Moving and Retirement

Jean Pond wrote: There are always the antique hunters and I think the fact that I was an antique myself was helpful. A prospective customer would say, "How old is this?" and, when true, I would say, "Well, it’s older than I am" and it would immediately be an antique even if it was only a potato masher. A pretty 18 year old girl spotted a seed pearl pin that was in the shape of the letter J. She asked, "When did you wear this?" I replied, "When I was about your age I wore it on my Lana Turner sweater. It had considerable pick-up power." The Lana Turner reference didn’t mean anything to her. Her name turned out to be Jennifer and she went home with the pin as a gift. more »

This brief explores the implications for Medicare and beneficiaries of repealing Medicare provisions in the ACA. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that full repeal of the ACA would increase Medicare spending by $802 billion from 2016 to 2025. Full repeal would increase spending primarily by restoring higher payments to health care providers and Medicare Advantage plans. The increase in Medicare spending would likely lead to higher Medicare premiums, deductibles, and cost sharing for beneficiaries, and accelerate the insolvency of the Medicare Part A trust fund. Policymakers will confront decisions about the Medicare provisions in the ACA in their efforts to repeal and replace the law.  more »

"Full disclosure: I'm an early riser and fade in the afternoons. I exercise regularly but need someone to open jar lids. I gave up my car when moving downtown, so if you still drive, including "at night," you're my hero. Sorry if you're down in the dumps, but I'm looking for someone upbeat. You should be able to text. Please have a smart phone and know how to send messages. I love quality TV. If you haven't heard of Netflix, we're likely not a match. And if you don't have a sense of humor, we have nothing in common." more »

In Is Uncle Sam Inducing the Elderly to Retire? a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a team that includes Alan Auerbach, a UC Berkeley professor suggests that prospective retirees can forget the Social Security Administration-provided benefit calculations that come in the mail. "They’re completely meaningless," says Auerbach. more »