Latest news with #AllianceforLifetimeIncome
CNBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Tell us your story: How well are you living in retirement?
is looking to hear from retirees on how they are doing financially in today's economy. A large surge of Americans will reach "Peak 65," with more than 4.1 individuals turning 65 each year from 2024 through 2027, according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Factors like tariffs and inflation may affect those retirees and aspiring retirees differently. If you've reached that life stage, are you living the retirement that you had envisioned? If so, how did you do it? Are there ways in which you could be doing better financially? If so, what could be better, and how do you want it to change? If you would be interested in sharing your story for an article for please email
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
As last baby boomers reach retirement, they tackle a quest for fulfillment
Forty-two stories above ground, Jon Gottlieb traced his bicycle route. From his vantage point by the pool, on his building's roof, he could see the stop sign where he turns right, the road he hates crossing, the park he rides through and the tunnel that leads to the Lakefront Trail bike path. Gottlieb, 75, rode this route at least five times a week through the 13 years since he moved into the Lincoln Park building, the tail end of a five-decade commitment to cycling. For half a century, the retired railroad services manager tracked his mileage on bicycles and compiled it in a spreadsheet. Mark Mattei, who serviced Gottlieb's bikes for 36 years, said it was clear that Gottlieb was honest about his mileage. In 2020, he passed 100,000 miles on his bike. In 2023, he hit 110,000. Last week, Gottlieb prepared for two-wheel retirement as he geared up to ride his 115,000th mile. He reached his final threshold Friday. 'You gotta quit somewhere,' he said. With his serious cycling days behind him, Gottlieb faces a life unstructured by a goal. He's retired, happily married and financially comfortable. But like others on the older side of the baby boomer generation, he's not quite sure how to spend his days without reaching toward something. Some experts say that Americans tend to identify themselves with their careers, which leaves them feeling lost in retirement. Others, though, have found that baby boomers, especially the younger ones, are much better at finding fulfillment outside work than their parents were. As the last of the baby boomers reach retirement age, they have to manage more than financial stability — they're figuring out what fulfillment looks like. The baby boomer generation was born in what Gottlieb called 'the backwash of the Second World War,' or the years 1946 through 1964. According to the Alliance for Lifetime Income, the United States is facing its greatest 'retirement surge' ever, as more than 11,000 Americans turn 65 every day. For people who can afford to retire, and aren't burdened by serious health issues, rebuilding a routine is usually the toughest challenge retirement offers. 'There's a lot of detriment when the structure that you normally have gotten from your occupation is no longer there, and it's kind of that rug being pulled out from underneath you,' said Michael Wolf, a professor at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine who researches aging. For people who connect their identities to their jobs, Wolf said, retirement is gutting, as they experience a loss of identity and self worth. The happier retirees Wolf sees in his work are typically those who figure out what brings them joy ahead of retirement. 'You need to be able to not think of retirement as something like going cold turkey from work,' Wolf said. 'You need to envision it as a staged process.' Stacks of vintage toys block nearly every window on the first floor of Mattei's house in Lincoln Park. Two wooden chairs are the only furniture on the floor, unless you count the dozens of display cases filled with toy cars. Hundreds of them flood each room, some in every color, stacked on top of each other on shelves, in old paper boxes or standing alone. Model boats and airplanes squeeze between shelves and shelves of tiny cars; a glow-in-the-dark pirate ship perches in a corner; one-of-a-kind paintings of model planes crowd the ceiling. Mattei, 74, closed Cycle Smithy, the bicycle store and repair shop he owned for 49 years, in 2022 — to Gottlieb's dismay. Mattei had worked seven days a week for the better part of half a century, reached the age of 71, and could afford to retire — so he did. He took everything down, swept the floors and left the large storefront exactly the way he had found it years before. To his surprise, Mattei was calm. 'I was worried about retiring because I thought I would have some sort of existential crisis,' he said, three years into retirement. 'That wasn't a problem at all.' Though he liked Cycle Smithy, Mattei found himself far less stressed once the shop was closed. These days, he sometimes has dreams about horrible customers at work and wakes up relieved that he doesn't have to face his job anymore. 'I find happiness in the freedom to do whatever I want, even if I don't really do anything,' Mattei said. Mattei doesn't feel aimless as he climbs into his mid-70s; he still has goals, even if they've changed. He's focused on preparing for the end of his life. In January, he started selling from his vintage collection. In the next three years, he would like to have sold almost all of it, at market prices to genuinely interested buyers. He doesn't want to die and leave his wife with a floor's worth of stuff to clear out, but it's important to Mattei that the items he holds dear end up in the right hands. Through the selling process, he's met other dedicated collectors of vintage toys. Some will fly in from California or Florida to see his collection and spend several hours with Mattei. That, and the other friendships he maintains — often with old employees at Cycle Smithy — keeps Mattei feeling fulfilled. George Mannes, executive editor of the AARP magazine, is surrounded by people like Mattei, who have redefined what purpose looks like after ending their careers. At 62, Mannes is on the tail end of the baby boomer generation, with many of his friends and colleagues in the early stages of retirement. Mannes has found that people his age are much better at handling retirement than their parents. Retirees in their 60s, Mannes said, have built identities less associated with their careers. Many of them find fulfillment in volunteer work or artistic outlets: Mannes has a friend who organizes a trash clean up club and another who is learning the art of ceramics. The latter isn't quite retired, but identifying her passion ahead of time — like Wolf recommended — has made her feel optimistic about leaving work soon. 'I am finding, among the people I know right now, that they're very happy to walk away from (work), and try new things and live new lives,' Mannes said. He thinks his generation's more positive attitude toward retirement might stem from the wealth with which so many baby boomers grew up. Many of them learned how to enjoy themselves and prioritize a work-life balance long ago, before retirement was really on their minds. Their parents, however, often 'fiercely identified with their occupations,' according to Mannes. 'I see a desire to find a balance between giving to the community and connecting with friends, but also just having the free time to goof off in the way that you want to goof off,' Mannes said. Nancy Gottlieb, 73, retired from the world of banks and trading firms at 64 and successfully struck Mannes' balance. Leaving work hasn't been an issue for her. 'I think it's usually more of a problem for men than women,' she said. While Jon Gottlieb pores over statistics-based baseball simulations — alone — his wife goes out to eat. She plays cards or mahjong five times a week and regularly calls friends on the phone. Jon has friends, too, but his social calendar is not nearly as robust as his wife's. Nancy Gottlieb thinks women are more likely to maintain friendships and ask each other out for lunch or coffee. Mannes hasn't seen many men of his age struggle with retirement, but Wolf agrees with Nancy. Social isolation is more common among men than women, he said, and men participate in activities less than women. 'The running joke has always been that women are gathering friends as they get older, while men are shedding them,' Wolf said. He explained that socialization is a 'major' determinant of health. Members of older generations who tend to isolate, or are generally disconnected from society, are often at a greater risk of mortality. Boredom, too, has a serious effect on health. But Tai Chin, 75, is wary of needing a goal to sustain him. He just moved into Gottlieb's building after 40 years in Arlington, Texas, so he could be closer to his sons and grandchildren. He's divorced and not interested in changing that. 'I'm alone, but I'm not lonely,' he said. Chin hasn't fully retired yet from his job helping people sign up for health care coverage; he doesn't see the point. He works on his own time, entirely remote. These days, he only does about five hours a week plus the time he has to spend renewing his license before September. The rest of the day is his, spent mostly on yoga, messing around on his computer, taking walks and reading. Chin reads a lot of mystical literature. He's learning how to exist in the moment and accept the phase of life that he's in now, when his responsibilities are dwindling and he has, essentially, total freedom. 'My goal would be to not have any goals,' he said. Gottlieb ultimately wants the same thing, even if he won't take Chin's meditative approach. At this late stage in his life, he faces what, for him, might be akin to a Herculean task. His best friend, Bob Burger, isn't sure Gottlieb can really give up cycling. In his eyes, Gottlieb is unusually motivated, the type of man who needs something to reach for. 'Sometimes retirement creates a void for people,' said Burger, 74, who lives in Wilmette. For his part, Burger has had no trouble with retirement. He gave up a job he didn't enjoy very much when he was 49 and took to traveling the world with his wife. In September, he's leaving for Croatia, Ireland and the Alps. 'I'm much happier being a nobody without work,' Burger said. He's not so sure, though, that Gottlieb — who not only never sits down but also rarely stops talking — can be a nobody. Gottlieb is an intense guy; he said so himself. He wakes up at 6 a.m. every day and wears some variation of the same shirt every time he rides his bike. The only time Gottlieb 'goofs off' is during his daily gossip session with a group of old ladies. They float on pool noodles and discuss the geriatric drama of their high-rise. Maybe fulfillment, for Gottlieb, will always be tied to bicycles. He has failed, so far, at cycling retirement: A week after he reached mile 115,000, he was still riding almost every morning. He's been trying to find an adult tricycle to ride, so that he can stay active in a safer manner, but it's not the kind of contraption widely available in Chicago. For now, Gottlieb is still a two-wheel guy. Who knows if he'll ever master the art of giving up.
USA Today
24-07-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Young people always worry about Social Security. Older people are joining them.
Americans are worrying more about Social Security, and the Trump administration may be partly to blame. In an AARP survey released July 22, only 36% of Americans voiced confidence in the future of the retirement trust fund, down from 43% in 2020. Another July survey, from the nonprofit Alliance for Lifetime Income, found that 58% of older Americans fear Social Security cuts because of recent news about potential changes to the program. 'These fears are not new. But I do think they are growing,' said Jean Chatzky, an education fellow with the Alliance's Retirement Income Institute and CEO of HerMoney. How soon will Social Security run out of money? Fears of a Social Security shortfall have loomed for decades. Lately, though, the agency's fiscal plight seems to be getting worse. New federal projections, released in June, show the combined Social Security trust funds will run short in 2034. That date is one year earlier than the Social Security Administration reported a year ago. The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which pays benefits to retirees and their families, is fully funded only until 2033. 'And I think that's close enough in the viewfinder for even older people to think, 'Holy moly, what's going to happen to me?'' Chatzky said. Americans young and old worry about Social Security Younger Americans tend to worry more about Social Security than older Americans. In the new AARP survey, 25% of people ages 18-49 voiced confidence in the program's future, compared with 48% of those 50 and older. The new report from the Alliance for Lifetime Income is striking, because it shows heightened Social Security fears among older Americans. The industry group enlisted IPSOS to conduct a nationally representative survey of 3,502 adults ages 45-75. Among the findings: Trump, DOGE cuts have disrupted Social Security Social Security has been in the headlines all year, and not just because of the coming shortfall. The Trump administration has thrown the agency into upheaval, with a cascade of staff cuts, rule changes, website outages and leadership shuffles, a routine that played out across the federal bureaucracy under the cost-cutting eye of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency. (Musk himself eventually bowed out.) Both Trump and Musk sowed doubt in the integrity of the venerable benefits program. In a March speech before Congress, Trump spoke of 'shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud' in Social Security. Around the same time, Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan that Social Security was 'the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.' Taken together, the events seemed to shake public confidence. New benefit claims were up by more than 15% in March, compared with the same month a year ago. 'Fearmongering has driven people to claim benefits earlier, 'cause they're afraid they're not going to claim benefits at all,' said Leland Dudek, acting Social Security commissioner at the time, in a March public meeting. Is Trump undermining public faith in Social Security? Some Social Security watchdogs say the Trump administration has eroded public faith in the program. 'I think there's really been a sea change since January 20,' said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting and expanding Social Security. 'I've been working on this for half a century, and I've never seen this kind of chaos and undoing of the administration of the program.' The notion that Social Security faces a shortfall suffuses the national conversation about retirement. Older Americans wonder if their monthly checks will go down, rather than up, during their golden years. Many younger Americans have doubled down on retirement savings, partly for fear that Social Security won't fully support them. 'What we find is, whenever Social Security is in the headlines, it strikes fear and anxiety into the hearts of so many, especially those who rely so heavily on Social Security,' said Ramsey Alwin, CEO of the nonprofit National Council on Aging. Faith in the future of Social Security hinges partly on political party. The new AARP survey found that Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express confidence in the program's future, by a margin of 44% to 32%. During the Obama administration, by contrast, AARP found that Democrats voiced more faith in Social Security than Republicans. Social Security administrators, for their part, have sometimes blamed the news media for stirring up public doubt about the agency's stability. In March, they took the unusual step of posting a press release to contradict media reports about the closure of Social Security field offices. AARP issued a rare rebuke of Social Security administrators But not all reports of Social Security instability have come from the news media. In February, AARP, the powerful interest group for older Americans, issued a rare public rebuke of the agency. 'AARP is hearing from thousands of older Americans confused and concerned about their Social Security payments, the status of Social Security field offices, and inexcusably long wait times on the phone to get their questions answered,' said Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president. In March, AARP members peppered Congress with 2 million messages and calls about their Social Security concerns. AARP leaders touched on that nerve in a July 22 press conference about the new survey, released to coincide with Social Security's 90th anniversary. 'We can't afford for politicians to play games with the future of Social Security,' said Myechia Minter-Jordan, CEO of AARP. 'And we'll fight as hard and as long as we need to, to ensure that Social Security remains the economic bedrock of retirement for generations to come.'
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New bill, new rules: What retirees need to know before it's too late
The Republican tax bill has been signed into law, and many of its provisions will affect retirement and benefits for millions of Americans. On this episode of Decoding Retirement, host Robert "Bob" Powell discusses the bill with Jae Oh, CFP and education fellow at the Alliance for Lifetime Income, diving into the complex provisions and adjustments that could directly impact you. Jae gives his expert insight on changes in plan eligibility, funding for Medicare, and increases in the cost of coverage. For actionable advice that will get you ahead of the curve, check out this episode of Decoding Retirement. Yahoo Finance's Decoding Retirement is hosted by Robert Powell. Find more episodes of Decoding Retirement at People are being ejected today, and the people aren't necessarily so as a result, I've just been encouraging the board to check with your state, Department of Health and Human Services, whoever administers Medicaid in your state, to check on their status continually, vital. The US Senate just passed the one Big Beautiful Bill Act, and as we record our podcast today, it now sits in the House of Representatives. And despite the uncertainty of knowing what will and what won't be in the legislation and true to our mission of making decoding retirement your first and last stop in your search for retirement planning and financial planning going to talk about some of the provisions that will affect your wallet and my guest today is JO he's the author of Maximize your Medicare and also an education fellow at the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Jay, for having me, Bob. Oh, it's always a pleasure to talk to you, Jay, and it will be a pleasure to talk to you about the, uh, bill that now sits in the House of Representatives. Uh, do you have a sense whether retirees need to worry about this bill affecting their Medicare ultimately? I do not lose sleep over changes, for example, to the eligibility there doesn't seem to be any changes. For example, the rules of eligibility are the same, the month you turn 65 years said, I would say correctly in a timely fashion, not overpaying, not underpaying, not having lapses in coverage, that entire process has become more complicated through time. I'm not overly concerned with theTypes of coverage that you would receive, etc. like that. That said, I can't say that everyone will be completely unaffected. No, I can't go that far, just simply we don't have enough information. At the moment, we're told that about 16 million people will lose their health insurance and that would have a direct consequence on their financial and personal well-being. Uh, what do we need to know? What's the actual advice as well as what we need to know about that? For sure, Bob, and just to to start, let me just say that your health care cost planning affects every person that, you know, has to do with money that people use day to day, and then over the long run, irrespective of your age, wage level. When it comes to Medicaid, your first work requirement seems to be in pretty much approved, agreed upon across the board. The question and the numbers that you're hearing of have to do with the fact that you have to verify your status on Medicaid, which is a very complicated topic. It was entire process was delayed coming into out of that has restarted and different states have have pursued that different pace. Well now, as a result of this new bill, it appears that in addition to that, you must prove that you have worked 80 hours in some capacity, and then you get into the definitions of what that actually means in order to continue your Medicaid eligibility. So what was already complicated looks to become even moreso. then for folks for whom this might affect, what advice do you guidance do you have for them? I have been on this for months on my substack, which is which is for every person that is receiving financial assistance towards their healthcare cost planning to check with the source every month. Yeah, that as a result of the process that I stated a few moments ago, people are being ejected today, and the people aren't necessarily so as a result, I've just been encouraging the board to check with your state, Department of Health and Human Services, whoever administers Medicaid in your check on their status continually, vital,you know, um, there are many provisions that also affect Medicare in the one big beautiful Bill Act and, uh, curious for what you think are the top line considerations for people. I just, just by way of background, I've been on the KA the Kaiser Family Foundation, now called website where they are tracking the bill, the House version, the Senate version, and have some commentary on uh, I, I, I highly recommend that people go there as well as to your subsA and, and other places to get information about this bill. Uh, but there, there's a number of issues that provisions that affect Medicare, tell us what we need to know about that. For me, it is kind of related to Medicaid, which is something called MSP, Medicare savings program. This to me is the highlight, which is that there are people who are close to Medicaid eligibility. They are receiving some subsidy to pay perhaps for their Part B, perhaps for extra help towards prescription drug programs and the eligibility, the verification looks to become more as a result, you could drop off. Now, the reason that this is important, this is happening today in my home state of Michigan, literally I'm dealing with this situation when your status changes, if it were to change, then your eligibility for certain Medicare Advantage plans in this particular case called dual eligible, also changes. And so you can understand these are people who may be struggling financially, and now your status into these valuable Medicare Advantage dual eligible plans also under threat. So it's not only the verification of theSavings plan itself, but also the ripple effects, right? Uh, I, I, I believe there might be some, uh, potential costs associated with Part B as a result of the, uh, of this bill. Is, is that correct? I think that those are yet to be seen, meaning that right out of right away, it doesn't seem to be changing necessarily, but the fact is that the funding of Part B does come in part from the from the a discretionary if you have these balances, and I'm not an expert in, you know, balancing the budget and things like seems to be that money could be withdrawn from that discretionary Part B. So again, Part A is a mandatorily funded number, but Part B is a discretionary number. And to the degree that the funding of that line item changes, it could affect Part B, the scope of services, the cost of premium, and all of the cost sharing details. I believe uh there is some discussion around the uh the Affordable Care uh some repercussions there, uh, one of which I think at least according to KFF is that uh the marketplace insurers won't be able to set their premiums until the bill is finalized and so, uh, obviously we're not in a position where people need to enroll just per se, but, uh, tell us what we need to know about the ACA and, and the bill. Well, difficult to predict. My crystal ball is malfunctioning. Mine too, yeah, mine's cracked beyond repair, but I thinkwhat's right, uh, I think what it is safe to that the headlines on from the carriers is fairly consistent, which is that health care utilization is high, higher than the carriers have anticipated, and that has led to cost and we're not talking about stocks, etc. but we are seeing and very consistently, that the carriers are the usage rate and the cost of that usage is higher than normally speaking, the setting of health insurance premium annually is volatile to start. And now we've got this even before this big beautiful or not that affects the enrollment is yet to be seen, it is fairly predictable that the number of enrollees this can challenge the carriers because they depend on the people who do not require health insurance health care services to pay for those who do. That is the general structure of all insurance in the US, which is that the uninsured the people who do not file claims ultimately are paying for those who require health care services. So,To the degree that the total pool that make it even more challenging on top of what I just introduced? I think that that is safe as far as a prediction goes. Complicated. Yeah, um, and some of the numbers around the number of people that may, uh, no longer be able to qualify for ACA is I've read anywhere from what, 4 million to 8 million or so, give or take, is that, uh, the number of people that could be affected by changes there? Yes, I think if anything, that sounds too it's a big number, and this is raising my concern for people who are not covered by their employer. They have to fend for themselves and choose an individual or family plan using or your state specific health insurance no version of the new bill, which includes the enhanced APTC, which is the advanced premium tax credit, which is actually the mechanism by whichIndividuals and families have lower premiums, lower deductibles, lower out of pocket defect, this is in effect inflationary, right? Because if you look at the KFF sites, and then I've seen that portal, which is an excellent, you know, fact reporter, if you will, that if you thought that the average the health insurance premium would be $500 a month now you have $6000 and a married couple is $12,000 a year as far as a cost of living. Well, that by definition is inflation. Yeah. Uh, Jay, we have to take a short break. Don't go back to Decoding Retirement. I'm speaking with Jay. He's the author of Maximize your Medicare. He's also an education fellow at the Alliance for Lifetime Income. Uh, before the break, Jay, I said that I wanted to talk about the open enrollment season that will begin later this fall for folks who employees who have employer provided health insurance at uh at lots of changes that I think are coming and people need to be very conscious of not just checking the box and signing up for the same old plan that they had the year before. Yes, that's always the case, Bob, that as you may have heard or read that, for example, there the employers now are increasingly trying to help people in terms of their overall wellness under the umbrella of wellness, and still employer sponsored health insurance is the dominant almost sole source for those people who work at large employers, unless you met some very exceptional circumstance, that I always encourage people to fully understand what they are choosing, especially as people work beyond 65, because now you have Medicare, which is a viable alternative.A complicated one perhaps, but one where switching to Medicare may be best in from either from a coverage point of view or a cost point of view, or I don't think that this is going away as more and more people work beyond the age of 65. thing is that the employers very frequently in this day and age are including high deductible health plans, which include there are some clauses in the new bill, and the different versions where the treatment of HSAs for people as they grow older, you know, changes compared to where it is today, we will have to wait and see to see the exact detailson that. Yeah, there's so many uh uh moving parts of the HSA question in the bill that it's probably not worth putting a stake in the ground on any of these things cause it could certainly could certainly change I I, I'm curious, when you mentioned HSAs, so many companies are now offering high deductible health plans, uh, and, uh, my experience with HSAs is that they, uh, are not necessarily being used as they were once promoted, which would be as a, an IRA for your healthcare expenses in retirement. It seems like many of the folks, I think there's somewhere around 35 million or so employees who have an HSA, a high deductible health plan at HSA at for the vast majority of them, they're spending the money that they put into the HSA on current medical expenses as opposed to saving the money for future medical expenses. Uh, what's your advice to folks who maybe, maybe, I don't know, I wouldn't say misusing HSAs, but maybe not thinking about the impact that they have given that they're a triple tax advantage let me first say that if you're using it for current expenses because you're facing it today, I don't really find a problem with that, right? Because that is in effect using a pre-tax dollar to pay for an X-ray, for example, but you need that, and it's important, and it that seems for me on a personal level, private than delaying going to the doctor to find out whether or not your arm is in fact, you know, needs a cast. Um, so for me, I don't really have a problem with that. That said,The other advantages you speaking, are not utilized fully as you predictably so, and some of that has to do with whether or not people are struggling financially. That can certainly be the another reason though, which is that I'm not sure that people understand the full degree to which the funds in which HSA can be used, like legally used, the IRS has a very, very long list. For example, many people don't understand that Medicare Part B actually be used from your HSA making your Part B premium basically paid with pre-tax other things like long term care long-term care insurance you have, depending on the contract, can be used, you can use your HSA funds for it. So these are just two simple examples thatFor that you may want to have contributions to HSA when you have not in the past. Yeah. Uh, Jay, let's turn our attention to uh Medicare's annual election period, which begins October 15th. We're a ways away from that, but what if folks need to think about in advance of that, uh, that, uh, period beginning? Well, Bob, we've, there's always a swirling amount of news and headlines of various sorts from every direction about Medicare Advantage, and if anything, the amount of crossfire has as you know, large name well known carriers have all reported, and they have reported specifically on specifically on Medicare high usage rate that we discussed in the prior segment is specific to as a result, what has happened, and you can see it in everyone's reports so far, and it has been fairly systematic. It has not really been different from carrier to carrier, not question is whether or not you are going to have the same quality of packages of is an open question. We don't know yet. I'll know on October 1st, when I can first discuss that with people. I'm a practitioner in the matter. We have clients around the country on Medicare Advantage, something that is beneficial to them because it fits their situation, their their circumstances are, that is not the problem. The question is, is what's the most fitting plan, best plan, air quotes best, that will change from situation to situation, location to location, and I think that that will be even more important going forward, given the background if your health stayed exactly the same, youknow. Uh, as always, don't let inertia be the, uh, the, the order of the day, right? It, it'll be incumbent upon you, perhaps even more so this year than in years past to re-evaluate your plan to make sure that it's the best one for you. I, I, I can see a world where, as you said, maybe services, uh, are fewer and costs may be higher, uh, at a minimum. So let's, let's, in the time remaining, Jay, I want to talk about the, uh, what, what some people have called the white collar uh, where if they are laid off or they expect to be laid off, they have the option of either going into a COBR plan or, or maybe choosing ACA. And given the changes with the ACA this year and maybe the enhanced advanced premium tax credits going away at year end, uh, this makes the decision all the more difficult, does it not? It's difficult to start. So COR itself is can be code for very expensive, right? Because people are simply unaware of the full cost of health insurance, because the employer especially at large employers, they have to pay for part of the premium and then depending on the on the employer may be paying the dominant share. Well, under employee or ex-employee, the one who has lost coverage is so now you've got a situation where you have to put in the place to compare COR versus the even in the best of times, that is complicated. So my practice we're spending time talking to employers to say, your employee, you filed a warn notice, which is mandated by your particular state, to say you're laying off X number of it's not really the responsibility or their job responsibility of HR to of your human resources department to compare all of the different plans in the under the ACA that's just simply not under their umbrella of that leaves it to the consumer to do the comparing. So,That's where we are today, and given what we discussed in the prior segment about APTC and whether or not that will go you will have this extra complication of looking forward into next year. So like you pointed out, very, very complicated. Yeah, um, Jay, we're, uh, we're running out of time. I apologize. I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom with us. 23 minutes goes by like in the blink of an but we'll have you come back in the fall when we get a better sense of what, uh, Medicare Advantage plans will be offering, what Part D plans look like, etc. because we do want to help people, as I mentioned, become the first and last stop in their search for knowledge. So I want to thank you for, uh, being with us today. Thank you. Thank you for having me, Bo. Pleasure. So that wraps up this episode of Decoding Retirement. We hope we provided you with some information to plan for or live better in retirement. If you've got questions about retirement, you can email me at YFpodcast@yahoo and we'll do our best to answer your question in a future episode. And remember you can listen to Decoding Retirement on all your favorite podcast platforms. This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Zawya
21-03-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Wall Street jolt may jog jobless rate: Mike Dolan
LONDON - In another potential feedback loop from falling stocks to the real economy, some economists now fear the risk of delayed retirement on the long-subdued U.S. unemployment rate. One of the many reasons cited for the persistently low U.S. jobless rate in recent years has been the peaking wave of Americans reaching retirement age and leaving the workforce. Some may have left early during the pandemic, and others may have been encouraged to go by savings pots flush from years of booming stock prices. But that decision has never affected more people than it will this year. According to the Washington-based non-profit Alliance for Lifetime Income, a record 4.18 million U.S. workers hit retirement age in 2025, an average of 11,400 Americans turning 65 every day. And that record is set to hold for 20 years until the larger 'Millennial' cohort starts to trip over the line. As is well known, many of these retirees haven't stocked away enough cash. There are acres of reports on the inadequacy of retirement savings and the questionable viability of social security. Indeed, there's a whole industry formed around encouraging people to save more. The Alliance data shows more than half of 'Baby Boomers' turning 65 between 2024 and 2030 have assets of $250,000 or less, on average. And most can expect to live another 20 years. Given this reality, the jarring shakeout in Wall Street stock indexes this year may force some would-be retirees to hang on in the workforce. Michael Reid, U.S. Economist at RBC Capital Markets, reckons an enduring stock market retreat could well have a meaningful effect on the labor market and unemployment calculations. "If you see a stock market correction, it could not only impact the spending from that cohort but we're also talking about an upside risk to our unemployment forecast. Some of those folks may delay retirement by a year or two." Employers replacing workers who retire adds nothing to overall payroll growth, he added, but high rates of retirement remove people from the overall labor force, suppressing the participation rate and hence the jobless rate calculations. By extension, delays to retirement may buoy the available labor force and potentially the rate of unemployment for a given level of payrolls. PART-TIME AND PARTICIPATION Multiple cross-currents complicate the employment picture, of course, including new limits on immigration, which has played a critical role in expanding the workforce in recent years. Concern about worker shortages has been rising, partly due to immigration curbs, so many see higher labor force participation rates as warranted. Though prospective retirees are unlikely to fill factory roles or unskilled manual work often taken up by recent migrants. High-frequency data on the scale of U.S. retirement is elusive, but the labor force participation rate has been declining of late, hitting a two-year low of 62.4% in February and still below pre-pandemic levels. And at just 4.1%, the unemployment rate has now been pegged below 4.5% for more than three years. However, other measures of unemployment aren't so rosy. A broader measure, which includes those who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, surged to 8% in last month's jobs report - the highest since 2021. The extent to which retirees are included in that part-time work calculation is unclear. General anxiety is rising again within the economy - judging from business and household surveys, though not all the hard data yet. And how much of the angst translates into changed plans, decision-making and investment hinges largely on the government policy trajectory from here. Anecdotally at least, Reuters reporting shows many older workers are sufficiently discombobulated by the combination of government upheavals and stock market volatility to worry about stopping work. Stock values and savings pots are just one of many factors in this mix, of course, and stock corrections have come and gone quickly in the past. But a longer-term market drawdown from such lofty levels may have more impact on the ageing U.S. population than it did in the past - adding a twist for the Federal Reserve and others to read employment market. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters (By Mike Dolan; Editing by Stephen Coates)
