By Margot Sanger-Katz and Kevin Quealy, New York Times – Aug 27, 2014

The changes are big. The difference between the current estimate for Medicare’s 2019 budget and the estimate for the 2019 budget four years ago is about $95 billion. That sum is greater than the government is expected to spend that year on unemployment insurance, welfare and Amtrak — combined. It’s equal to about one-fifth of the expected Pentagon budget in 2019. Widely discussed policy changes, like raising the estate tax, would generate just a tiny fraction of the budget savings relative to the recent changes in Medicare’s spending estimates.

By Susan B. Garland, Kiplinger – Aug 27, 2014

When it comes to your nest egg, you made all the right decisions, saving enough to turn your retirement dreams into reality. But as the big day approaches, you realize you’ve forgotten to answer a couple of crucial questions: What exactly are my dreams? How can I make the next 20 or 30 years purposeful?

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Some people enter retirement with a full-blown plan. Other new retirees struggle to fill a blank canvas. And as the soul-searching baby boomers march into this stage of life, a cottage industry of retirement and life-transition coaches are helping them explore the nonfinancial, emotional side of retirement.

By Rodney Brooks, USA Today – Aug 26, 2014

For many, it will be the biggest chunk of money they will ever see, and that makes the consequences of doing the wrong thing huge.

We’re talking about the money workers have accumulated in their company-sponsored 401(k)s as they approach retirement. And we’re talking huge numbers. Consider:

By Carl Edwards, MySanAntonio.Com – Aug 26, 2014

An onslaught of retiring baby boomers; the uncertain duration of Social Security funding; difficulty with workplace retirement accounts such as 401(k)s — even if these factors were stronger than they are now, you’d still have a heavy burden in managing your finances during retirement.

Financial planning for retirement has always been a daunting prospect; the current landscape makes your preparation that much more crucial in using your assets well.

There are seven essential points that everyone should know regarding retirement planning.

Avoid trying to time the market. Markets often move in cycles. The problem is that investors are terrible at correctly predicting market movements and multiple studies have shown that market timers usually end up with significantly smaller retirement savings than buy-and-hold investors.

By Sam Adamson, News Leader – Aug 24, 2014

A great deal continues to be written on the “baby boomer” generation, those people who were born from 1946 to 1964 in the United States. There were approximately 76 million people born in the U.S. over that time, and slightly over 11 million of those have died. However, the number of people in this age group remains at approximately 76 million due to immigration. It is estimated that 10,000 baby boomers reach age 65 each day. Of those people ranging in age from 50 to 68, millions have made or are in the midst of making critical decisions with regard to their retirement. Let’s look at a brief history of the Social Security retirement program and some of the decisions that must be made with regard to its integration into your overall retirement plan.

By Dave Bernard, U.S. News & World Report – Aug 22, 2014

If you want to know what to expect and how to prepare for retirement, you will discover the most useful advice tends to come from those who are already retired. Many people try to improve their odds of living a happy retired life by diligently researching all they can find in books and magazines. But one can quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer volume and often conflicting advice when it comes to retirement planning. Nothing is more genuine or valuable than firsthand experience.

Before moving into retirement many people have lofty expectations about the second act they hope to live. Leaving the working world behind to embark on a 20-year journey doing whatever you want sounds almost too good to be true. And while some people are lucky enough to live the retired life of their dreams, others discover that retirement differs from their expectations and not always for the better.

By Dominic Basulto, Washington Post, Aug 21, 2014

Americans simply do not save enough for retirement, that’s the inescapable fact. The latest survey on retirement savings shows that more than one-third of working age Americans have not saved any money for retirement. Even worse, 14 percent of people age 65 or over have no retirement savings whatsoever. In the July-August issue of Harvard Business Review, Nobel Prize laureate Robert Merton analyzes the issue in-depth, calling it a “crisis in retirement planning.”

While the financial services industry continues to produce a number of incremental improvements to existing retirement options, has there really been a major, game-changing innovation since the first 401(k) plan was unveiled nearly 30 years ago?

What follows below are five ways that a combination of technological and financial innovation might help solve America’s looming retirement crisis.

By Nancy Altman and Eric Kingson, Huffington Post – Aug 20 2014

The idea of expanding Social Security is gaining momentum. Senators from the blue states of Massachusetts and Vermont (Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders), the swing states of Iowa and Ohio (Senators Tom Harkin and Sherrod Brown), and the red state of Alaska (Senator Mark Begich), are all championing the idea. So are about half the Democratic caucus in the House of Representatives. Indeed, a member of the Democratic leadership, Senator Patty Murray, has a bill expanding Social Security.

In the last month alone, three bills expanding Social Security have been introduced. The three add to a growing number which see Social Security as the solution to a looming retirement income crisis, as well as to other serious challenges facing the nation. Some proposals expand benefits across the board; some target the expansions to working families with the highest levels of poverty; some strengthen the program’s cost-of-living protection; some provide financial support for workers who must leave work to care for a family member or themselves. All put Social Security on a sounder financial footing. 

By Andrew Biggs, Wall Street Journal – Aug 18, 2014

On July 15 the Congressional Budget Office rolled out updated projections that show a precipitous decline in Social Security’s solvency. The program’s 75-year deficit has nearly quadrupled since 2008, and the trust fund’s exhaustion date has moved forward by nearly 20 years. Remarkably, the response by progressives is to expand Social Security’s benefits while leaving its multi-trillion-dollar unfunded obligations largely unaddressed.

In 2008 CBO forecast that Social Security faced a 75-year funding shortfall of 1.06% of payroll, which implied that a mere 1.06 percentage point increase in the payroll tax—to 13.46% from the current 12.4%—would keep the system solvent for 75 years. This seemingly minor shortfall caused many on the left—who had fought tooth-and-nail against President Bush’s 2005 efforts to fix Social Security—to mock the very need for reform.

By Eve Kaplan, USA Today – Aug 17, 2014

Today’s retirement may look nothing like your parents’ or grandparents’. People live longer, benefits grow thinner, and health-care costs rise. Review your financial situation and start planning early so that this new retirement doesn’t catch you unprepared.

The new environment you retire in is a very mixed bag – there’s good news, bad news and unpredictable elements. You can live longer than ever, and stay active into your 70s, 80s and beyond. But to support a longer life, you may end up working long past 65, even if you are reluctant to. Your aging parents live longer and may need your help. Your adult children may need financial support, too.

All these challenges require more planning than ever. It’s never too early to begin thinking and planning for the new retirement. Times have changed: