Okay, I'm a classic baby boomer so I do tend to tune into these shows.  May 16th 9PM ET

This one-hour program, hosted by CNBC's Bill Griffeth looks at America's biggest and richest generation.

The program will be all about the Boomer-Angst: the growing unease for the generation that brought you peace signs and leveraged buyouts, a generation that isn't saving enough money, can't count on company pensions or social security, and might not collect a dime from mom or dad.

Here's a new 401k study from Financial Engines.  Looks like a third of us are not taking advantage of our company match.  Neglecting the "match mathematics" will cost millions of Americans a decent nest egg.  Call your benefits office tomorrow and make sure you know your free money match!

When it comes to 401k savings, 33 percent of active participants fail to save enough to receive the full company match. Sixty percent save enough to receive the full employer match but are saving below the IRS or plan limits, and only 7 percent of all active participants save enough to come within $500 of the IRS or plan maximum allowed. Still, many participants are saving at healthy rates, with 25 percent of the entire sample saving 10 percent or more of salary. Across the sample, the most common employer match was 50 cents per dollar up to six percent of pay.

A recent WSJ article offered some tips on high-deductiible/HSA plans:

Unfortunately, many workers apparently are choosing high-deductible plans without funding HSAs. Some 40% of HSA-eligible group-plan users haven't opened or contributed to an account, according to an analysis in 2007 by UnitedHealth Group. That means some employees are leaving themselves open to large medical bills they may have no other means to pay.

Maximum annual contribution limits for HSAs currently are $2,900 for individuals and $5,800 for a family. Individuals age 55 and up can make additional "catch-up" contributions. (Whether contributions are pre-tax or after-tax depends on how the plans are set up, the Internal Revenue Service says.)

Costs for nursing homes, assisted living facilities and some in-home care services have risen for the fifth consecutive year and might continue to rise unless more long-term care workers can be found, according to a new survey by Genworth Financial.

A private room in a nursing home now costs $76,460 a year or $209 daily, a 17 percent increase since 2004, Genworth's 2008 Cost of Care survey found. A semiprivate room in a nursing home is now $68,408.

The cost of assisted living facilities is shooting up even faster, having risen 25 percent since 2004 to a current average of $36,090 a year for a one-bedroom unit. Assisted living costs ranged from a high of $4,921 a month in New Jersey to a low of $1,981 a month in Arkansas.

Courtesy of ElderLawAnswers.com 

FINRA is the group that  that regulates stockbrokers and all the securites firms.   I believe it used to be called the NASDAQ.  It's a great website and publishes alerts to help investors avoid potential bad investments and scams.  Recently they looked at Equity-Index Annuities.  These are complicated annuity products and FINRA provides helpful information.  Also here's a link to the FINRA Investor Alert page.

Sales of equity-indexed annuities (EIAs) have grown considerably in recent years. Although one insurance company at one time included the word "simple" in the name of its product, EIAs are anything but easy to understand. One of the most confusing features of an EIA is the method used to calculate the gain in the index to which the annuity is linked. To make matters worse, there is not one, but several different indexing methods. Because of the variety and complexity of the methods used to credit interest, investors will find it difficult to compare one EIA to another.

If You Have Questions

If you have questions about EIAs, you can contact your state insurance commissioner. You can check out whether the person selling an EIA is registered with FINRA. Check FINRA BrokerCheck or call our hotline at (800) 289-9999.

Before you buy an EIA, you should understand the various features of this investment and be prepared to ask your insurance agent, broker, financial planner, or other financial professional lots of questions about whether an EIA is right for you.

An aging Baby Boomer population apparently is putting quite a strain on the Social Security Administration. We've seen numerous articles that point out the backlog of applicants trying to obtain disability benefits.  There are over 750,000 pending requests for appeals hearings.   Many individuals have probably gone through their savings and retirement accounts during the lengthy process. 

Investors Business Daily explains new disability coverage that funds your retirement account.
 

You can buy this protection as an additional rider to a disability insurance policy. "If you already have a policy, you can get another stand-alone policy to provide funds for retirement," Bramson said.

The NY Times thinks the IRA is overlooked.  Many of us are still not using the Traditional or Roth IRA and millions of Americans (57%) have no retirement plan at work. 

WITH so much contradictory advice floating around, it is sometimes hard to figure out the best way to save for retirement.

Financial experts say that one often-overlooked resource is the humble Individual Retirement Account, or I.R.A., which has been a part of the personal finance landscape for so long that many of us take it for granted.

More than 90 percent of the money that flows into traditional I.R.A.’s is being rolled over from retirement plans at work, like 401(k)’s. On the other hand, only 14 percent of American households that were eligible to make direct I.R.A. contributions did so in 2006, according to the most recent data from the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry trade group.

The rules for some I.R.A. contributions are so complex that many Americans may not realize they are eligible to make them, said Brian Reid, the chief economist at the Investment Company Institute. Indeed, the I.R.A. rules fill a 108-page brochure on the Internal Revenue Service Web site.

Courtesy of NYTimes.com April 27 

We tend to watch CALPERS -because it's the nations largest public pension plan ($242 Billion) and it tends to invests in a variety of different asset classes and sectors.  It's a good barometer of investing trends.  And, this pension plan has focused on alternative energy, anti-pollution and recycling technologies.  It also is venturing into infrastructure investing.