The Bush administration announced Monday that the standard premium for Medicare would rise to $96.40 a month next year, an increase of $2.90 a month.

Most of the 43 million beneficiaries pay the standard premium for Medicare Part B, which covers doctors’ services, outpatient hospital care, X-rays, laboratory services and other diagnostic tests.

Remember, most beneficiaries pay separate premiums for Medicare coverage of prescription drugs on top of the standard premium. The drug premiums typically range from $25 to $40 a month.

The Automatic Millionaire guy David Bach points out some of the basics in his recent column.  Retirement really does hinge on contributing regularly to your 401k.  If you want to be successful-max out that plan each year.  Take a look at your 401k statement this month and try to boost those contributions before year end!

If you're under age 50, the IRS limit for pretax 401(k) contributions is $15,500 for this year. If you're over 50, there's a $5,000 catch-up provision that increases that limit to $20,500.

Of course, you'll need to know what your employer's maximum allowable contribution for the plan is as well. It could be lower -- some plans won't allow you to save more than 15 percent of your gross income, and certain "highly compensated" employees may be limited even more. So be sure to check with your HR department.

In any case, your goal should be to max out your plan. If you're currently on track to do so, congratulations -- you're accomplishing something the vast majority of Americans can't or won't do.

David Bach's 401k strategy for 2007. Yahoo Finance

VEBAs themselves aren't new. They have been around since 1928. A VEBA is a trust fund in which money is set aside to pay for retiree benefits. The tax code gives special treatment to VEBAs set up as part of collective-bargaining agreements with unions.  Employers and employees can start VEBA's.

At GM, the proposed contract allows the auto maker to take $51 billion in liabilities for UAW retiree health care and shift it to the VEBA. That trust will be funded over the next few years at about 70 cents on the dollar for those liabilities, said people familiar with the matter. The contributions by GM are expected to be predominantly in cash but also GM stock, including the possibility of convertible-preferred shares, these people said. GM will backstop the VEBA with an added $1.5 billion to $2 billion if health-care inflation exceeds projections, said two people briefed on the talks.

WSJ.com explains General Motors new trust fund for benefits. Voluntary Employee's Beneficiary Association VEBA.

It's a domino effect- financial companies and other industries are freezing their pension plans.  Most of these firms will offer better 401k matches but soon pension plans will be forgotten.  

Specifically, as of January, the company will start matching 100 percent of the first 6 percent of annual contributions employees make to their 401(k), up from 50 percent currently. Also, employees who don't currently contribute will be automatically enrolled to save 3 percent of their pay, increasing at 1 percent a year to 6 percent of total pay, unless they opt out of the plan. Many companies have put similar features in place following changes to enrollment laws passed by Congress last year.

Boston.com provides details on State Street pension and 401k changes.

Each year AARP recognizes companies and organizations that value the mature worker.  Here's the top ten:

1. SC Johnson, Racine, Wis.
2. Mercy Health System, Janesville, Wis.
3. First Horizon National Corporation, Memphis
4. Scripps Health, San Diego
5. Stanley Consultants, Muscatine, Iowa
6. Lee Memorial Health System, Fort Myers, Fla.
7. Leesburg Regional Medical Center and The Villages Regional Hospital, Leesburg, Fla.
8. George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
9. Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa
10. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

With brands like Shout, Windex and Scrubbing Bubbles under its name, SC Johnson certainly should be one of the cleanest companies to work for. But on Tuesday, AARP acknowledged the company for a different reason: its policies and practices that make it the best workplace for those over the age of 50

CBSMarketwatch provides the 2007 AARP list.

Take a look at some of their favorite cities for retirement.

• Bozeman, Montana
• Concord, New Hampshire
• Fayetteville, Arkansas
• Hillsboro, Oregon
• Lawrence, Kansas
• Peachtree City, Georgia
• Prescott, Arizona
• San Francisco, California
• Smyrna, Tennessee
• Venice, Florida

Life would be wonderful without any mortgage payments in retirement.  However, pulling a large amount out of your IRA or 401k to pay off your home loan could have some drawbacks. 

Jonathan Clements of the Wall Street Journal provides some other ideas including an income annuity strategy

Things get trickier when dealing with individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans. An AARP study found that many departing employees cash out their 401(k), often using the money to pay down debt.

But this is foolish, because a big 401(k) withdrawal would likely trigger a huge income-tax bill. Instead, you're better off slowly tapping your 401(k) or IRA to make your regular monthly mortgage payments. That way, you would also continue to enjoy the mortgage-interest tax deduction.

If this strategy makes you nervous, consider using a chunk of your IRA or 401(k) to buy a "period certain" immediate-fixed annuity, says Rich Lindsay, a senior vice president with Symetra Financial in Bellevue, Wash. Let's say you have 15 years left on your mortgage. To ensure you can make those payments, you could buy an annuity that will kick off 15 years of monthly income.

The Dow soared over 300 points today as the Fed cut interest rates more than expected-50 basis points in the fed funds rate and discount rate.   I guess this helps the economy but I'm wondering if it helps retiree's?  I'm no economist, but the yields in money markets and CD's have been pretty attractive.  If you're a conservative investor it's been easy to get over 5% in your IRA account with money market and short term CD's.  Looks like we're heading back down.

His take on the markets, currency, housing(gloomy) and a look at recent presidents.

CBS 60 Minutes interview with Alan Greenspan.