It's no secret that these days, the general cost of living is way up. Consumers are paying more for everything from gas to groceries to utilities, and unfortunately, we could get stuck in this holding pattern of rampant inflation for many more months until things start to ease. In December, the Consumer Price Index rose [...]
A few years ago, I had a pain in my right thigh. I assumed I had pulled a muscle and soldiered on. Until, that is, it interfered with my playing the bass drum on my drum kit. That’s when I finally saw a physical therapist. Turns out, the pain wasn’t coming from my thigh. It [...]
We try our best to save for retirement, but sometimes our account balance just doesn't reflect our hard work. This can be frustrating and stressful, especially to those rapidly approaching retirement age. But the situation may not be as dire as it seems. There are other ways to fund retirement besides your personal savings and [...]
We all know of some of the horrors that our brothers and sisters take home with them each night and live with – the scenes that cannot be unseen. Many of us cannot share these things with our family as we don’t want them to house the demons that haunt us. Sadly, some of the [...]
Retiring today is tricky business. The financial challenges associated with a 21st century retirement are far more complicated than those our parents and grandparents faced. Think about the current conditions that exist — the stock market is at an all-time high, interest rates are near all-time lows, and inflation is on the rise. We’re also [...]
The very concept of retirement is changing before our eyes. Large swaths of people -- members of the FIRE movement or otherwise -- have redefined what it means to be a worker in a distributed workforce. The great news is that retirement no longer needs to be a period of complete idleness following 40 years of work; [...]
Will you have enough income for retirement? Is enough of it guaranteed for life so you don’t need to worry about running out of money if you live to a ripe old age? Social Security payments equal only about 40% of the average wage earner's pre-retirement income. If, like most people, you don’t have a [...]
Once you reach retirement, you may end up needing more income than expected. That's because some of your costs, like healthcare, could rise as you age, while others may not drop the way you expect them to. It's for this reason that saving independently for retirement is so important. If you rely too heavily on Social [...]
How can you feel younger in your retirement years? This is a big question and one I am just starting to get a handle on, I think. I am almost 67, quite healthy and am fortunate enough to not have serious financial worries. Both my wife and I are psychologists and still working about one [...]
The Department of Veterans Affairs is now offering Moderna and Johnson & Johnson (J&J)/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine booster shots under Emergency Use Authorization, expanding on last month’s authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster. This decision follows this week’s Food and Drug Administration’s authorization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation for a booster dose using the [...]