Money

This article in the November 2024 Bulletin by Richard Eisenberg should mention MaxiFi.  It is a wonderful tool to plan withdrawals from pre-tax and post-tax retirement accounts and other financial accounts (along with other information the user provides to plan for a uniform lifestyle until a distant future date.  It is VERY effective and planning such transfers, including Roth conversions.  IT does not require any information about actual account numbers to be shared; all information is in the user's control.  I strongly recommend it.  It should be included in the list of tools retirees and about-to-retire members should use. 

Hey everyone! Christmas is around the corner, and while online shopping is super convenient, it can also strain your wallet if you’re not careful. Luckily, there are free and easy ways to save money while shopping for holiday gifts! Watch for Holiday Sales: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and pre-Christmas sales offer huge discounts. Keep an eye on these events for the best deals.Use Coupon Codes: Websites like Discountcodez or Honey can help you find discounts and free shipping offers before you check out.Set a Budget: Make a list, decide on a spending limit for each person, and track your purchases to stay within your budget.Compare Prices: Use tools like Google Shopping to find the best deals across different stores.Look for Refurbished Gifts: For tech items, refurbished or pre-owned options can save you a lot without compromising quality.With these simple tips, you can shop smarter, save money, and still get thoughtful gifts for your loved ones. Do you have any other holiday-

My husband and I just found out that our plans to convert our retirement funds into Roth IRAs will have a huge negative affect on our Medicare premiums!  We both have pensions and planned to use our retirement funds as our insurance in case we need long term care down the road.  Otherwise we wanted to convert so the funds will be inheritable by our children as Roths without RMDs.  We also wanted to reduce our eventual RMDs that will start when we're 72. In all our research about the benefits and risks of conversion, we NEVER heard of the affect this would have on our Medicare premiums.   What I'm looking for is the reason why this happens, when we're already going to pay the taxes due on those funds, and are not cashing them out to use as income, but really rolling them over into the Roths to stay invested?  This really doesn't seem fair, and now we're stuck with the choice of paying extremely high medicare premiums, or discontinuing our conversi

As the title implies, I started receiving a survival benefit on my wife's record when I was 60 years old.  I am fairly clear that I can switch over to my own benefit any time after age 62.  I am currently 67 and plan to wait for age 70.  My question is: If I am receiving a reduced survivors benefit, will that affect my Social Security benefit and amount?  BTW, yes, I have been all over the web looking for a concise answer to that question.  Many thanks in advance!

*** 2 Comments on the AARP Website. Stop by to read comments & leave yours. *** FROM ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! The season brings a surge of charity, package-delivery, online-shopping and other schemes, an AARP survey finds. By Christina Ianzito, AARP. Published November 18, 2024. Scams have become a part of our everyday lives, unfortunately: Between the phishing emails and texts from people pretending to be government officials or online retailers needing your personal information and robocalls warning of money owed, it can be exhausting. And these criminals don’t rest during the season of goodwill. In fact, they seem to work even harder to perpetrate fraud, according to a new AARP Fraud Watch Network report. ​​ https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2024/holiday-related-scams-report.html

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! After one sister is victimized, they team up to take down a 20-year operation. By AARP. Published September 06, 2024. Penny signs up for a few magazine subscriptions, she thinks she is helping some kids with a school fundraiser. Little does she know that it will lead to years of harassment from telemarketers and the theft of much of her savings. But it will also lead Penny and her sister Nancy to help bring down a 20-year conspiracy that robbed more than 150,000 victims nationwide of millions of dollars. https://www.aarp.org/podcasts/the-perfect-scam/info-2024/magazine-telemarking-scam.html

I have made a fee posts about the problems I am having with EXPERIAN.  I see there are quite a few others having the same issue.AARP should include an article in the AARP magazine about what some of us are dealing with.Thank Yourockydean 

I signed up and paid for the AARP Smart Driver online course, and immediately landed on app.link.com site where they had saved the CC info that I used for the course. Seems fishy to me.AARP: is this legit?  I deleted the account immediately that apparently was created when I paid for the course. Perhaps I missed the verbiage that told me this was creating a 3rd party payment account, but if so then at best this is misleading.☺Thanks

New Amazon scam.  I tried to buy items costing more than $35 expecting free shipping.  I got the usual offer of Amazon Prime free 30-day trial.  I turned it down. Then the site went to force me to take it.  No other delivery option was offered.  I could not make a purchase unless I signed up for Amazon Prime.Even got someone on the phone and she could not understand why there was not other delivery options.  In fact, there were no delivery options at all.  Just the offer to sign up for free Amazon Prime for 30 days.  Take it or leave it.  I left the products in my list and will try to buy them another day.  Maybe next week after black Friday week is over.

He said that Social Security won't be federally taxed.... 

When I go to local dollar store,which is over 25 miles away, i purchase the scratch pads with the sponge included, so save on buying them seperate, then when i get home, i cut them in half, so that they will go last longer. And it means less trips to the store as well, so saving on gas also. I keep a spray bottle of peroxide under kitchen cabinet, so once  a day, i spray them, to clean, so they are germ free for next use. This is one of the many tips I've found helpful over the years.

H.R. 82 the Social Security Fairness Act of 2021 has 298 cosponsors now and enough to pass the floor of the House of Representatives.  We have 42 United States Senators as Cosponsors for the Senate version, S.1302.  It has been many years and a hard fight, but we are coming down to the home stretch in the House.  Please call your congressional member to ask him/her to add their name if they haven't already.  To find your representative, just go to U.S. House of Representatives (house.gov) site from google. Then click the tab that says REPRESENTATIVES and then look below to click on the letter of your state or the other tab for the Representative's last name.  I prefer the state because I like to call other states because, in a way, ALL federally elected officials vote for or against bills that end up directly affecting ALL of us.  So, by extension, they are all our representatives, and you just might have family in the state of the representative who has n

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Love Online Leads to $60,000 Theft. Debbie makes a romantic connection with a businessman online but is he who he seems? By AARP. Published November 08, 2024. Debbie, a Colorado native and mother of three adult children, leads a fulfilling life of travel, salsa dancing and volunteer work. While her life is full, she would like to have someone to share it with. So, Debbie looks for love online and meets a seemingly great guy named Russell who claims to be a successful businessman. After weeks of daily texts and phone calls, they plan to meet. That’s when things get complicated – Russell, who is dealing with a work crisis overseas, needs her help to make some bank transfers. As a seasoned international traveler, Debbie is familiar with the nuances of accessing money when out of the country and she knows he’ll be good for it if she lends him the money. However, Russell doesn’t turn out to be who he says he is. After Russell st

If you shop using Collections ETC catalog and/or online be sure to read the fine print.  I placed an online order with them and three days later I was charged $19.95 for an account membership. I didn't catch it last month, but this month I saw the charge. I have called them and cancelled the subscription but after already being charged a total of $39.90 cents.  I will not do anymore business with them. Their catalogs will go straight to the trash.

I have a few statements from my father, who has passed, that date back to September of 2000.  There was nothing in his file regarding where this money went or that the account was closed.  I am trying to retrace the chain of events and wondered if anyone can point me in the right direction

  I hear commercials all the time pushing Life Insurance for seniors.  I do have Life Insurance but I also have a pre-paid burial plan.  I usually tell other family members that if they don't have a spouse/family member counting on a Life Insurance payout or a large amount of debt, they should focus on pre-paid burial plan. (Let family members know you have this and that your wishes have been made in advance.) So many families seem to stress that they don't have Life Insurance. 

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Understanding Emergency Savings and Why It Is Critical to Financial Well-Being. By Manita Rao, AARP Public Policy Institute, Katie Fitzpatrick, University of Wisconsin–Madison & David John, AARP Public Policy Institute. Published November 08, 2024. One of the most important indicators of financial well-being is having money set aside for an emergency, yet too few US households do. And while overall household economic instability has grown in recent decades, it remains more common among lower-income households that have witnessed higher levels of income volatility and unstable consumption. This has made it even harder for low- and moderate- income households from all racial and ethnic backgrounds to save for emergencies. Therefore, an important policy goal to improve household financial well-being and further equity is to make it easier for households to build emergency savings. https://www.aarp.org/pri/topics/work-finan

SCAM SCAM SCAM!!! What kind of contractor doesn't know the building codes where he is working, has his cell phone turned off for payment issues (His words)All Remodelling & Construction LLC (914) 426-6717 Monclair NJSierra Crest Roofing (914) 426-6717 YonkersEmpire Home Improvements (914) 426-6717 Clifton NJAC AIRDUCT CLEA (caller ID out of space) (914) 426-6717This business is not BBB AccreditedWeb site allremodelingcrew.com boasts of multiple excellent reviews although only 2 "TESTIMONIALS" are shown, and niethier is from this decade. When you try to see additional reviews, you are returned to the homepage. Quite a few photos, which, by the way, could have been downloaded from any number of realestate sites as there are no comments, no locations,, nothing to indicate that the work was done by this company AARP Member Name withheld in fear of repercussions and retaliation

FROM ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Nearly 1 Million More Medicare Beneficiaries May Be Affected in Year-Old Data Breach. How to protect yourself if Medicare says your personal information has been exposed. By Kimberly Lankford, AARP. Published September 09, 2024. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is notifying almost a million beneficiaries whose personal information may have been compromised in a contractor’s data breach last year. The contractor, Madison-based Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corp., processes Medicare claims for CMS in six states: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Nebraska. But beneficiaries elsewhere could be affected if they used providers in those states. The notification to 946,801 Medicare beneficiaries comes more than a year after a security vulnerability was discovered in file-transfer software called MOVit. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2024/more-medicare-enrollees-affected-by-

I filled out an application online for SS earlier this month.  Today I received a letter from SSA saying  a transaction was recently attempted with my name and information. I am to call 855 249 4175 to speak with Mrs. Agamao .  If they do not hear from me within 10 days of the letter they will not process my transaction.    The letter is from Salinas .ca.  When I Google the number to ssa  in Salinas, the above number does not match.   Is this letter etc legitimate and I'm worried about nothing?  Thanks:)

So disappointed to see AARP promoting Carshield when the FTC called the company out just this summer (see link below) for not being fully honest and transparent about their "service" contracts.  C'mon AARP, we expect must better of you! https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/07/ftc-says-carshield-shielded-consumers-truth-about-limitations-its-vehicle-service-contracts

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! A crypto scam takes everything from a grandfather. His family shares his story. By AARP. Published October 25, 2024. Dennis an 82-year-old proud father and grandfather, makes a connection with a woman he meets on Facebook named Jessie. Jessie claims to have made a lot of money through crypto investments and offers to teach Dennis how she did it. Having developed a trusting relationship with Jessie and hoping to build an inheritance for his family, Dennis decides to invest his savings. When it is revealed that the investments are a scam and Jessie is a fraud, a devastated Dennis takes his own life. Now his son and daughter share his story in hopes of reaching just one person who might be going through a similar situation. https://www.aarp.org/podcasts/the-perfect-scam/info-2024/suicide-after-scam.html

I am trying to get a definitive answer to a question: I wrote a check to my homeowner's association which was cashed. A few months later I received a statement with a late penalty saying the payment was never received. I looked up my credit union account online and saw the check was cashed. I contacted the homeowner's association and was told to send a copy of the front and back of the check. I did and noticed the front was unaltered with the name of the homeowner's association on the front, but the back was blanked out. I was contacted afterwards by the person at the homeowner's association and was told it was mail fraud (I had mailed the payment at the post office). I contacted the credit union, showing them, the check and they put in an Affidavit of fraud and said they would investigate. I didn't hear back from them. Instead, a couple of months later, I looked at my account and noticed they had reversed the transitional credit they had issued for the check. Again, I contacted the cr

 I just retired and I have just signed up for Medicare Part B. Since I was working when I became eligible for Part A, I signed up for Part B well after Part A. I signed up to coincide with my retirement, October 1st - that is, at the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year. Since I have not yet started collecting my Social Security benefits, I am being billed QUARTLY for my Part B. Since I am starting at the beginning of a quarter, and since a quarter is four months, I expected the bill to be for the three months of OCT, NOV, and DEC. The first QURTLY bill has just arrived... surprise! it's for FOUR months, OCT, NOV, DEC and JANNUARY of next year! Looking on line, I've found instances of folks questioning why their supposedly quarterly bill is for four or five months, instead of the expected three. The "go to" answer seems to be to get the billing cycle lined up with the calendar year: JAN, APR, JUL, OCT. But my cycle was already so aligned, so four months misaligns

My wife will reach FRA 6/2025 she will draw on my earning history. Will she be qualified for 1/2 what my SS payment was in 2019 or will it be adjusted for COLAs that have taken  place since that time?