Retirement planning . . . finally . . . and worrying!

[Guinevere]

Don't forget the 2% payroll tax decrease which came out of the tax compromise deal. For those not maxing out on retirement accounts it is an additional chunk every week (up to $40+/week depending on salary) to put into your retirement accounts. Definitely worth it as you further lower your tax burden and the money is money which would be going into social security and now is not - further stressing that trust fund and making it less likely I and others a ways away from retirement will ever see a dime of it down the road.

Even if you're maxed out on retirement or getting a smaller amount, that is less noticeable, don't fritter it away - treat it like free money (of course its not, its just keeping more of our own money) and put it in a savings account and let it be productive for you somehow!

[rubato]

"... further stressing that trust fund and making it less likely I and others a ways away from retirement will ever see a dime of it down the road.
... "

The current 'worst case' scenario is that by 2037 your dime will be 8 cents.

yrs,
rubato

[Guinevere]

Thus the tip above about investing some additional monies we are all getting (and according to an article in either the Globe or the Times last week, most people didn't know about the tax rollback, so I thought it was worth noting) in a private retirement or saavings account.

[BoSoxGal]

I'm thinking about opening a yuan-based savings account. I heard on NPR this weekend that the Bank of China is offering them to American citizens through their New York branch.

Supposedly it's an investment with potential for 100% increase in value over time. Might be worth tossing a few dollars that way?

[Scooter]

I consider myself lucky in that my disability insurance will continue until I am 65, at which point both my employer and government pensions will kick in, since one component of my disability plan is that my employer has been picking up both their and my share of pension contributions. Somewhat bizarrely I will be earning more in retirement incone than I am now. However, I have a couple of friends, also HIV+, who will soon turn 65 and have nothing but gov't pensions to fall back on once their disability insurance ends, and who therefore might have to be finding some sort of part-time work to make up the difference.