Money

Hello - is Rocket money a safe and secure app? It asks you for your personal information - I realize it's needed to find your subscriptions, but they want all your account info. So do you think this is a safe app?

My mom is 87 and she lost her husband 2 years ago.  She is not tech saavy and received no letter from SS so she did nothing about claiming spousal benefits.  When I assisted her to put in the claim, SS gave her the one time death benefit and six months of back spousal benefits.   Shouldn't she be entitled to spousal benefits going back to the time of his death?  She was unaware.  She is 85.  She received no letter from then which they concurred.   I filed a reconsideration on her behalf and it is now more than six months waiting for an answer.  Every time I call I'm told, they are "working on it".  What is my recourse.  Mom is 87 and really could use the funds to live!

My wife is 5 years older than me. If she starts taking her SS at her full age, it will be around $900/month.  When I retire and take SS at my full age, half of it will be around $1800/month.  Can my wife take her $900/month until I take mine and then get the increase to half of mine?  Thanks

2025 COLA Adjustment AnnouncedSSA.gov. 2025 COLA Adjustment & Other Related Income Amounts Announcement  from the link:Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 72.5 million Americans will increase 2.5 percent in 2025.The 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits payable to nearly 68 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2025. Increased payments to nearly 7.5 million SSI recipients will begin on December 31, 2024. (Note: some people receive both Social Security and SSI benefits) The maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $176,100. The earnings limit for workers who are younger than "full" retirement age (see Full Retirement Age Chart) will increase to $23,400. (We deduct $1 from benefits for each $2 earned over $23,400.) The earnings limit for people reaching their “full” retirement age in 2025 will increase to $62,160. (We de

 My plan was to wait until age 70 to collect my Social Security benefits based on getting an extra 8% per year for delaying. The figures shown on the Social Security web site don't line up with this. I am currently 68 years and 4 months old. The Social Security benefit estimator shows that if I retire in Jan 2024 I would receive $3851, in Jan 2025 $4113 and in Sep 2025 $4288. Taking the Jan 2024 figure of $3851 and multiplying by 1.08 yields $4159 (vs the estimate shown online of $4113 for Jan 2025). Taking the Jan 2025 figure of $4113 and multiplying by 1.0533328 (8 months at .0066666 increase per month) yields $4332 (vs the estimate shown online of $4288 for Sep 2025). What am I missing here? This seems like it should be pretty basic math. The actual figure seems to be 6.8% rather than 8%

I  I received an email on my regular email account supposedly from AARP inviting me to donate for hurricane Helene victims through a link. They promised, they will match every donation 100 per cent.  I was tempted thinking that if I donated $20, they will match it and people who could donate more, AARP will match it.  then I stopped and thought.  AARP has never done that.  AARP themselves are usually asking for donations through AARP foundation.  So, how could they possible match donations.  Sure enough, I logged in to AARP and could not find anything regarding donations for Hurricane Helene victims.  So, please be aware this is another scam, to profit using the AARP name and the tragedy of many families.  Make as many as you can, know.  I hope AARP will send a real legitimate email to it's membership base alerting.  Sadly, I am afraid some may already fall for it.  I am donating for the victims those $20 directly with the Red

  Has anyone experienced problems with logging in to MySSA?  Can anyone explain Login.gov, ID.me and MySSA logins.  Which one is the best to use and how are these different logins related.  

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Social Security COLA 2025: How Much Will Payments Increase Next Year? With inflation cooling, analysts estimate benefit boost could come in a bit under 3%. By Andy Markowitz, AARP. Published August 14, 2024. The first of three numbers the Social Security Administration (SSA) will use to determine the 2025 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is in, and it points to a more modest increase in monthly benefit payments next year. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) rose by 2.9 percent in July compared to a year ago. The COLA is based on how much that federal inflation gauge changes in July, August and September from one year to the next. The final figure for 2025 will be announced in October. https://www.aarp.org/retirement/social-security/info-2024/cola-estimate-2025.html

Who Pays Tariffs?  

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Retired? Winners and Losers of the Fed's Big Rate Cut. From savers to borrowers, lower interest rates are a mixed bag. By Donna Fuscaldo, AARP. Published September 19, 2024. The Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut in more than four years is finally here. On Sept. 18, the central bank slashed its benchmark rate by half a percentage point, aggressively lowering its target range to between 4.75 and 5 percent. And the Fed has signaled that more reductions are coming.  But that doesn’t mean retirees should panic. It does mean that it’s time for retirees to take stock of their savings, investments and loans. https://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-2024/fed-interest-rate-cuts-retirees.html

I would like to share a story about Viktoriia Melnyk who is a scammer from Ukraine. I met her on a dating website while looking for serious relationships. Since she was also up to marriage I helped her financially extensively, I am talking about thousands of dollars. However, it all appeared to be fake as she wasn’t honest about her real intentions. Contrary, she was simply abusing men's trust and asking for financial assistance in connection with the war in Ukraine for her own profit. Because as I now know she later fled out of the country with her boyfriend Denys Palahniuk. Also, I later found out that Viktoriia was simultaneously receiving money from other’s people from the dating website. Additionally, her boyfriend used these funds to illegally leave Ukraine using corrupt schemes.Be careful, remember these names and photos in order not to get caught. Soon criminal cases will be opened against them and a reward may be appointed for their detention. Хочу поділитися історією про

Hi. My mother's husband started collecting her social security after she died 6 years ago.Recently a previous husband she is divorced from 50 years ago is now trying to file for 1/2 her social security benefits as they were married greater than 10 years. Can he collect without interfering with the widowed spouses collection? Are they both eligible?Thank you.

I am currently working and have my health insurance thru my employer.  we are a large employer.  I never got part A or B.   When should I start the process with SSA?  Medicare?  I will be 69 1/2 when I retire.

My wife and I started Medicare Plan B on January 1, 2024.  we received a bill for four months of premiums, which we paid in full.  My wife decided just after January 1, to start Social Security. We received an autopayment  at the end of January.  Here is the shocker.  Even though we paid for FOUR months of PLAN B, Medicare deducted another payment for Plan B for January.  In my book, that is double billing.  I called the Medicare office and they said we had to wait 6 months before they will pay back the 4 months of potential overbilling.  In private business, this would be unacceptable. We want plan B but we cannot afford to be double billed for it, and we certainly cannot wait 6 months for them to correct a problem that they created.  I put it on a credit card. I am assuming that I could run a chargeback against it. How should I approach this, so I am not overbilled?

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Fraud Alert! Tips to Avoid Common Scams That Target Veterans. Outwitting fraudsters who target those who have served. By Katherine Gustafson, AARP Experience Counts. Published September 19, 2024. Scammers are very active these days as more and more of our payments and purchases go digital. And the military community is particularly at risk. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission found that con artists stole $477 million from veterans, military personnel and their spouses. That was a $63 million increase compared to 2022. According to a 2022 poll by cybersecurity company Aura, 7 in 10 military vets and active-duty servicemembers have been victims. https://www.aarp.org/home-family/voices/veterans/info-2024/veterans-scams-tips.html

I live in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and I moved here about a dozen years ago. I love my friends, my church, my doctors (I am a cancer survivor, and we have a great health care system in the Bay State). The problem is, I don't have enough to retire here, because there is simply no affordable senior housing except subsidized housing that is tiny, depressing and few and far between with an incredibly long waiting list. With my ex-husband's social security that I would collect after I retire, it looks like I would have too much income to qualify for one of them anyway. I live in a small apartment as it is, and have no family here. My sisters live in Florida, but they are constantly complaining about how the Republican government (I guess this is the case with the majority of Southern states) is making life harder and harder for the poor and elderly. I worry that I wouldn't be able to find the quality of medical care I have in Massachusetts, and if the Republican Congress does away

I've been desperately trying to get a job. I was contacted by this Marketing Company that offered remote work from home, they seemed to promising. Gave me an account to try out and showed me how the work would be processed.  I started to make money but soon after that they asked for funds for bigger pay.  At first it was very small amounts, then just as quickly it got started the funds I was paid, had made, and the funds I had deposited they kept.  I have never experienced anything like this, ever.  I'm grief stricken and just can't find peace.  My husband is disabled, and this severely hurts our finances, the amount was in the thousands, our life savings. I have filled with several government agencies, filed a police report, with our bank which we never got our monies back.  I was able to contact the real Deloitte Company even spoke with their head fraud investigator sent him everything I had saved of the fraudulent company using their name, but nothing,

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! For starters, stop buying precut fruit and bottled water.  By Donna Fuscaldo, AARP. Published September 03, 2024. Inflation isn’t the only thing pushing up the grocery bills of households across the country. A lack of awareness of the spending traps is costing them too. The supermarket is where you go for the ingredients to prepare an affordable meal. But it’s also a place where you can overspend if you aren’t careful. That’s particularly true if you’re squarely focused on saving time and effort. “When it comes to groceries, convenience costs,” says Brian Vines, deputy editor of special projects at Consumer Reports. “You can expect to pay a premium when supermarkets help you cut corners in the kitchen. https://www.aarp.org/money/budgeting-saving/info-2024/supermarket-spending-traps.html

Hello. I live in Vermont and after long Covid delays (shutdowns, crazy interest rates), I really do not want to be here all of winter 2024-2025. This is a one-time transition, though I may do it seasonally in the future to visit someplace warmer so long as my state of residence, and health coverage, does not change. I consider this as an experiment for the future. I see this upcoming winter as dead time that could be used in finding new doctors and setting up my new home to return to Vermont in early March. Vaguely aware about not being gone longer than 182 or 183 days or I will get hammered with nonresident property tax rates.  My long-term goal has been to move to an even Bluer state for health benefits. Higher income limits will put me into QMB so I can get health care again. I just checked my old email and today makes 50 weeks of torture from Medicaid Unwind. Medical care has been paused since late May, except for my optimistic therapist who thinks she will get three

i am 78, receive $1300 in ssi. i am not on disability. how much can i keep in bank account?

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Logging in to Your Social Security Account? You May Find a Surprise. SSA sign-in change will affect millions of My Social Security users. ▶️*** By  Andy Markowitz, AARP. Published July 17, 2024. ***◀️ Millions of people who access Social Security services and track their benefits online will soon need to change their login procedure to continue using their My Social Security accounts. The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced July 12 that users who established accounts before Sept. 18, 2021, using a now-defunct sign-up method will be required to transition those accounts to Login.gov, a secure sign-in service administered by the federal government. https://www.aarp.org/retirement/social-security/info-2024/ssa-sign-in-change.html

bEWARE this is a very horrible scam, you get a text message from the USPS saying that you have a package to be delivered and need .18 cents to pick it up so I gave them card because it looked real. No one told me about this scam and now people from Chicago and Sacramento California have gotten my card and stole 158 dollars from me.I am 61 and work really hard for what money I do get and I pray that God the Father will catch these thieves. This is second time I have been stolen from.

 For many folks, their home is their only investment or a majority of it  - for many,  they think about the equity that it gains as a form of retirement financing - be that selling it for a hefty profit, holding it as a rental and thus creating a monthly income flow, or to even borrow against it in the form of a Home Equity line of some sort, including a reverse mortgage. In our generation, we often bought one home and then sold it to buy or build another and then repeated the process.  Each time, we sold the 1st home at a good to even GREAT added value to help help pay for the next.  We were encouraged to do this by our tax laws -  Our local governments also encouraged it because the more the assessed value, the more they can get from property taxes so for sure they want higher value housing to real this reward for all their citizens. Equity is built by sales - whether the sales are of new homes or existing one - as long as there is no adve

Our AARP Forum is continuously bombarded with folks who are newly registered with postings seemingly with 'useful information' but with hyperlinks to possible 'frauds/ scams/ spams or possible malware sites.' Please 'do not click onto any links' of any infomercial with a link to a "solution, the cure" = possible fraud or to a malware site.----------------------------------------------------------- ---- sign of scams -  they may talk about some medical information in the "Housing or Game Talk or Destinations' AARP forums = not in the proper forum = content is 'wrong' for forum heading.And they are newly registered with a 'neat'  copy and paste but with a "link available = the cure, the solution, the treatment."    They may talk about some other common problems and issues and lay out a nice informative treatment or solution.  --- crypto recovery scams - I've seen twice or more here ---- Be wary of posts talking about 'cannabis' with an al

FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!! Are You a Scam Victim? You Might Get Hit Again — by Taxes. Advocates are working to change federal laws to separate fraud losses from taxable income. By Ken Budd, AARP. Published July 30, 2024. Former President Trump’s signature 2017 tax law is having a ripple effect on scam victims: They’re required to pay federal taxes on the money they lost. It’s a nightmare scenario, as Kate Kleinert knows all too well. In August 2020, the retired secretary and widow began an online romance with a man posing as a United Nations surgeon in Iraq. As he supposedly traveled to meet her in Pennsylvania, he claimed he’d been arrested and needed $20,000 for bail. Ultimately, she lost $39,000 in the scam. Then her tax accountant delivered shocking news: She owed $5,000 in federal taxes on the losses. https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2024/victims-pay-taxes-on-stolen-money.html