November 2017 Newsletter The October announcement of a 2018 2% cost of living adjustment (COLA) was welcome news for Social Security recipients.  While 2% is not a large number, it comes on the heels of 2016 0% COLA and 2017 .3% COLA.  Medicare joined the good news by announcing there will be no increase to the base Part B premiums in 2018. Given that most individuals see the Part B premiums deducted from their Social Security Retirement Benefit, one would expect to see a simple 2% pay raise next year. The reality is: Most Social Security recipients will see close to no increase to their benefit. A very small group will see the 2% increase. Another small group…

October 2017 Newsletter I am looking forward to speaking at the upcoming 2017 Schwab IMPACT conference where I will be addressing the topic of Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).  Many financial planners are familiar with the concept of investing HSA assets in order to build a source of tax free retirement income in order to pay for retirement health care expenditures. This does take some planning and discipline as the idea is to pay for current health care costs with other disposable income in order to keep the HSA assets fully invested and growing for retirement. One employee benefit, a “Limited Purpose Flexible Spending Account (FSA)”, can be helpful with this endeavor.  Unlike a regular Flexible Spending Account, that…