You paid your Medicare taxes all those years and want your money's
worth: full benefits after you retire. Nearly three out of five people
say in a recent Associated Press-GfK poll that they paid into the system
so they deserve their full benefits — no cuts.
Raising the retirement age for Social Security would disproportionately
hurt low-income workers and minorities, and increase disability claims
by older people unable to work, government auditors told Congress.
A surge of early retirements and a decline in payroll tax revenue
caused by the recession have begun to cut deeply into Social Security's
surplus funding.
Nearly 45 percent of U.S. households are "at risk" of not having enough to maintain their living standards in retirement, according to the National Retirement Risk Index, a special project of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
As years go, 2010 is on course to be a blockbuster for retirement-account owners. Starting in January, all Americans who own a traditional IRA — not just those who have modified adjusted gross income under $100,000 — will be able to convert their accounts to a Roth IRA.
With the economy and the markets showing tentative signs of a rebound, millions of Americans are focusing on their 401(k) plans with fingers crossed, hoping to make up the estimated $3.7 trillion employees’ retirement accounts lost during the crash.
When Manuel Frazao climbed aboard his most recent cruise, the first thing he did was take off his shoes. But the New Britain, Conn., retiree wasn’t prepping for the pool or testing a new seasickness remedy. He just wanted to feel the grass between his toes.
