TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE SF GATE & INVESTOPEDIA:  6 Things Youre Doing To Delay Your Retirement.

Early stage

•May notice patient is more anxious, forgets friends’ names and telephone numbers, places everyday items in the wrong storage locations, leaves projects (laundry, meals) unfinished, has trouble making change and balancing a checkbook.

•If patient’s work life is suffering, caregiver also may need to take on more financial responsibility.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK TO USA TODAY:  How Alzheimer’s disease alters lives, stage by stage – USATODAY.com.

A couple retiring this year will need a quarter of a million dollars, on average, to cover medical expenses in retirement, according to a study to be released Thursday by Fidelity Investments.

The estimate is up 4.2 percent from Fidelity’s projection last year. The Boston-based financial services company has updated its estimate annually since 2002 as part of its business helping employers design workplace benefits programs.

The study is based on projections for a couple of 65-year-olds retiring this year with Medicare coverage. The estimate factors in the federal program’s premiums, co-payments and deductibles, as well as out-of-pocket prescription costs. The study assumes no employer provided insurance in retirement, and a life expectancy of 85 for women and 82 for men.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE HUFFINGTON POST:

Retirement Health Care: Average Couple Needs To Save $250,000.

Here are some questions and answers about how the reforms will affect the Medicare healthcare program for the elderly.

WILL THE LEGISLATION CUT MEDICARE BENEFITS?

There are no cuts to the traditional Medicare benefit. The lion’s share of spending cuts are in Medicare Advantage — a program that uses private firms such as Humana and UnitedHealth Group to deliver Medicare benefits. Many of these providers offer extra coverage and some of those extras could be dropped as Medicare Advantage subsidies are bought more in line with the cost of traditional Medicare benefits. Medicare Advantage payment rates will be frozen in 2011 and then gradually reduced giving companies time to adjust to the changes.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR REUTERS:

Q+A: How does healthcare overhaul affect Medicare? | Reuters.

Social Security benefits are off-limits to creditors, such as credit-card companies and banks. But the U.S. can collect debts to federal agencies by “offsetting,” or withholding Social Security and disability payments.

The Treasury currently withholds benefits of 3.1 million Social Security recipients to recover defaulted student-, farm- and small-business loans, unpaid income taxes, amounts veterans owe for health care, and other debts to the government.

Previously, the U.S. hasn’t been able to withhold Social Security payments to recover most debts delinquent for more than ten years.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:

Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors – WSJ.com.

The percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43% in 2010, from 39% in 2009, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s annual Retirement Confidence Survey. That excludes the value of primary homes and defined-benefit pension plans.

Workers who said they had less than $1,000 jumped to 27%, from 20% in 2009.

Confidence in ability to save enough for a comfortable retirement hovered at 16% of respondents, the second lowest point in the 20-year history of the survey.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK TO CNN:

Most Americans still unprepared for retirement – survey – Mar. 9, 2010.

Seniors aren’t receiving the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the first time since 1975 because of a series of events that began with the 2008 increase in energy prices. That increase helped seniors because it led to a larger-than-usual 5.8% adjustment last year in Social Security benefits. Because inflation is now lower, no increase is due this year.

The plan would have been attached to a $150-billion measure to extend unemployment benefits through the rest of this year, provide $25 billion to state governments, extend miscellaneous tax cuts and prevent cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS STORY, CLICK THIS LINK TO REUTERS/LOS ANGELES EXAMINER: Senate rejects bonus for seniors.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR US NEWS: 5 Reasons You Should Consider a Roth IRA – US News and World Report.

Although certain destinations may be particularly attractive – for reasons ranging from the weather and availability of health care to tax advantages and property values – there’s a wide variety of cities and towns consistently considered the top places to retire.

To find out where these places are, AARP Magazine over the years has ranked retirement destinations under a variety of criteria, from “The Best Places to Live a Simple Life,” to the “Healthiest Hometowns” and “The Best Places to Reinvent Your Life”. From these lists, CNBC.com has focused on a selection of towns and cities recognized as top places to retire, picking the best and most unique locations from AARP Magazine’s overall reviews.

So, where are some of the top places for Baby Boomers (and anyone else, for that matter) to retire in America? Click ahead to find out!

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR CNBC: America’s Top Places For Boomers To Retire – CNBC.

Many Americans take Social Security early, at age 62, because they really need it. They’re in poor health or unemployed or both. Others take benefits early because they’re worried they’ll lose out on what’s rightfully theirs if benefits are reduced. But few people try to figure out the best age to take Social Security — and that’s a serious mistake.

Even though it’s challenging, calculating the best time to take benefits is well worth it, especially given that Social Security represents about one-third of the average retiree’s income.

What’s key is evaluating the so-called break-even period to determine whether it would be better to delay Social Security benefits (delaying them means a higher monthly benefit), take a reduced benefit early, or start them at “normal” retirement age. Of course, there’s a good reason why so few people really do the calculations.

“When to begin Social Security retirement benefits is a challenging question that vexes many financial planners and clients,” Michael Kitces, editor of The Kitces Report, wrote in a recent issue.

Living beyond the break-even point can produce large amounts of wealth relative to the risk. But delaying Social Security benefits does represent a serious risk, Kitces said: If you wait and then die before claiming your benefit, it really messes things up for your widow. Still, there are situations in which delaying Social Security retirement benefits can pay off significantly.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR YAHOO! FINANCE: make-your-social-security-choice-wisely: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance.