Take a look at this picture: I know this will sound rhetorical, but does this make any sense? Given what I have read and what I have published in this blog and elsewhere, driving with a blind fold makes as much sense to me as the old, tired out, down right misleading mantra: “Buy Term […]
These are arranged into some categories to help you organize your thoughts. Social Security 1) Will it be there for me when I retire? 2) What is the best age to take Social Security to maximize my benefits? 3) Will Social Security be taxable? 4) Is there a way to prevent that? Medicare 5) […]
Tom Hegna, an economist, always says that longevity is not just a risk, it is a risk multiplier. Nothing could be truer for the Medicare program. In 1965 When the Medicare program began, life expectancy was age 70. (In case you missed the first part of this story: go here.) In 2015 life expectancy is […]
The Social Security and Medicare Trustees just issued their annual report. In it, they claim Social Security will go bankrupt in 2034. One year later than last year. Medicare will go bankrupt in 2030, also one year later than last year’s report. (Medicare is a much more serious economic problem which I will discuss in […]
The Chicago Tribune recently made available a chart showing the unfunded pension liabilities of all the states. That number alone is almost one trillion dollars. States like California, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have $50 billion or more shortfalls with California topping out at over $131 billion. This kind of information has been floating […]
Please understand: we are not actually cutting Medicare, we are merely slowing the growth of Medicare, because if we don’t it will bankrupt our country. This is no longer a trust fund of Medicare. Medicare had only $325 billion of assets in December 2011. Medicare spent $542 billion in 2011. In 1990, 62 percent of […]
Who do you know who knows what is going to happen in the next 30 days? No one and I mean NO ONE, from the President, to the Congress, to all the financial experts and the leaders of the world have any idea of what is about to happen in the world’s economy. Let me […]
Many have asked me why I do what I do. This post is my response……. I grew up in a modest, but neat home the youngest of nine children. (All of them were girls except seven of us.) Dad worked incredibly hard to provide the necessities of life. He had his own business, was a […]
That was the response of Jack Nicholson’s character (Colonel Jessep) to Tom Cruise’s character in the most memorable scene in the movie A Few Good Men. In writing this post, I feel a bit like Colonel Jessep. Most Americans simply cannot handle the truth. That is my conclusion. Although, trying to allow the benefit of […]
My friend and colleague traveled through a canyon near his home. Part way through the passage, traffic came to a halt and he found himself, along with many other drivers, waiting for the cars to proceed. Eventually, as the traffic began to creep slowly along the road again, he passed the cause of the delay. […]
