This past June, the non-profit National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) published a new report on the state of US retirement savings. Based on data from the Federal Reserve’s 2010 Survey of Consumer Finance, the report suggests that many Americans are poorly prepared for retirement and concerned about it. Read the full article

Last week, the Board of Trustees for the Social Security trust funds issued its annual report for 2013. Despite the temporary reduction in payroll tax collections enacted in response to the Great Recession, they project that the dates for exhaustion of the Medicare and Social Security trusts remain unchanged: the Social Security trust is expected to run out in 2033, and the Medicare trust should do the same in 2026. The Trustees also oversee the trust that covers Social Security Disability benefits, and they warn that the disability trust will be depleted much sooner, in 2016. Read the full article

Beginning next year, some taxpayers will pay additional Medicare taxes as one consequence of the Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act. Read the full article

The Federal Reserve’s latest report demonstrates quantitatively something that many already knew intuitively: American households took a serious hit in net worth and income during the Great Recession. Read the full article

The Board of Trustees for the Social Security and Medicare trust fund issued its 2012 annual report in April. Although the new wage base for Social Security will not be officially set until October of this year, it's expected to rise from $110,100 to $113,700 based on their current inflation estimates. The wage base is the maximum income on which Social Security taxes are paid. Read the full article

Having a hard time understanding all the discussion of the Federal Budget deficit? The Congressional Budget Office has a nice infographic of Federal spending, revenues, and the deficit. Read the full article

In the midst of gripping near-term news of deficits and economic crises, taxpayers may not be aware that a looming tax on investment income will begin to nick higher-income earners starting in 2013. Read the full article

Now that the Congressional Super-Committee’s attempts to produce deficit cuts have failed, the Budget Control Act calls for specific budget cuts that commence in January 2013. If this actually comes to pass, the resulting defense-related cuts would have a significant impact in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Read the full article

I was unable to attend last week's New England Economic Partnership conference, but it sounds like it was a fairly somber gathering. Read the full article

Now that the Congressional Super-Committee has thrown in the towel, the automatic spending cuts mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 are set to kick in unless Congress gets its act together. Read the full article

Citing negative feedback from customers, Bank of America has done a complete about-face from its plan to charge most customers a $5-a-month debit card usage fee starting next year. Read the full article

A number of banks are developing annoying new checking account fees. What’s a consumer to do? Read the full article

In response to increases in the cost-of-living index, the IRS announced today that adjustments that will be made to contribution limits for some types of retirement plans. Read the full article

The Social Security Administration announced yesterday that there will be a cost-of-living increase in monthly Social Security benefit checks next year. There were no increases in 2010 and 2011 because the cost of living calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics hasn’t increased since the third quarter of 2008.

Starting in January of 2012, Social Security beneficiaries will receive a 3.6 percent benefit increase, and SSI benefits will increase similarly on December 30, 2011. Read the full article

For most Americans, the European Debt Crisis is anything but riveting. Sure, Wall Street has been bouncing up and down in response to news about the Euro bailout fund, but Greek sovereign debt is a pretty esoteric subject for almost everyone else. Yet the cover of this week’s Economist magazine advises, “be afraid.” What are they worried about? Read the full article

The November Journal of Marketing Research focuses on research into the ways that consumers make financial decisions. One of the papers describes a potentially useful tool for encouraging young people to save for retirement. Read the full article

Michael Cembalest, Chief Investment Officer at investment bank JPMorgan, has done the world a service by publishing a graphic view of the European Crisis, courtesy of his 9-year-old son.

The IRS has announced that in addition to relief already announced for taxpayers in Federal disaster areas, it is giving a one-week extension of the September 15th filing deadline to taxpayers whose preparers are located in areas that were under a severe weather warnings or an evacuation order as a result of Hurricane Irene. Read the full article

Today’s earthquake centered near Mineral, Virginia caught New Englanders by surprise as its shock wave rumbled through the area. Although we tend to think of earthquakes as a west coast phenomenon, today’s tremor reminded easterners that we get them sometimes too. How much does a standard homeowner’s policy cover in the event of an earthquake? Read the full article

This week, a friend expressed concern to me about the safety of his bank. So today I'm addressing two questions: how can you find out whether your bank is in good financial shape, and just how strong is the FDIC's insurance fund? Read the full article

Now that Standard and Poor’s has lowered the US debt rating to AA+, only sixteen nations have the highest rating from all three major ratings agencies (S&P, Moody’s and Fitch). Read the full article

Making good on its earlier warnings, S&P announced after the close of the markets today that it has lowered its long-term credit rating on US debt one notch, from AAA to AA+. Read the full article

Today is the 150th anniversary of the US income tax. Originally established to fund the Civil War, the Federal income tax underwent various changes, with the basic system we have today being established in 1913. It seems appropriate, on this anniversary, to note that we can expect to see some significant changes in the structure of the income tax code later this year. Read the full article

Between the German Finance Minister announcing that the EU debt crisis isn't over and an ongoing debate over the likely market effects of a US credit downgrade, there’s a good deal of chafing at the bit on the question of what investors should do in the face of a troubling degree of market uncertainty. Read the full article

The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) extended higher limits for so-called conforming mortgages, which helped keep mortgage rates lower for home buyers living in high-priced areas of the US, including New England. Barring a change in current law, the conforming mortgage limit extension will run out for loans originated at the end of September. Read the full article

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