Moving and Retirement

Several health professions, such as physicians and surgeons, nurse anesthetists, and dentists, are among the highest-paying occupations for women. Pharmacists boast one of the lowest pay gaps between men and women. Full-time, year-round female pharmacists earned 97 cents for every dollar male pharmacists earned. Other professions, including finance and sales, show the largest wage gap between men and women. more »

Strikes by teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arizona, and Colorado have highlighted differences in teachers' wages across the country. Teachers in these states have lower-than-average annual wages but also lower-than-average cost of living (COL)... Real wages are lower in high-amenity places because the amenities are part of the workers' compensation. This helps to explain why places such as Hawaii, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, and Colorado, which are all high-sunshine states, tend to have lower real wages for most occupations, including teachers. more »

As of 2019, Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part D prescription drug plans will no longer be exposed to a coverage gap, sometimes called the “donut hole”, when they fill their brand-name medications. The coverage gap was included in the initial design of the Part D drug benefit in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 in order to reduce the total 10-year cost of the benefit. Subsequent legislative changes are phasing out the coverage gap by modifying the share of total costs paid in the gap by Part D enrollees and plans and requiring drug manufacturers to provide a discount on the price of brand-name drugs in the gap. more »

Elaine Soloway writes: I have turned to therapy a handful of times. My slim record is not because I disdain the practice or am reluctant to reveal my secrets. Fifty-five minutes focused on me, a sympathetic witness to my angst, a collaborator in my version of the story; who wouldn't relish the experience. Because I had not lived in the same city as my daughters for 25 years, and since I was unfettered in Chicago (no husband, house, dog, car, debt), I thought the time was right to jump into their world. But, instead of considering this decision an abandonment of Los Angeles, I'll add Bi-Coastal to my labels and have the best of both worlds. more »