This Week's Column
Posted on 01 October 2008
At age 71, Bob Schieffer of CBS News isn’t the oldest journalist moderating a presidential debate this election season. Jim Lehrer of PBS is 74.
Still, Schieffer may have a more-than-passing interest in issues related to retirement and aging—and I hope you do, too. The challenges facing the next president include the long-term solvency of Social [...] Read the full text of this week's column...
The oldest Boomers (age 62) may be eligible to take Social Security benefits, but it’s almost never a good idea to do so. Most Americans will come out ahead by waiting to take the benefit as long as they can. From an actuarial perspective, increased longevity and incentives baked into the system encouraging delayed [...] Read the full article…
The Wall Street Journal reports today that hardship withdrawals from 401(k) accounts are rising and that investors are showing other signs of pulling back from the market amidst the current turmoil. According to WSJ, the signs include cutbacks in contributions to retirement accounts, shifts away from stocks toward fixed income vehicles and outright hardship withdrawals–despite [...] Read the full article…
Barack Obama is hammering John McCain this week on two of McCain’s key vulnerabilities when it comes to policies affecting older Amercians: health care and Social Security. New York Times economics columnist Paul Krugman points to an article McCain just published in the journal of the American Academy of Actuaries [pdf file] touting his [...] Read the full article…
The Social Security Administration plans to streamline the online application for benefits this fall. Just ran across this item last month in The Wall Street Journal describing the changes:
Currently, first-time applicants spend about 45 minutes online, followed by a visit to a local Social Security office. The visit, in most cases, isn’t required — but [...] Read the full article…
Barack Obama and John McCain participated in a presidential forum on national service held to commemorate the seventh anniversary of 9/11. The forum—part of the Service Nation Summit convened in New York City—was a solemn, thoughtful reflection on how America has changed since 9/11. The focus was on ways that Americans can serve their communities [...] Read the full article…
Barack Obama and John McCain will both speak at the ServiceNation Summit in New York City this week. They’ll appear at an evening forum tomorrow focused on civic engagement and service; the event will be in observation of the seventh anniversary of 9/11; it will be moderated by PBS NewsHour Senior Correspondent and Political [...] Read the full article…
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