Jo Bo

Comments:

• Although I don't quite understand it either, the zero-dollar Wellcare premiums appear to have a $15/mo government subsidy, for 2025, based on the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration provision of the Inflation Reduction Act. This is an opt-in provision for Part D providers, with two additional years left for the demonstration project.

  Post: Wellcare for Part D by Andrew Forsythe

  Link to comment from October 9, 2024

• Years ago, participants in TIAA-CREF retirement plans only had life annuity options. By most accounts, the annuities were (and still are) excellent products in comparison to commercially available products. Now that the millions of TIAA participants can select RMDs and other withdrawal options, only about 30% choose annuities, even with encouragement to do so ("this could be your paycheck in retirement"). The public seems generally reluctant to annuitize, and guardrails would likely be needed should annuities be integrated into 401k's. But I agree with Richard that moving towards this would be the right direction.

  Post: I’m depressed, not very optimistic about retirement 😱 by R Quinn

  Link to comment from October 2, 2024

• Making an evidence-based decision is always solid advice, Greg. I'd urge anyone interested in comparing college outcomes to visit the Department of Ed's College Scorecard. The site offers an easy on-ramp to graduation rates, student debt, graduates' salaries, and many other institutional data. It provides both institution-wide data and data for specific majors, and has tools for comparing institutions. A comprehensive site, without the taint of commercialism.

  Post: Ranking Colleges

  Link to comment from September 30, 2024

• Unleashing, seriously? Like dogs?

  Post: How did it all work for us? Why not now?

  Link to comment from September 26, 2024

• I love the Carnegie libraries, I really do. Perhaps that's in overlooking the past, though. Here's a quote from Annie Dillard, in An American Childhood, probably in the collections of many of the Carnegie libraries: "But a [Carnegie] steelworker, speaking for many, told an interviewer, 'We didn't want him to build a library for us, we would rather have had higher wages.' At that time steelworkers worked twelve-hour shifts on floors so hot they had to nail wooden platforms under their shoes. Every two weeks they toiled an inhuman twenty-four-hour shift, and then they got their sole day off."

  Post: In defense of billionaires

  Link to comment from September 24, 2024

• Ah, but analog has its limits these days. Without owning a cell phone (I'm not a Luddite, I just don't want one), I successfully froze credit at two of the three credit bureaus using a land line and a computer. The third bureau required two-factor identification via a texted pin, which, without a cell phone, I could not receive. That bureau, when contacted by phone, offered a mailed pin that I received two weeks later. Entering the pin into the specified website, I discovered that yet another texted confirmation number would be needed. In frustration, I gave up. My next move may be to ask a friend to help, in hopes that a pin can be texted to someone else's number. The thought of trying to remove the freeze later if needed gives me pause though.

  Post: Analog versus Digital

  Link to comment from September 24, 2024

• When to take SS is a certainly a personal decision as you observe. Clearly no "one size fits all". I am in the fortunate position of not needing SS and will delay until age 70. Before then, I hope to minimize future taxes by drawing down and living off of tax-deferred savings. Plus, at age 70.5, I can begin to offset SS income with qualified charitable distributions from an inherited IRA.

  Post: Quinn asks himself, Is delaying Social Security to age 70 the right decision?

  Link to comment from September 22, 2024

• I’ll put in another plug for Plan G High Deductible, for relatively healthy individuals in states that have them. My high deductible plan saves me $1,974 annually and my maximum additional deductible is $2,560. I think of the cost savings as a form of health savings account (HSA). And what is the worst case? An extra cost of $586 in bad health years, based on current deductibles. Just two years in, my “HSA” is untouched and could now cover several years of worsening health. The possibility of being locked into a high deductible plan also does not worry me, as I view the insurance as a guard against catastrophic expenses. As for the author’s original question, I purchased my plan from a nationally-known insurer that seemed most responsive to my questions, had an easy website to navigate, and had the second lowest premiums. 

  Post: Medigap pricing question

  Link to comment from September 14, 2024

• Thank you, Michelle and Jim, for mentioning the guarantee, of which I was unaware. I checked -- Fidelity has this too, but perhaps with more fine print: "To be eligible for coverage under the Customer Protection Guarantee, you must frequently check your account information and promptly review correspondence, account statements, confirmations, and alerts as they are made available to you, but no later than 30 days after that information is posted to your account or delivered to you." Consequently, I'll be accessing all of my Fidelity documents on schedule starting today.

  Post: Retirement Calculators

  Link to comment from September 1, 2024

• I love my spreadsheets and use them to analyze "what if" scenarios for taxes and account withdrawals, the latter based on rough estimates of annual spending. As an old-fashioned bill payer I track payments and bills with paper and pen, albeit on monthly tables I print annually from my computer. I like seeing billing due dates, reminders about renewals, and bills that I might otherwise forget, all without opening a computer. Having few accounts with automated payments along with an aging brain, access to this information is essential.

  Post: Spreadsheets vs winging it

  Link to comment from August 26, 2024