social security system

We in the personal finance blogosphere love to fill the internet with ideas on how to save money and discuss everything under the sun that you should not spend money on. Well, today, I’d like to discuss a few things that I believe are acceptable purchases.

It’s a great feeling to be your own boss and make money at it. At least, until you discover that you are now responsible for paying self-employment tax and may be required to make estimated tax payments. I have been paying self-employment tax over the last few years; however, I have not made an estimated [...]

Welcome to the 76th edition of Money Hacks Carnival. In this edition, I’ll be presenting some interesting and fun facts about money along with the submissions. For editor’s picks, please look for entries noted with (EP).

Money Fact #1: $1 bills wear out in about 17 months. Bills of larger denomination last longer because they are [...]

“When should I take Social Security?” is the first question everyone faces when contemplating retirement. More than 50% of all men and women start taking benefits at 62. By age 66, well over 90% of all men and women are taking benefits according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

The Break Even Approach
The [...]

Last week, I wrote about Social Security, specifically about some of the useful information I culled from the Social Security Statement for my mom. There was an interesting comment from a reader, ToughMoneyLove, regarding the benefit of delaying your retirement because the Social Security Administration gives you 8% bump in benefits each year. Here’s that [...]

This meme was featured in MSN Money Smart Spending — thank you Donna & Karen.
I came across a post by Chris Garrett where he asked Can Bloggers Make a Difference? and encouraged Bloggers to write about environmental issue on October 15, 2007, aka Blog Action Day. Our M-Network members will be participating to support this [...]

Our Social Security system is in crisis. Despite the fact, many people do not give retirement planning enough priority. This is especially true when life is hard — making it difficult to think about and plan for retirement that is 30-40 years away. However, I encourage you to stop putting your future at risk, review [...]

Okay, this post was originally about how I recently had to sell mutual fund shares in my Rainy Day Fund so that I have enough money to contribute $2,000 to each of our IRAs. I was going to tell you that it’s been tougher to contribute to IRA in the recent years because I got [...]