Recent content by Escort Rider

Isn't the crux of this matter not so much whether a house is an investment as whether we think of it as an investment. Let me make a case for not thinking of it as one. A paid-off sustainable house is a wonderful thing in retirement (think: pre-paid place to live) because it protects against...

Increase in Medicare premiums Isn't it too early to know what the increases in Medicare premiums will be for 2011? Or perhaps you are just assuming large increases - not a bad assumption, certainly. However, it seems to me that these premiums are pretty damn reasonable for what we get for...

I don't get it. What does being in Florida have to do with anything being easy, apart from not having to shovel snow? It is difficult to imagine a more horrible climate, at least for six or seven months of the year: bugs galore, stifling and oppresive heat and humidity, being trapped indoors...

My apologies if you already know the following: 1. In order to enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan, the plan must be approved by Medicare for operation in the county of your residence. (Or this might be a multi-county group). 2. You can go online to the Medicare site (www.medicare.gov) and...

Preventive care and Medicare Advantage Plans I would assume from the comments on this thead that very few if any of the posters have a Medicare Advantage Plan, whereby you sign over your Medicare to the plan and they take care of you for a fixed payment that they receive from Medicare. In that...

Back to the original thread subject (people being forced by their circumstances to take Social Securtiy retirement benefits at age 62), only one poster has alluded to the one conceivable upside to this. The downsides are obvious - the individuals involved will have lower benefits for life and...

I know no one likes to be lectured to concerning a healthy diet, but I couldn't resist commenting because it's relevant to the thread topic. If bacon prices are really going up substantially, that would be a good reason to quit eating it, as it's a fact that it's not good for us (too much...

I am new here as of today (Aug. 12, 2010). Early retirement can mean different things to different people. To my parents' generation, normal retirement age usually meant their full Social Security retirement age (65), and anything before that was "early". However, I retired with a pension at...