where you started. Meanwhile, your health insurance has gone up with NO increase in the subsidy, and you (we in the affected, fully vested category) are falling behind to inflation, by at least another 2%….. “Cheapskate” is too kind a word for this unprecedented taking of deferred income, duly contracted and executed by the employee in good faith to it’s completion.
Mr. Warner,
For clarification, in SB 200 the annual increase would be suspended for 2018 and 2019 and would be capped at 1.5% thereafter.
I pray it does not pass. I can’t keep up with everything already.