Squared Away Blog

If a 65-year-old signs up for a Medigap policy but decides a year or two later that the premiums are too high, the new retiree can easily switch to an Advantage policy with a low premium. But if, after starting retirement with Advantage, he wants to switch to a more flexible Medigap policy, he could run into problems. A federal rule requires insurance companies that sell Medigap to accept all 65-year-olds – but only when they are new to Medicare. No rejecting new retirees for pre-existing conditions. No charging a higher premium because they are sicker. But once that initial period lapses, Medigap insurers can reject applicants for all kinds of health reasons. This one-way street “detracts from the ability…

In a new survey asking retirees what surprised them about being retired, the big winner – for 43 percent – was how much they’re enjoying it. The rest of the survey indicates that the freedom that comes with leaving the labor force often serves to leaven the considerable sacrifices some have to make for financial reasons. One in four retired households, for example, agree they are “forced to live more frugally than we wanted,” and one in 10 said they’re “spending their nest egg too fast,” according to the survey, fielded in 2023 by Hearts & Wallets, which provides data to the financial industry. I also suspect that one pleasant surprise – having more income than when they were working…

About one in four workers in their 50s and early 60s has a physical or medical condition that limits their ability to work. These impairments can upend retirement plans and force them to make financial sacrifices if they have to apply for disability or sign up early for Social Security. A new research study that looks at four types of injuries – on- versus off-the-job and chronic versus less severe – confirms that they have a dramatic impact on older workers’ earnings and career paths. Start with whether they can continue to work. Older workers who develop an impairment often leave their jobs immediately, regardless of the nature of the impairment, according to the study, which focused on people who…

Aaron Blight and his wife were thrown into the role of caregiver when his mother-in-law was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The couple cared for her for more than five years, juggling her needs with raising their four children. Today, Blight combines a professorship at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, and writing about caregiving with running his company, Caregiving Kinetics, which provides training for professional and family caregivers.  In a recent interview, he discussed four different types of caregivers, whom he describes as “the unheralded and unrecognized” providers of unpaid care valued at some $500 billion per year. He credits Amanda Cooper at the University of Connecticut for the profiles, which she based on the online narratives written by family…

About 11 percent of the children in poor families are living with adults who receive Social Security’s retirement, disability, or supplemental cash benefits. The children are often Black or Hispanic. One out of every four of the families has income below $35,000, and many of the children live with a retired grandparent. If the child does live with a parent, it is often a single mother. While these families rely heavily on their income from Social Security, several federal programs provide additional assistance. A new study documents a dramatic drop in the Supplemental Poverty Rate – from 25 percent to 13 percent – for these vulnerable families when the benefits from three major programs are added to their Social Security:…

To retire is to enter the unknown. Rick Fine has demystified one aspect of retirement: Medicare. As the director of financial planning for an advisory and investment firm, he has put together a list of what he sees as the five biggest mistakes new retirees make. I encourage you to read Fine’s well-written and detailed article about his five mistakes. Here are a few of the high points. Mistake #1: Thinking Medicare is free. It’s a great program but it will cost you $174.70 a month for Medicare’s Part B premium – and much more if you have high income. The Part A hospital coverage and Part B for physician services also have deductibles, as do some of the insuranc…

The recession that economists predicted has never materialized. Unemployment has been under 4 percent for more than two years, a low more characteristic of the go-go 1960s than modern times. But although consumer sentiment, as measured by the University of Michigan’s monthly survey, is improving, it is still mired in the same territory that it was after the 2008 financial crisis.  The first reason is, of course, fallout from COVID-fueled inflation. Americans continue to feel the pain of paying more for everything from eggs and consumer goods to cars. But inflation began to ease up last year and remains well below the pandemic’s 9 percent peak, despite March’s unwelcome increase of 3.5 percent annually. So how to explain consumers’ sour…

During the pandemic, the U.S. Social Security Administration leaned into providing more services and processing applications online. But that has furthered the agency’s disconnect with Native Americans living miles from its field offices in rural areas with poor internet access. That’s one conclusion from a new study of the agency’s effectiveness in reaching Native American and Alaskan Native populations. The study included some analysis of data on these communities but was based largely on interviews with tribal leaders, community members, advocates, and the government staff who assist people applying for Social Security and other government benefits. Although tribal communities have a higher poverty rate than non-Native populations, their members are somewhat less likely to be receiving Social Security’s various benefits,…

When people aren’t getting a government benefit they’re eligible for, the program’s goal of improving equity is compromised. Social Security’s disability insurance is an example. Roughly half of the 20 million adults who have a disability that limits or completely prohibits them from working are receiving the benefit. Not all of them would meet the program’s criteria for eligibility. But research based on a survey of workers and interviews with people with disabilities reveals some of the reasons they decide to not even try to apply. An analysis of the survey data shows that the decision is, to a large extent, a matter of having certain advantages. The non-applicants were a fairly small group. But they were more educated and…

The Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Biden in 2022 somewhat limits how much retirees will pay out of their own pockets for medications this year. Next year, the law imposes a hard cap of $2,000. But while retirees are getting a reprieve from Congress, insurance companies are pushing in the opposite direction. According to research appearing in Health Affairs, insurers are tightening retirees’ access to some medications and increasing the number that are excluded from Part D and Medicare Advantage plan coverage altogether. Ultimately, this might either cost retirees more or, in the most extreme cases, prevent them from taking some necessary medications if they can’t afford to pay the cost themselves. The $2,000 annual cap on out-of-pocket drug…

The negative financial consequences for individuals over age 50 who lose a partner are dramatic. A new study by Ohio State researchers found that the surviving partners see their credit scores drop by 10 points – a decline that persists for up to two years following the partner’s death. Further confirmation of the financial fallout is the rise in delinquencies on debt payments. If the late payments involve credit cards, which retirees frequently roll over to the next month, they can expose the fragility of the survivor’s finances. Anytime a spouse or partner dies, the survivor’s finances destabilize. The Social Security income coming into married households declines if the number of checks is reduced from two to one. Other researc…

Virtually all high-income workers in this country are saving in some type of employer retirement plan. But only a minority in the lowest-income group are. A new study tackles this serious shortfall for disadvantaged workers in service, retail and other low-paying jobs. The crux of the problem, the researchers find, is that they lack easy access to a retirement savings plan at their jobs. This analysis, by establishing a direct connection between access to an employer-based plan and the act of saving, goes on to show that national legislation would greatly boost the financial security of low- and also middle-income workers by providing a retirement plan when, as is often the case, their employers do not. Automatically enrolling them would…