A news and educational resource pooling excerpts from various news and information sources from the web for the Federal Retiree.
Article Excerpt: "...This period includes when you reach what Social Security calls your “full retirement age” — 66 for those born between 1943 and 1954, as old as 67 for later arrivals — and what might be called a bonus period after that, ending at age 70...."
Article Excerpt: "...You can contribute to Social Security your entire life and get back less in benefits than someone who never worked and never contributed a penny to the system...."
Article Excerpt: "...If you’ve recently begun receiving Social Security benefits or plan to apply in the near future, you may be wondering this tax season: are Social Security benefits taxable?..."
Article Excerpt: "...Here, inside the caverns of an old Pennsylvania limestone mine, there are 600 employees of the Office of Personnel Management. Their task is nothing top-secret. It is to process the retirement papers of the government’s own workers. But that system has a spectacular flaw..."
Article Excerpt: "...But Jolly had an easy comeback: He denied wanting to privatize Social Security, and fired back by noting that Sink voiced some support for the Simpson-Bowles debt-reduction plan, which included cuts to Social Security...."
Article Excerpt: "...Critics countered that the chained CPI doesn’t account for medical costs which make up a larger share of expenses for older people than for the population as a whole and would over time cost federal retirees thousands of dollars...."
Article Excerpt: "...Most people aren't careless with the things they value the most. Surprisingly, one exception is how most people treat their most valuable retirement asset -- Social Security...."
Article Excerpt: "...Some of the Social Security rules can be frighteningly complex. Because it will likely represent a large portion of your retirement income, it's important to understand how the government program works...."
Article Excerpt: "...the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" -- the no-man's land in which beneficiaries pay the full cost for prescriptions after they have used up their basic benefit and before they reach an upper "catastrophic" mark when coverage resumes...."
Article Excerpt: "... Social Security benefits were never intended to go mostly toward medical bills. Yet today, even with Medicare (including the prescription drug coverage - Medicare Part D - which took effect in 2006), out-of-pocket health care costs are well on their way to eating up half of the average Social Security check of seniors and their surviving spouses. ..."
Article Excerpt: "..."We keep hearing rumors of buyout ... but without any confirmation," a federal HR official said earlier this week. "It's almost like [the situation] with the SES bonuses, as if [the administration] doesn't want to talk about it." ..."
Article Excerpt: "...The team in blue — the Democrats — say the federal workforce has already paid enough, over and over again...."
Article Excerpt: "...For example, at 62, you get 75% of your normal retirement benefit. At 66, you get 100%. At 70 it's 132%. Each year you wait from 62 on increases your benefits by about 8%...."
Article Excerpt: "...There is a retirement crisis, and the only part of the solution that’s in government hands is Social Security benefits. If government really want to “promote the general welfare”..."
Article Excerpt: "...If you are considering making a deposit for your active duty military time and want to find out how much you would owe, plus accrued interest, you’ll need to complete a copy of RI-20-97, Estimated Earnings During Military Service..."