Manarin Investment Counsel, Ltd.

Social Security is providing an even larger chunk of most people’s retirement benefits due to the volatile stock market, chances of living longer and rising health care costs.

As a result, it’s more important than ever before for retirees to make an informed decision about when to claim their Social Security benefits. A recent article published on MarketWatch.com - click here to view the article - offers some important information about the factors that affect monthly benefits.

Call your Manarin advisor at 402-330-1166 to discuss your individual plan or for more information.

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The U.S. Social Security program will be tweaked in several ways in 2013.

Recipients will receive slightly bigger checks to adjust to inflation, the payroll tax cut is scheduled to grow and paper checks will end, to name a few changes.

A recent article on Yahoo! Finance provides more details on these and other changes planned for 2013.

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Your Social Security account information is now just a few clicks away.

As of May 1, anyone who is age 18 or older can register on the Social Security Administration's website to view details about their account, including earnings and potential benefits. This new online account replaces paper statements the Social Security Administration discontinued last year.

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Retirement used to mean a guaranteed pension, full healthcare benefits and low inflation. Today, most of those things - living costs, health care expenses, social security, pensions and future employment income - are all uncertain.

Saving has become “the new reality” for people who want to ensure a comfortable retirement. In fact, according to this well-written article by Andrew B. Chou – click here  to read the article – retirees should count on funding close to 50 percent of their own retirement income through a variety of sources.

Perhaps this level of saving wasn’t in your original plans. However, the economic factors that contribute to these numbers won’t change anytime soon.

In our “new reality,” the sooner you start saving, the better off you’re going to be during your golden years.

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Let me get this straight . . . .

We're going to be "gifted" with a health care
plan we are forced to purchase and
fined if we don't,  

Which purportedly covers at least
ten million more people,
without adding a single new doctor,
but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents,  

written by a committee whose chairman
says he doesn't understand it,  

passed by a Congress that didn't read it but
exempted themselves from it,  

and signed by a President who smokes,  

with funding administered by a treasury chief who
didn't pay his taxes,  

for which we'll be taxed for four years before any
benefits take effect,  

by a government which has 
already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare,  

all to be overseen by a surgeon general 
who is obese,  

and financed by a country that's broke!!!!!  

'What the hell could
possibly go wrong?'

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Author: anonymous.

Anyone can understand this:  Why did Bernie Madoff go to prison?  To make it simple, he talked people into investing with him.  Trouble was, he didn't invest their money.  As time rolled on he simply took the money from the new investors to pay off the old investors.  Finally there were too many old investors and not enough money from new investors coming in to keep the payments going. Next thing you know Madoff is one of the most hated men in  America  and he is off to jail.Some of you know this.  But not enough of you.  Madoff did to his investors what the government has been doing to us for over 70 years with Social Security.  There is no meaningful difference between the two schemes, except that one was operated by a private individual who is now in jail, and the other is operated by politicians who enjoy perks, privileges and status in spite of their actions.   Do you need a side-by-side comparison here?  Well here's a nifty little chart.   BERNIE MADOFF SOCIAL SECURITY Takes money from investors with the promise that the money will be invested and made available to them later. Takes money from wage earners with the promise that the money will be invested in a "Trust Fund" (Lock Box) and made available later. Instead of investing the money Madoff spends it on nice homes in the Hamptons    and yachts. Instead of depositing money in a Trust Fund the politicians  transfer it to the General Revenue Fund and use it for general spending and vote buying. When the time comes to pay the investors back Madoff simply uses some of the new funds from newer investors to pay back the older investors. When benefits for older investors become due the politicians pay them with money taken from younger and newer wage earners to pay the older geezers. When Madoff's scheme is discovered all hell breaks loose.  New investors won't give him any more cash. When Social Security runs out of money the politicians try to force the taxpayers to send them some more; or they cancel S/S to all those who paid into it. Bernie Madoff is in jail. Politicians remain in  Washington .. With fat medical and retirement benefits. 'The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.'           ~ Ronald Reagan   "If you put the federal government in charge of the  Sahara Desert , in five   Years there'd be a shortage of sand.      ~ Milton Friedman

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