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 We hope 2013 will be filled with health and prosperity for you and your family!

Larry Kotlikoff of Boston University is a noted economist, prolific author and Social security expert.

Check out: 

34 Secrets All Baby Boomers and Millions of Current Recipients Need To Know

He's also writing a weekly article now on PBS NewsHour...Ask Larry

As of January 1, 2013, IBM will no longer give employees their 401(k) match with each pay cycle. Instead, the technology behemoth will make one large lump-sum payment to employee accounts on December 31 of each year.

When a company provides nearly $900 million in matching contributions to employee 401(k) plan accounts, that company might be forgiven from a financial perspective for wanting to hold onto that money as long as possible.

That certainly seems to the motivation behind IBM's recent announcement that it would no longer be matching employee 401(k) contributions each pay period. Instead, the company will be making a single annual match each December 31st starting next year. Moreover, employees who leave the company either voluntarily or involuntarily before December 15 of any given year will receive no match at all for that year.

Courtesy of Business Finance Magazine

Cold snowy day?

Run this Vanguard Retirement tool.

We'll be hearing about the "fiscal cliff" for the next several months....

Time Magazine wonders if Congress will fix the fiscal cliff by tampering with 401k plans?

One of the earliest fears about tax-favored savings accounts like IRAs and 401(k) plans was that when this pool of savings grew large enough Congress would not be able to resist tapping it to help solve the nation’s debt problems. We’re about to find out if those fears—persistent for decades—have been justified.

Everything including the sacred mortgage deduction is on the table as lawmakers wrestle with the fiscal cliff, a year-end avalanche of scheduled spending cuts and tax increases. With a combined $10 trillion sitting in IRAs and 401(k) plans, retirement accounts make a juicy target. Some of this money has never been taxed, and under current law never will be.

So hold on to your wallet. Congress has many options when it comes to tapping this vast reservoir. It could eliminate the deduction altogether or just for top earners, further restrict the amount that is deductible (currently $17,500; for those over 50, $23,000), start taxing retirement savings growth, or take back the part that has grown tax-free.

Time Magazine Article... Mess With The 401k

The grocery store was busy this evening!  Everyone buying the Thanksgiving turkey, ham, stuffing, and pumpkin pie for the event.  It's the most popular holiday in our house and we're busy looking at all the recipe's.  The Food Channel's Alton Brown has Thanksgiving down to a science, check out Alton's videos to help you prepare your Thanksgivng holiday fest.

The Food Network Thanksgivng Tips

If you have reached age 70 1/2 this year don't forget to call your IRA custodian or employer 401k or 403b plan and take your first required minimum required distribution MRD.  If you have several plans, you are allowed to  "aggregate" your IRA or 403b plans and withdraw from just one account.  

On a MRD distribution you can elect to withhold taxes or not-it's your decision.  Most plans will send out a check or transfer right to your bank account.

Each year, Medicare patients have only one opportunity to change their Medicare supplemental insurance. That opportunity ends Friday, December 7, 2012.

Medicare beneficiaries whose lives have been upended by Hurricane Sandy will be allowed to sign up for Medicare health and drug plans after the open enrollment deadline of Dec. 7, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has announced.

If you don't plan to change your Medicare Advantage or Medicare Part D drug plan for 2013, you don't have to worry about the deadline at all as you will be automatically re-enrolled in you current plan.

• Review all letters and notices from your current plan. Costs and coverage can change every year.

• Make a list of current prescription drugs and dosages. Then, use the plan finder at Medicare.govto compare Part D plans.

• Review the 2013 "Medicare & You" handbook.

• If you have questions, call 800-MEDICARE (800-633-4227) before signing up.

You can save more in your tax-qualified retirement accounts in 2013.

The IRS announced a $500 cost-of-living increase for the maximum tax-qualified contributions for 2013: $17,500 for 401(k) accounts and $5,500 for IRAs.

Most retirement savers are not contributing anywhere near those limits. Mutual fund company Vanguard reports that just 12 percent of participants in plans it administers socked away the maximum in 401(k)s last year - and the median deferral rate among workers participating in the company's plans was just 6 percent, which works out to $3,000 for a worker earning $50,000. But even among workers with gross income above $100,000, the average deferral rate was just 8.2 percent last year.

National Save for Retirement Week is a national effort to raise public awareness about the importance of saving for retirement. National Save for Retirement Week is held every year during the third week of October. The week provides an opportunity for employees to reflect on their personal retirement goals and determine if they are on target to reach those goals.

National Save for Retirement Week webinar series is designed for investors at different career stages. The series is also designed to provide an overview of several retirement-related topics that are important when preparing for your future.

Each webinar will be approximately 20 minutes in length with ten minutes allocated for questions at the end of each presentation.

More than 56 million Social Security beneficiaries will see their checks increase 1.7% starting in January 2013, under an annual cost-of-living adjustment that is tied to how much certain prices climb in July through September compared with a year earlier. Eight million people who receive Supplemental Security Income—mainly the poor and disabled—will get the boost starting in December, the agency said.

This means the average monthly Social Security check will rise by $21 to $1,261, the agency said. However, the increase may be partially or completely offset by increases in Medicare premiums—the portion of a retiree's check that the government deducts to cover health-care expenses. The premiums for 2013 haven't been announced yet.

Similar adjustments also will boost the pension checks of millions of retired federal civilian workers and retired members of the military.

The CRR is an excellent resource for retirement and financial planning and just recently launched a new website.

Squared Away, our new financial education website, provides trustworthy tools and information to help you make smart financial decisions.  You can use the site to learn what you need to know, decide what to do, and then do it.  Squared Away also provides a personal financial planning agenda, based on your age, life events, and specific concerns.

Visit the Center For Retirement Research Squared Away website.