From the U.S. News & World Report website
The average monthly Social Security payment for retirees was $1,471 in June 2019. But many retirees receive over $2,000 per month from the Social Security Administration, and payments could be as much as $3,770 in 2019.
The maximum possible Social Security benefit in 2019 depends on the age you begin to collect payments and is:
+ $2,209 at age 62
+ $2,861 at age 66
+ $3,770 at age 70
However, qualifying for payments worth $3,000 or more requires some serious career planning throughout your life.
Here’s what you need to do to qualify for the maximum possible Social Security payment.
Do you know your credit score? Did you know you have more than one? Do you know what makes a good credit score or how they’re calculated? Lenders and creditors know, and you should, too.
Knowing your credit score could help you save money on mortgage loans, credit cards, auto insurance, and other personal finance items. Not knowing your credit score can cost you, in terms of time and money.
As you can probably guess, when it comes to credit scores, the higher, the better, though a good credit score ultimately depends in part on what credit score you’re looking at. There are many different types of credit scores. We each have dozens of them. These days, most of the widely used credit scoring models—including FICO®—use a range of 300-850, with 300 being the worst score and 850 being the best. And whereas for most of us, the term “good” means acceptable or OK, in the world of credit scores, it means something very specific.
Notice how “Good” is in the middle? It doesn’t just mean OK in this context. It means you have a FICO score somewhere between 670 and 739. Again, the higher your credit score, the better, because a higher score can help you save money through lower interest rates on credit cards, mortgage loans, auto insurance and other personal finance items.
From the National Museum of American History website
The weekend of August 15 through 18, 1969, approximately 400,000 revelers traveled from near and far to inhabit the rolling fields of Max Yasgur’s dairy farm near Bethel, New York. There, some of the country’s biggest music acts, along with rising stars, performed at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair.
Woodstock was the largest of the 1960s countercultural music festivals in the United States. It left an indelible impression on not only the artists and attendees but also on the minds of millions of young Americans who experienced Woodstock secondhand—through news media accounts, a widely seen documentary film, and the consumer products that soon followed.
A classic moment at Woodstock: Santana performing Soul Sacrifice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqZceAQSJvc
From the Eat This Not That website
Backtrack to yesterday’s lunch: Did you choose to grab a salad at your favorite chain restaurant based on its convenience or due to the brand itself? Nation’s Restaurant News recently partnered up with Datassential, a consumer research brand, to release its annual Consumer Picks survey, which shows us how 126 popular restaurants stack up against each other based solely on customer loyalty.
“Survey respondents were asked if their last visit to each chain was driven by convenience or by a true desire to experience that brand. The resulting True Loyalty score is the percentage of visits that were motivated by the brand and not by circumstance,” NRN reports. Based on these percentages, we’ve ranked some of your favorite spots from worst to best based on brand-driven customer loyalty.
You’ve put in your time in the working world and saved up a healthy nest egg so that you can enjoy your golden years in retirement. But even if you’ve done everything right up until now, there are ways you can unwittingly derail your retirement once you’re there.
GOBankingRates spoke to retirement planning experts to get their best tips on everything from Social Security to investing.
Follow their advice to thrive in this next phase of your life.
This photograph showing Reynold Hioki and Miles Tamura working at the Pearl City Hongwanji bon dance.
Both Reynold and Miles retired from the 201st Combat Communications Group. Reynold was running the recorded dance songs from his tablet. Miles is the Temple Board of Directors President.
Special thanks to Erik Wong for submitting this photograph and comments.
Obon (お盆) is an annual Buddhist event for commemorating one’s ancestors. It is believed that each year during obon, the ancestors’ spirits return to this world in order to visit their relatives.
Retirement has been on your mind. You’ve been thinking about the right time to finally leave your job, and what the next chapter of your life will be like.
Then the trade war between the world’s two largest economies heated up. Your savings went down. And people started talking about a recession.
Not the best timing.
Off the Hawaii Adjutant General’s Facebook page
The Hawaii National Guard not only assists its own communities, but communities around the world. The 230th Engineers, from the 103rd Troop Command of the Hawaii Army National Guard work with Crow Tribe members to provide housing for veterans. Great job 230th!
Swelling numbers of Americans these days are working in retirement, taking part-time jobs and launching businesses. And retirees are increasingly staying in their homes rather than moving to retirement communities. They’re also, however, breaking the mold in a potentially worrisome direction: embracing debt.
The median total consumer debt of households headed by someone 65 or older in 2016 ($31,300) was 2 ½ times what it was in 2001 and nearly 4 ½ times the level in 1989. Some 60% of 65+ households carried debt in 2016, up markedly from about 42% in 1992. Credit card debt and student loans have increased, too.
The rising debt levels among older Americans is not only problematic for their finances, it’s bad for their mental health.
From the Elder Law Answers website
Older Americans with a life insurance policy that they no longer need have the option to sell the policy to investors. These transactions, called “life settlements,” can bring in needed cash, but are they a good idea?
If your children are grown and your mortgage paid off, you may decide that there is no longer a reason to be paying premiums every month for a life insurance policy, or you may reach a time when you can no longer afford to keep up with the premiums. If this happens, you may be tempted to let the policy lapse and get nothing from it or to surrender the policy for its cash value, which usually is a fraction of its death benefit. Another option is a life settlement. This allows you to sell your policy to an investor for an amount that is greater than the cash value, but less than the death benefit. The buyer pays all future premiums and receives the death benefit when you die.
The Spring/Summer 2019 Afterburner is now available online. For a direct link to the latest Afterburner, click here.
Air Force retirees and annuitants who have an online myPay account are now automatically receiving the Afterburner electronically. People with a myPay account have been removed from the hard-copy mailing list. The Air Force partnered with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in order to save more than $131,000 in printing and postage costs each issue.
Among the TV shows, magazines, and games services unveiled at Apple’s “Show time” event was a surprise entry into a category that couldn’t be further outside Apple’s wheelhouse: a credit card. Dubbed Apple Card, it’s not a traditional plastic credit card that gives you points on things you buy. Rather, it’s a whole new way to shop online and offline.
The Army general leading the Indiana National Guard resigned Monday after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month accusing him and other Guard officials of retaliating against a subordinate for reporting their alleged sexual affairs to investigators.
Army Maj. Gen. Courtney P. Carr, Indiana’s adjutant general, was accused of retaliating against the contractor who said he was having an affair and then working to get her fired from her new job.
A spokesman for the Indiana National Guard wouldn’t comment on the ongoing lawsuit, but said that the retirement was prompted by “a conversation with the governor.” Another soldier named in the lawsuit, Lt. Col. William Poag, has already left the Indiana National Guard but a date for that departure was not immediately available, the spokesman said.
Retiree News 