If you gave any thought to retirement back when you were younger — in the ’80s, ’90s or early 2000s — you probably expected to follow the same path your parents and grandparents did. How to Address Retirees’ No. 1 Concern After years of working hard, you would have a nice company pension to rely on. You would claim Social Security sometime between 62 and 65. And though your house [...]

Public retirement system revenues depend more on earnings on investments to drive revenues, according to an annual study by the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems. The 2020 NCPERS Public Retirement Systems Study, conducted with Cobalt Community Research, covered the most recently concluded fiscal year. Of the 138 state and local pension systems responding, 51% were state systems and the rest were local systems, with a collective 12.8 million [...]

Last week, NCPERS hosted our semi-annual webcast on state and federal legislation impacting public pensions. Our regular contributors, Bridget Early, executive director of the National Public Pension Coalition (NPPC) and Anthony Roda, partner at the lobbying firm Williams & Jensen, joined executive director Hank Kim for a review of 2020 public pension legislation and a discussion on what we should expect and monitor for 2021.

In a mythical American past, families took out one 30-year mortgage, worked at one company for 30 years while paying off the mortgage and sailed off into retirement free of debt. Today, the reality is that the dream of retiring debt free is fading, and debt among older Americans is soaring. The percentage of households headed by someone aged 65 and older who held any debt increased to 61% in [...]

Millions of seniors rely heavily on Social Security to make ends meet. If you're planning to do the same, you should know the ins and outs of how the program works. If you don't, you may get caught off guard by some of Social Security's rules and nuances, like these. 1. Taxes on benefits You'd think Social Security would be something you're entitled to without having to worry about taxes. But unfortunately, [...]

Retirees approach their golden years in countless ways—some may prefer a rural and quiet small town, a spot near the water, or a retirement community in a warm place. Others may crave a big city, where there are plenty of exciting activities seniors can take part in whenever their heart desires. Aside from things to do, baby boomers must consider the weather, housing costs, transportation, and health care, all of [...]