Free Republic

Financial independence, once a hallmark of adulthood, has gone by the wayside as adult children increasingly depend on their parents to help them cover the cost of rent, student loans, health insurance and more. But parents' desire to give their children a financial assist could be misguided -- and even backfire in the long run. Half of American parents are unable to save as much as they'd like to for retirement, and their grown offspring -- whom they still count as dependents -- are to blame, according to a new Bankrate.com study. While they likely mean well, parents who support...

Wife and I are now officially retired. Looking at RV's to allow us roaming on our schedule. We have made an "Our Turn" list of things/places we want to do/see. After years of caring for ailing parents, divorced siblings who sent their children to be raised by us along with our kids and all the activities requiring Mom and Dad taxi service, working our butts off making our small business thrive (which it is still doing as a nice tax write-off) it is Our Turn and we are getting ready.

When Investing Seems to go down a Black Hole (Part 2). Lately the market has been weird. The S&P went down 3% on some bad news last Friday and it still hasn't recovered yet. And my investments in our 403B seem to be going down a black hole. Even though we are investing 24% it still seems like we can't get over the high water mark of last October. Is it time to make changes or even think of bailing out? Well let's first take stock rather than do the worst thing and make financial decisions based on emotions. 1)...

Congress is making another push on legislation that could make it easier for small companies to offer 401(k) plans and for workers to guarantee themselves an annual income after they retire. A bipartisan group of lawmakers including Rep. Richard Neal (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced Friday the legislation would repeal the age cap for contributing to individual retirement accounts, currently 70½. It would also increase the age at which owners of tax-deferred retirement accounts are required to start taking withdrawals from those accounts to 72 from 70½. Because the measure has support from key...

New York Democratic Rep. José E. Serrano announced Monday that he has Parkinson’s disease and will not seek re-election in 2020. The 75-year-old said he plans to finish his current term, which is his 15th full one in Congress, as the disease has not yet impacted his ability to work. “Today, I am announcing that I am living with Parkinson’s disease,” Serrano said in a statement. “After my diagnosis, I initially planned to continue my work representing the people of the South Bronx far into the future — a responsibility that brings me great joy."

There's a world of mystery surrounding retirement for those who aren't quite there yet. Still, one thing's for sure: Your golden years are apt to cost money, and if you want to live comfortably, you'll need the income to support your desired lifestyle.But a frightening number of U.S. adults are making a major mistake that could destroy their chances of ever getting to retire in the first place: not saving for their golden years. A whopping 42% of Americans don't contribute to a retirement plan, according to the Center for Financial Services Innovation, and if you're one of them, you...

A recently retired friend is thinking of selling his home (which is paid for) and buying a boat for himself and his wife to live aboard without ever having lived aboard a boat before. Are there any FReepers who have done something similar, or who have experience living this kind of lifestyle, or have advice I could maybe pass on to them?

A Texas man is planning to spend his retirement years at Holiday Inns nationwide instead of moving into a nursing home in an effort to cut costs, ABC affiliate WSET reported. Terry Robinson of Spring, Texas, listed his reasons for spending his golden years as a customer of the hotel chain in a viral post on Facebook earlier this month. While the average cost of a nursing home can amount to $188.00 per day, Robinson wrote in the post that reservations at the Holiday Inn cost $59.23 per night with a “combined long term stay discount and senior discount." “Breakfast...

Bill Gross, the one-time bond king who built investing giant Pimco from the ground up 48 years ago then went on to run his own fund at Janus Henderson, announced his retirement Monday. The retirement, effective March 1, marks the end of an era, closing a career for a fixed income expert who once had the ear of policymakers in the highest places. After leaving Pimco, Gross was never able to regain the standing he once held, and the fund he ran for Janus Henderson had badly underperformed for most of the nearly five years he had been there. "I've...

We Baby Boomers timed it perfectly. We came of age during in an era of plentiful jobs and relatively high wages. Public pensions were generous. Stock, bond and home prices were low, and have since risen strongly, enriching anyone who managed to save regularly. College was (by current standards) insanely cheap, allowing us to upgrade our skills with minimal sacrifice. The result was a generation with high average net worth and, at first glance, a great shot at a comfortable retirement. But that’s an illusion, for several reasons. First, the “average net worth” stat masks the fact that many Boomers...

Update: Stricken with Pneumonia, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about to Retire from the Supreme Court. https://www.smobserved.com/story/2019/01/07/news/stricken-with-pneumonia-ruth-bader-ginsburg-about-to-retire-from-supreme-court/3780.html Editor's Note; We first posted this story in September, 2018. Sadly we were correct, as Justice Ginsburg underwent surgery on December 15th to remove a cancerous growth from her lungs. We are reposting it since so many people contacted us to ask if it was true, which sadly, it is. She did not appear for oral arguments on January 7, 2019, & it is becoming increasingly clear that she will not ever return to the bench. https://www.smobserved.com/story/2018/12/20/news/snopes-decries-observer-as-fake-news-for-posting-story-that-justice-ginsburg-has-cancer-sadly-we-were-right/3766.html While the Nation is preoccupied with the...

In light of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s history of cancers and most recently, a surgery to have cancerous tumors removed from her lungs as well as her absence from the bench, Dr. Joseph Bentivegna writes Bader, 85, is quite ill. Dr. Bentivegna, M.D. says the media who have commented on Ginsburg’s  health are “underestimating the severity of her illness,” and that “President Trump has a reasonable chance” of replacing Ginsburg in his first term. If Trump wins reelection, the doctor believes Trump has at least an 80% chance of replacing Ginsburg — we believe that chance is much much higher.The...

Officials with the U.S. Supreme Court have tried to downplay the fact that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missed three days’ worth of oral arguments this week as related to her recent cancer surgery. “Her recovery from surgery is on track. Post-surgery evaluation indicates no evidence of remaining disease, and no further treatment is required,” said court spokesperson Kathy Arberg. While that statement can be taken a couple of different ways, The Hill is reporting that the Clinton-nominated justice will also be out next week, which will no doubt set off panic among Left-wing groups and congressional Democrats...

The U.S. economy may be in the middle of one of the longest recoveries ever, but Alan Greenspan tells Barron’s that the economy doesn’t look so great—and could well get worse. The challenges that Greenspan sees are familiar ones, such as the ballooning deficit and the rising costs of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. But the former Federal Reserve chairman says there’s an urgency in tackling these problems as inflation looms, populism spreads, and China’s economic might increases. Greenspan, now 92, presided over a period of economic prosperity from 1987 to 2006 that earned him rock-star-like devotion by...

Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas was pretty clear Friday in explaining his decision to forgo another campaign in 2020. “I just think it’s time,” he told reporters in Manhattan. He’s right about that, of course. Four decades in Washington is long enough. There’s a thin line between helpful experience and atrophy, and Roberts has approached it on more than one occasion. On Friday, Roberts pointed with pride to work on eight farm bills during his time in office. Eight? Do farmers really need that much help? Is there a better way to protect the food supply? Roberts isn’t the right...

One core belief I have always held is that our strength as a nation is inextricably linked to the strength of our unique and comprehensive system of alliances and partnerships. While the US remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. Like you, I have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the United States should not be the policeman of the world. Instead, we must use all tools of American power to provide for the common defense,...

Moon Fahel from San Antonio, Texas, had just gotten home from a martial arts class that he’s been taking for the last 15 years when he answered the phone call from Runner’s World. It wasn’t an anomaly—he stays busy with other classes during rest of the week, too: kickboxing, Zumba, athletic dancing, and BODYPUMP, among others. Plus, he just ran his fifth marathon this past Sunday at the San Antonio Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon. Oh, and he’s 85 years of age. (The word “old” doesn’t have a place in his vocabulary.) “I don’t know what old is,” Fahel said. “If...

When it comes to the oldest justice currently serving on the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the message has long since set in for liberals. Donald Trump is going to be in office for two or possibly six more years and for at least the next two, the GOP controls the Senate. How much longer will she remain on the bench? After her recent health scare (a fall resulting in some broken ribs), some alarmed Democrats are growing resentful that Ginsburg didn’t retire when Barack Obama was in office and she had the chance to give up her seat to...

A 48-minute YouTube video at the URL.

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following: "We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Florida .. "Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore. "They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it...