Refinance and renovate. If you find your current mortgage payment is too high, refinancing to get either a lower monthly payment or to take cash out may be an option. Before you refinance, have a long–term repayment plan, a budget, and you may want to discuss your needs with an independent financial advisor. If you are refinancing to renovate an older home, think long and hard about how much longer you plan to stay in your home, and how well your current housing will serve you as your health changes. Get bids from contractors, and be sure to include costs for new appliances, carpets, and fixtures. Will you have sufficient income and savings to cover a mortgage payment and still have money for repairs and maintenance ten or twenty years from now? Can you recover your renovation investment if you have to move and sell sooner than you planned? Take time to shop and carefully compare terms on loans - don't be hurried into making a decision. Loan officers always push you to "lock in a rate." Always ask for a "good faith" estimate and an estimate of the closing costs..Why Does My Doctor's Office Need to Call My Insurer Before Scheduling a CT Scan?.Yes, unfortunately this is correct. Under current law Social Security benefits are not payable for the month in which a beneficiary dies. This is so even when the beneficiary, like your husband, passes away on the last day of the month. However, according to the Social Security Administration the check that an individual receives in a given month is the payment for the preceding month. That means the check that your husband received during the month of March was his benefit for February, which you would be entitled to keep. It is the March payment that you would have received in April, and any thereafter that must be returned..The U.S. House and Senate adjourn at the end of July for a six-week summer recess, and many lawmakers will hold town hall meetings in their home states and districts throughout the month of August. The Senior Citizens League encourages Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries like you to attend these events and to ask important questions of your elected officials about your earned benefits..Here's an example of how it might work for you if you receive ,400 from your 401 and ,600 from your IRA. To figure your provisional income, take one - half of your Social Security = ,000. Let's say the taxable portion of your 401 is ,200, and of your IRA is the full ,600. That adds up to a provisional income of ,800 and a portion of your Social Security benefits would be taxable..House Subcommittee Holds "Doc Fix" Hearing.It's important for the public to understand how the bill would increase costs and affect access to health care. The May 4th House vote took place less than 24 hours after the revised bill was posted, and without the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the new bill. "Meaning that House GOP Members voted without having adequate time to review the bill, knowing the full cost of the legislation or how the new changes in the bill would impact coverage for their own constituents," Johnson points out. "The public has a right to know that information prior to our elected lawmakers enacting legislation.".Would a Higher Cost-of-Living-Adjustment in Social Security Make Me Ineligible for Medicaid?.One thing we know for certain about the greatest generation, it is that they don't scare easily. Not economic depression, Nazi Germany, Japan, or world war could frighten my father's generation. It is with that same resolve and faith in the rightness of your cause that seniors should not give in to the fear-mongering coming out of Washington D.C.
