This Week’s Must Read

Expenses and income are important, but there’s more to a successful retirement plan than just dollars and cents. Read the rest of the story.

I often see rules of thumb suggesting how much people should save each year or how much money they should have in retirement accounts by certain ages to be on track to a secure retirement. But I don’t see how it’s possible for people to meet these benchmarks when big chunks of income go to

Workers who are funding their retirement through an employer’s qualified plan often run the risk of developing tunnel vision where their 401(k) benefits are concerned. Either they only save the minimum, or, worse, they don’t save at all. Read the rest of the story.

Wake up, grab a cup of coffee and head out the door. That’s the routine that about 80% of Americans rely on every day. But depending on how you’re getting your morning pick-me-up, you could be throwing your money down the drain. Read the rest of the story.

Involving fake tax notices related to the ACA.  Beware of any email you may receive from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS): It’s a scam.  There’s been an uptick of people receiving fake notices regarding tax bills tied to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Wall Street Journal reports. The notice asks taxpayers without proper coverage

A divorce can be draining—both emotionally and financially—especially later in life. And more and more people are getting divorced later in life. Just one in 10 people who divorced in 1990 was age 50 or older; twenty years later it was one in four, according to Dr. Susan Brown, professor of sociology at Bowling Green

You can’t make up for lost time, so try these eight options.  You’re rounding the corner toward retirement age with not nearly enough set aside. Read the rest of the story.

Americans getting ready to claim their Social Security benefits may not be getting crucial information they need to make the best decisions for their retirement, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office. That could mean tens of thousands of lost dollars. Read the rest of the story.

Social Security provides critical benefits to more than 50 million people a year; almost 170 million workers contribute a chunk of their paycheck, to the tune of $900 billion annually, to keep those benefits flowing. You’d think with all the people and money involved that we’d all understand exactly how the program works. Read the

A new law gives a heads-up to those under hospital ‘observation’.  As if being in a hospital wasn’t tough enough, patients on Medicare (those 65 and older) are now facing potentially huge out-of-pocket costs if they are placed on “observation status” instead of being formally admitted. And when such a patient then goes from the