Free Republic

Another member of the U.S. House of Representatives is declining to run in 2024. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) will step down at the end of his term after representing Oregon in the House for 29 years, he announced on Oct. 30. "Simply said, it is time to continue my life’s mission without the burden of day-to-day politics," Mr. Blumenauer, 75, said in a statement. He said the choice to step down was difficult but that he will keep "championing livable communities starting right here in Portland and being a resource and a partner for the next generation.” Mr. Blumenauer has...

A father of three recently revealed to his eldest daughter that he and their mother planned to retire early and spend all their money during retirement—now she and her sister are furious. Here’s what the dad had to say. The man and his wife are in their mid-40s, both successful in their respective careers and earning an annual combined income of approximately $300,000. “We’ve both worked hard to get where we are in our careers and thankfully, that means we’re able to provide a good life for our kids. We aren’t rich, and we don’t live beyond our means,” the...

A retired Australian couple became the stars of the sea as they spent nearly 500 days cruising around the world after booking 51 back-to-back cruises. Marty and Jess Ansen took off on their first cruise on June 16, 2022, after a long two years of strict COVID-19 lockdowns in Australia. They have yet to stop, booking a total of 51 trips so far. The great-grandparents have stayed on board Princess Cruises’ 2,000-passenger Coral Princess for more than 450 days — longer than most of the crew, including the captains — and expect to stay onboard the ship for two years....

Kix will play their final show this month — and according to vocalist Steve Whiteman, not a moment too soon. The Maryland rockers are set to end a 45-year career with a Sept. 17 hometown gig at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. "I don't want to go out sucking — I want to go out being pretty good," Whiteman said on a recent episode of SiriusXM's Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk (via Blabbermouth). "But age takes its toll," he added, citing drummer Jimmy Chalfant's 2021 heart attack and subsequent onstage collapse last November as contributing factors. The vocalist also...

While choosing to retire in Florida isn’t the best choice for everyone, relocating to the Sunshine State comes with its share of benefits. Of course, some people move to Florida for the warm weather and plentiful beaches, but that’s not all the state has to offer. Florida happens to be one of the most tax-friendly states for retirees, and plenty of out-of-state retirees are taking notice. For example, Kiplinger previously reported on migration data showing that Florida gained residents from high-tax states. (Between 2020 and 2021, more than 84,000 new Florida residents came from New York alone.) 10 Most Tax-Friendly...

Milton Friedman once observed, “If the government ran the Sahara, in five years there would be a shortage of sand.” He was right. The government has run Social Security for more than 80 years, and now there is a shortage of security. At this point, the experts believe that someone who is 79 years old today is likely to outlive the system’s ability to pay scheduled benefits. The solution, according to the White House fact sheet on the 2024 Budget Proposal, is: do nothing, and the Republicans cheered. That leaves a rapidly growing problem to third parties.Social Security presents a...

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Cavuto: Coast to Coast,” New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (D) discussed the state’s projected $36 billion budget shortfall over three years and stated that taxpayers leaving the state is part of the issue along with the fact that the economy is slowing down. DiNapoli stated, “I think there are a couple of factors happening: There’s no doubt the economy certainly is slowing and we are feeling the effects in the current year collections of the slowdown, as far as financial services, Wall Street’s a very important part of the economy in...

Investors throughout the U.S. “are being held hostage by those who … don’t want to maximize retirement profits, but rather seek to push a far left social and political agenda,” according to Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich. “Forcing lower returns on Americans who are trying to build a securer financial future is wrong,” Huizenga said on Wednesday at a House Financial Services Committee hearing titled “Protecting Investor Interests: Examining Environmental and Social Policy in Financial Regulation.” “This approach undermines traditional and, frankly, legal government structures and has turned our financial system into a political battlefield.” “But I’m here to tell you...

There's something about statistics that gets me energized, even on a weekday! I particularly enjoy comparing myself to others and understanding how I measure up. It's only natural to want to know if you're average or above average. This knowledge helps you gauge your position and serves as a valuable reminder of what the future may hold. As a financial planner, understanding retirement averages like these can truly assist both you and me in planning for the future. So, let me share with you my thoughts on some intriguing figures I recently came across in a Wall Street Journal article...

When Sam Dogen retired at age 34 with a net worth of $3million he vowed never to return to his grueling job in investment banking. As a pioneer of the FIRE - financial independence, retire early - movement, he had meticulously planned for 13 years to ensure he had a passive income of $80,000 a year in retirement. But a decade later, Dogen, now 45, is being forced to join the ranks of the unretired. Amid soaring inflation and rising costs, he needs to go back to work to be able to afford his kids' college tuition, which he has...

Republican Rep. Chris Stewart (Utah) announced Wednesday that he will retire from Congress. The Salt Lake Tribune first reported on Stewart's retirement plans. In a statement, Stewart said that serving in Congress "has been one of the great honors" of his life but explained his wife's health made his retirement "necessary." "I can say with pride that I have been an effective leader for my beloved home state, and I’m honored to have played an important role in guiding our nation through some troubled times," Stewart said. "But my wife's health concerns have made it necessary that I retire from...

Not much chance for a pickup here. He was actually a pretty reasonable Democrat, Navy veteran, fairly centrist. Liberals here hated him as "corporate" and "centrist". Probably to be replaced by Lisa Blunt Rochester, current DE Representative. She has been pretty non-descript so far, probably comfortably in the middle or a little to the right of the current crop of House Democrats.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite The Senate’s two-week recess ends on Monday. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will be back to work then. He made the announcement on Twitter, a nod to recent gossiping and speculation that he would retire after treatment for a concussion suffered when McConnell took a fall at a dinner event. McConnell is 81 years old so talk of retirement after his long career in public service is not out of the ordinary. McConnell fell during a dinner event in early March. He was hospitalized and treated for a concussion. He was moved to an inpatient...

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has been out of the public eye for weeks, following a serious fall that hospitalized him. Now multiple sources confirm that Senators John Barrasso of North Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas and John Thune of South Dakota are actively reaching out to fellow Republican senators in efforts to prepare for an anticipated leadership vote — a vote that would occur upon announcement that McConnell would be retiring from his duties as leader, and presumably the Senate itself. One source says that Cornyn has been particularly active in his preparations, taking fellow senators with whom he...

President Joe Biden recently issued his first veto since taking office on Jan. 20, 2021. Biden rejected a bipartisan bill that would have required investment fund managers to take politics out of their investment decisions and to stay focused on providing the best return to their clients as much as possible. Why should you care? Because Biden was, in effect, saying it was permissible for fund managers, who have control of trillions of dollars in pension accounts, to take into consideration a company's ESG score (related to how it stands on racial justice, climate change and LGBT issues) when they...

In 17 days, millions of retirees will receive the first round of April's Social Security Administration retirement payments, worth up to $4,555. The first round, for those born between the 1st and 11th of a month, will be released on Wednesday, April 12. Three disbursements are released to retirees each month, but each person only receives one payment that coincides with the 10-day block of the month in which they were born, according to the SSA's schedule. ... The amount of money each recipient gets depends on the recipient's age at retirement. The highest payment is worth $4,555 per month,...

Surprisingly, out of the 10 most expensive states to retire in the United States, California is conspicuously absent from the list. That is according to a new WalletHub piece that dove into the most affordable places for U.S. citizens to settle down in once their work lives are over - which, nowadays, is somewhere between age 90 and 120. The study "used data from various agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Council for Community and Economic Research" and its rankings "looked at adjusted cost of living, general tax-friendliness and annual cost of in-home services, as well as...

More than two years into his administration, President Joe Biden used his veto power for the first time on Monday, killing a bipartisan resolution that would have reversed a final rule from the Department of Labor that pushes woke ESG standards as a priority over profitability for Americans' retirement accounts. In a statement, President Biden sought to justify his veto by claiming that the final rule "allows retirement plan fiduciaries to make fully informed investment decisions" while "ensuring that investment decisions made...maximize financial returns for retirees." "There is extensive evidence showing that environmental, social, and governance factors can have a...

This a battle which has been going on for months already. The French retirement age is 62, one of the lowest in Europe. Since January, President Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne have been saying they would push to increase the retirement age to 64 or 65.With one of the lowest retirement ages in the industrialized world, France also spends more than most other countries on pensions at nearly 14% of economic output, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development…“The aim is to balance the accounts without raising taxes or cutting pensions. Various options are on the table,...

“President Biden is prioritizing politics over his own people,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said at a signing ceremony for a bill that would nullify a Department of Labor rule that allowed retirement plan investment managers to prioritize environmental or social factors (ESG) over financial benefits when making investment decisions should it pass into law. Happening now: I'm about to sign the first bipartisan bill of the year, then send it to the president's desk. It blocks Biden's woke ESG agenda and puts workers over Wall Street. https://t.co/cXauyBoTrv— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) March 9, 2023The rule in question, established in December 2022,...