How much money can I get from my home?

• Age of the youngest borrower
• Current interest rate
• Lesser of appraised value or the HECM FHA mortgage limit of $625,500 or the sales price; and
• Initial Mortgage Insurance Premium--your choices are HECM Standard or HECM SAVER

In addition, the more valuable your home is, the older you are, and the lower the interest rate, the more you can borrow.  If there is more than one borrower, the age of the youngest borrower is used to determine the amount you can borrow.  For an estimate of HECM cash benefits, select the online calculator from the HECM Home Page. Many online reverse mortgage calculators can provide you with an estimate of the amount of funds you can borrow.

Frequently Asked Questions about HUD's Reverse Mortgages

Chrysler plans to freeze pensions for 8,000 salaried employees at the end of the year, the automaker announced Friday, joining a growing group of companies seeking to limit the amount of money they have to set aside now for future retirees.

The move means that salaried workers in the company’s pension plan, which pays retirees a fixed benefit for life, will stop accruing new benefits at the end of 2013. They remain entitled to the pension benefits they have earned so far, but instead of adding to the guaranteed payments they will receive at retirement, the workers will be offered 401(k) accounts, which shift the risk of saving for retirement from employers to employees.

Estimate your retirement benefits – The Retirement Estimator is tied to your Social Security earnings record and provides highly accurate benefit estimates for those nearing retirement age. The Estimator is interactive allowing the user to compare different retirement options.

www.socialsecurity.gov/estimator

Okay, you're using a 401k or 403b plan with your current employer.  If you have former 401k plans from old employers...roll those into a "Rollover IRA."  

Now add another IRA into your retirement plan, the Roth IRA. The Roth is after-tax money.  Remember your old 401k or 403b is "pre-tax," and rolls into s separate rollover IRA... your Roth is after-tax and Uncle Sam won't tax this money as you withdraw funds.  Tax free money!  

Your IRA custodian can help you set up the Rollover and Roth accounts.

According to a 2012 survey by American Express, the average American planned to shell out a whopping $1,200 per person on summer vacation plans, with much of that ending up on charge cards.

 If you're celebrating Memorial Day weekend with plans to do some grilling with family and friends, it's likely to cost more this year.

 Retail beef prices are widely expected to set new records in coming weeks after wholesale prices, or the amount meatpackers charge sellers for beef, hit an all-time peak this past week.

Beef costs are up because of the high demand for beef in the United States and the growing demand from Japan, Korea and Russia coupled with low beef production due to draught of 2012 and the shortage of feed corn.

Chicken and pork prices also rose for the same reasons

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, with the Dow industrials closing above 15,000 for the first time.

Rising to a record intraday high of 15,056.67, the Dow industrialsDJIA +0.58%  climbed 87.31 points to 15,056.20, with 23 of its 30 components rising.

After closing at records the prior three sessions, the S&P 500 indexSPX +0.52% on Tuesday extended that run, rising 8.46 points to 1,625.96, with telecommunications and industrials leading the gains that included all but technology of its 10 basic sectors.

In The Retirement Gamble, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith investigates what happened to retirement in America and the role that financial services companies may be playing in draining your savings, year after year.

Through interviews with Wall Street executives at the helm of the mutual fund industry and former financial advisers who may or may not have their clients’ best interests at heart,Smith traces the remarkable rise of the 401(k)—a product Americans buy without knowing its true cost.

Make sure to read the interview with John Bogle, founder of Vanguard Funds.

John Bogle:  The Train Wreck Awaiting Retirement

CBS MoneyWatch has some great retirement help!  Steve Vernon has a 16-week course on retirement planning. Most of us do very little planning for this major event...it's a big decison, so look at this helpful series of retirement articles especially "Can You Work While Collecting Social Security?" 

The earnings test

So can you work while collecting Social Security benefits? If you're receiving Social Security income before the year you attain your Full Retirement Age (FRA, which is currently age 66 for most people), your Social Security income might be reduced by the earnings test. If your wages or self-employment income exceed a certain threshold -- $15,120 per year in 2013 -- then your Social Security income is reduced by $1 for every $2 of earnings over the threshold.

 (For a detailed explanation of the earnings test, here's a pamphlet from the Social Security Administration.)

The free, online tool is designed to help individuals decide what Social Security strategy may be suitable for their financial goals. The calculator not only estimates Social Security income, but also presents potential approaches for taking benefits based on the users' goals and allows them to compare results of different Social Security strategies.  

troweprice.com/socialsecurity

BusinessInsider shows us 7 common tax filing mistakes.