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The Social Security Administration (SSA) recently announced the inflation-adjusted increase in benefits for 2019. SSA’s announcement states that Social Security beneficiaries should expect a cost-of-living increase of 2.8%. However, the same announcement says that for those who are retired at full retirement age, the maximum monthly benefit will go from $2,788 to $2,861, a 2.62% increase of $73 a month. Either 2.62% or 2.8% isn’t much in the overall scope of things, considering part of that increase goes to pay for Medicare premiums and copays for medication. Those retired with only Social Security income struggle just to survive month to month.

This should be a wakeup call for still-working individuals who are living (and spending) for the moment and have no, or minimal, retirement plans or retirement savings. It’s almost imperative that individuals include contributions into retirement savings in their budgets, in one form or another, or the inevitable golden years won’t be so golden.

Written by Chuck Woodson | Posted in Retirement And Taxes

When we are working, taxes are a part of daily life and influence the considerations that we take in our spending habits. Once we start thinking about retiring, we often forget to add in taxes as a component to our thought process. It is important to understand your tax situation in retirement prior to retiring so that you will be ready when the time comes to pay on the taxes due.

1. Social Security

When we think about retirement, Social Security tends to be the first thing that comes to most people’s minds. An individual’s Social Security is funded by reducing a portion of their paychecks as taxation payable towards the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, better known as FICA taxes, as well as their employer paying in matching taxes from their own funds. For the self-employed, both sides of FICA are paid through self-employment taxes based upon the Self-Employment Contributions Act of 1954 (SECA) by the self-employed individual. Social Security was originally created through the Social Security Act of 1935, to ensure basic rights to each person as they aged, became unemployed, and for under working age children. While it has gone through several changes since President Roosevelt first signed it into law, the idea behind Social Security remains the same.

Written by Kazim Qasim | Posted in Retirement And Taxes