Travel, Leisure & Fun for South Valley Adults
Travel, Leisure & Fun for South Valley Adults
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Now that tax time has come and gone, you may be wondering what to do with all of the legal documents, receipts and business papers you've accumulated over the past 12 months, especially your tax documents. "When you're working on your taxes, you're trying to figure out what can you keep," money expert Clark Howard says. "What can you discard? What had you better keep?" In this article, we'll discuss how long to keep your tax documents and why, according to Clark. Clark mostly subscribes to a "rule of sixes" when it comes to...
What makes for retiring well? For most Americans, it's living a little by affording experiences that bring joy (68%) and enjoying a high quality of life (49%), balanced by the security of reaching savings milestones (68%), according to new Empower research. Most agree satisfaction in retirement includes the ability to pay bills on time and in full (68%) and living debt-free (63%) - including owning a home outright (55%). Some 42% of people say it comes down to experiences,...
A federal grand jury has charged three people with defrauding elderly authors across the United States of almost $44 million by convincing the victims that publishers and filmmakers wanted to turn their books into blockbusters - but only if they paid some fees first. According to the indictment, Gemma Traya Austin of Chula Vista was the organizer and registered agent for PageTurner, Press and Media LLC ("PageTurner"), a Chula Vista company that claimed to be a book publishing...
The IRS has announced increased 2025 tax deductible limits for long-term care insurance. “Tax deductibility of tax-qualified long-term care insurance premiums remains one of the best-kept secrets in financial planning,” said Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance (AALTCI). “The 2025 deductible limits are significant and few people, especially small and mid-sized business owners, are aware that premiums paid for long-term care insurance may be tax deductible," he said. The 2025 limit for...
For the 16th year, CSET is offering it's volunteer income tax assistance services (VITA), a free service to those with household incomes less than $67,000. With an army of about a dozen staff and 130 highly trained volunteers, the service generated more than $5 million in refunds for the 4,200 returns submitted last year. Volunteers, which must undergo 32 hours of training to become certified, provide services at locations throughout Tulare and Kings Counties, including at the...
The Senior Citizen's League (TSCL) predicts that the 2026 Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) will come in at 2.5%, based on the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data. This figure would be equal to 2025's COLA, signaling modest inflation in the year to come. TSCL will update this prediction every month until the Social Security Administration announces the 2026 COLA in October 2025. In 2024, TSCL's model predicted that inflation, and therefore the COLA, would drop as early as Q2...
"The 2.5% COLA for Social Security benefits in 2025 is nowhere near enough to allow older adults to afford their true cost of living," said Ramsey Alwin, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging, following the announcement of the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2025. "The poverty rate for people age 65 and older remained at an unacceptable 14% in 2023," he continued. "Our research with the LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass Boston shows that about h...
Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for more than 72.5 million Americans will increase by 2.5% in 2025, the Social Security Administration announced on October 10. On average, Social Security retirement benefits will increase by about $50 per month starting in January. Over the last decade, the cost-of-living (COLA) adjustment increase has averaged about 2.6%. The COLA was 3.2% in 2024. Nearly 68 million Social Security beneficiaries will see a 2.5% COLA beginning in January...
More than 60% of Americans feel they are in a better place to achieve their goals than generations that came before them, according to Schwab's eighth annual Modern Wealth Survey, an examination of how Americans think about saving, spending, investing and wealth. Boomers lead the charge, with 66% believing they are more or as likely as older generations to reach their goals, followed by Gen X (63%), Millennials (62%) and Gen Z (60%). One factor likely driving the positivity...
The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) estimates there will be a substantially lower cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) for next year after the implementation of the 3.2% COLA in 2024. “The 2025 COLA prediction is about 2.57%, down from 2.63% last month,” said Alex Moore, TSCL statistician and managing partner at Blacksmith Professional Services. "Third-quarter numbers are very important because that's what's compared to the prior year's quarter to get the COLA." The rate of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index use...
Half (48%) of American adults report having been a victim or intended victim of financial exploitation in the past, according to a new report from AARP. While adults ages 18 to 49 are more likely than older adults to lose money from financial exploitation, older adults are more likely to lose larger amounts. "Over the past decade, criminals have become increasingly sophisticated, posing new risks to the hard-earned savings of American adults," said Jilenne Gunther, national...
A reverse mortgage is a loan secured by a home that allows older homeowners to convert home equity into cash. Monthly payments are not required on a reverse mortgage. Rather, the loan comes due (with interest) upon a triggering event, typically the borrower passing away or permanently moving out of the home. Unlike a traditional mortgage, the amount the borrower owes on a reverse mortgage will go up rather than down over time as they receive payments from the lender and intere...
The Social Security Administration announced it will decrease the default overpayment withholding rate for Social Security beneficiaries to ten percent (or $10, whichever is greater) from 100%, significantly reducing financial hardship on people with overpayments. "Social Security is taking a critically important step towards our goal of ensuring our overpayment policies are fair, equitable and do not unduly harm anyone," said Martin O'Malley, commissioner of Social Security....
When you think of new hires, who do you picture? While you may expect applicants to be 20-somethings straight out of college or 30-to-40-somethings making a career change, in reality, you'll likely see more applicants who are older adults. According to a report by the U.S. Special Committee on Aging, workers 55 and older will soon represent 25% of our nation's workforce. However, just because more older adults are applying for jobs doesn't mean they are getting hired. Many old...
Community Services Employment Training (CSET) is currently providing free tax preparation services to residents of Tulare County. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program prepares federal and state tax returns at no cost to households with less than $60,000 in annual income. Each year, CSET helps thousands of residents in Tulare County file their income tax returns for free. Additionally, tax preparers can help residents claim federal/state earned income tax credits...
I am looking into moving to a Senior Independent/Assisted Living community. Does insurance pay for it? Independent living and assisted living communities in Tulare County are private pay. If you were wise enough to get a long-term care insurance policy that includes residential care facilities, it will help you pay the assisted living fees. Long-term care insurance policies are purchased separately from health insurance and have hefty premiums, but they are life savers when...
Boston College's Center for Retirement Research published a study that explores what Americans think are the biggest risks to their retirement - as opposed to what they objectively are. The center found "a big disconnect between how actual and perceived risks are ranked." That disconnect could be hurting people's retirement planning. The study says the biggest risk to retirement is longevity - living so long that we run out of money. But the survey found that the biggest...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that average premiums, benefits and plan choices for Medicare Advantage and the Medicare Part D prescription drug program will remain stable in 2024. Improvements adopted in the 2024 Rate Announcement, as well as the 2024 Medicare Advantage and Part D Final Rule support this stability. CMS works to ensure these programs work for people enrolled in Medicare, that benefits remain strong and stable, and that...
Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for more than 71 million Americans will increase 3.2% in 2024, the Social Security Administration announced on October 12. On average, Social Security retirement benefits will increase by more than $50 per month starting in January. More than 66 million Social Security beneficiaries will see the 3.2% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) beginning in January 2024. Increased payments to approximately 7.5 million people receiving SSI will begin on December 29. (Some...
Older Americans lose an estimated $28.3 billion annually to elder financial exploitation (EFE), according to a new report from AARP. The report also shows that 87.5% of adults age 60 and older who are victimized by someone they know never report these incidents to authorities. In contrast, just one-third of victims of stranger-perpetrated EFE do not report it. "While strangers often rely on quick and irreversible transactions such as gift cards or wire transfers, perpetrators...
The Social Security cost of living adjustment (COLA) for 2024 is looking increasingly like it may be around 3%, based on consumer price data released on August 10, according to The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). Overall, the inflation rate in July is significantly lower than a year ago. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), the index used to determine the COLA, was up 2.6% year over year. However, the average monthly inflation rate has risen slightly, especially since January of this...
The majority of Americans don’t think they can depend on Social Security for retirement income and worry about their long-term financial stability, according to the 2023 1Q Quarterly Market Perceptions Study from Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life). Nearly three in four (74%) say they can’t count on Social Security benefits when planning retirement income. At the same time, 88% say it is critical to have another source of guaranteed income beyond Social Security benefits in order to have a comfortab...
Community Services Employment Training (CSET) is providing free tax preparation services to residents of Tulare County. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program prepares federal and state tax returns at no cost to households with less than $60,000 in annual income. Eligible working families and individuals may also qualify for Federal and California Earned Income Tax Credits (CalEITC) that may reduce the amount of tax owed. Tax documents can be dropped off at any...
A new report from the AARP Fraud Watch Network and FINRA Investor Education Foundation says shifting how our society talks about victims of financial fraud could lead to a much-needed change in how our country responds to this growing crime. “As a society, we tend to use words that blame fraud victims for the crime they experienced,” said Kathy Stokes, AARP director of fraud prevention programs. “Scam victims also blame themselves, and this combination serves to diminish the perception that these are crimes and that victims d...
High inflation has caused Social Security benefits to lose 40% of their buying power since the year 2000, according to the latest update of an ongoing study by The Senior Citizens League (TSCL). "That's the deepest loss in buying power since the beginning of this study by The Senior Citizens League in 2010," says Mary Johnson, a TSCL Social Security policy analyst who conducted the research. "Based on the most recent consumer price data, the annual cost of living adjustment...