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"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full", John 15:11.
  • Aug 27
    2009

    Withdrawing Your Funds at Retirement When it is time for you to retire you will be responsible for notifying your retirement account custodians of your change in status. Depending upon your retirement plan, you will have various options. You may wish to receive your money immediately, or you may wish to continue contributing to your account and allowing it to grow for a few more years. There are various ways to receive money from your retirement accounts. Check with qualified people and seek sound advice before signing or doing anything. If you are retiring from a business or a company, your HR representative is there to help you with this process. In addition to talking with your HR resource, you may wish to contact your local Social Security office approximately six months in advance of your planned retirement date. Someone there can provide the information you need and guide you through their process.

    Social Security

    Social Security benefits have been a godsend for the majority of its recipients. However, you may be in for a surprise at some point in your future because as it now exists, Social Security is unsustainable. Look for some radical changes in the coming years, because if Congress leaves Social Security unchanged, it will cease to exist sometime in the 2030s. Experts say that it will come to an end because much more will be needed in funding than can be generated by workers paying into the program. The Year 2030 sounds so far in the future. It may be distant, but if you aren't prepared for Social Security's eventual demise, you will pay the price with your retirement when you are ready to draw your first check only to find that it isn't there.

  • WASHINGTON - Millions of Retired Americans face shrinking Social Security checks next year.

    The trustees who oversee Social Security are projecting there won't be a cost of living adjustment (COLA) for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975. If COLAs are denied, it will be the first time in a generation that payments would not rise.

    Though Social Security benefits cannot be decreased, yet the buying power of theri monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.

    Cost of living adjustments are tied to inflation, which has been negative in 2009.

    Advocates say that retirees still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, declining home values, and shrinking retirement portfolios just as they are relying on those assets for income.

    Approximately 50 million retired and disabled Americans receive monthly Social Security benefits. The average benefit for retirees is $1,153 per month. All beneficiaries received a 5.8 percent COLA increase in January, the largest since 1982.

    More than 32 million people are in the Medicare prescription drug program. Average monthly premiums are set to increase from $28 this year to $30 next year, though they vary by plan.

    Condensed from an article by Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher - Sun Aug 23, 2009.

  • The nation's largest senior citizens organization reports losing 60,000 members due to its support of a health care agenda that includes rationing health care. The group denied having endorsed the House and Senate healthcare bills specifically; its influence upon them was such that President Barack Obama wrongly said AARP endorsed the bills in a recent town hall forum.

    In materials provided to CBS News, AARP said 60,000 members have left its membership rolls in protest over its general support for the government-run health care plan. AARP spokesman Drew Nannis said: "We take stands on issues that are contentious, its part of what we do," Nannis said. "And because we have so many members we'll always have a small percentage that disagree with us so strongly they feel they need to cancel membership."

  • Seniors and the National Universal Healthcare Debate The many "Town Halls" being convened across America have awakened a desire within American citizens to express their strong views for and against President Obama's Universal Healthcare Bill. At this critical junction in our Nation's history, you have both a right and an obligation to express your views. This is true whether you are for or against Universal Healthcare.

    The debate is healthy for both sides and is patriotism in action. Engage in the debate with your family, friends, and your Senator or Representative. Your views are important! Your right to express them was won by the countless men and women who paid the ultimate price...with their very lives themselves as they died to win and preserve our liberty.

    Consider the words of our former President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), the principle author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of our Constitutional Republic. "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson

    (Read the full quote below.)

    "God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
    The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
    wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
    they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
    it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
    And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not
    warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
    resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
    to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
    in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
    time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
    It is its natural manure."

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