In case you are contemplating some charitable giving this holiday season, adding a reminder that again this year the CARES act allows charitable contribution deductions, even if you don’t itemize was continued…. for 2021 $600/couple, $300/indivdual
Note - It needs to be cash donation to public charity. It does not need to be a covid related charity.
I know several following this thread will be happy for us – DH and I are full of joy today as SSA/MC has FINALLY processed his Medicare B (effective 9-1-2021) TODAY 12-29-2021. We were able to print his updated Medicare ‘card’ on line. Now he can go to his medical appointment in January!
DH has been in ‘limbo’ all these months w/o Medicare B officially in place.
The July application for start of Medicare B Sept 1. Lots of interaction with local SSA/MC office via phone, responding to their requests for us to drop off information etc in September. On Sept 28 2021 they had his computerized documents in a state that it was “too complicated” and they requested their payment center to process - it was supposed to take 30 to 60 days. Oct 18 “it is still pending; we will put a note in to the payment center”; Nov 8 “if we put a note in to the payment center it may slow the processing down”. Dec 6 “our manager is going to talk to the payment center and we will get a letter in 30 - 60 days, for Medicare B to be in place 9-1-2021”. Dec 27 “our manager is working with the payment center because they have a wrong action going”. Dec 28 - message to manager who is away from her desk. Dec 29 - action taken and is showing on their system and our log in that Medicare B is now in place!
Our employment insurance ended Sept 30. We both had supplement and drug coverage in place for Oct 1. However w/o having Medicare B in place (it has been in the government’s hands to process) DH would not have had any medical stuff covered in ‘real time’. He has only gotten his drug coverage taken care of. Today he is hopefully going to get his flu shot - he wouldn’t take it in Sept, but I believe he will take it today.
This process has been a NIGHTMARE. If they goof up your file, watch out.
One of the things mixed up in their system was that they were generating DH’s social security to start, so we had to cancel that with another trip to the local SSA/MC office drop box Oct 5. DH is choosing to start SS when he is close to or at his full retirement age (which will be later in 2022).
Whew, SOSConcern, glad it worked out!
October through December - any medical care my husband would have needed would have had to have all the billing ‘wait’ for Medicare B to be on the government computer systems and for us to have the Medicare B card showing September 1 2021 coverage. I am a bit furious that it kept getting shoved around and telling us to wait 30 - 60 days beyond when the insurance was supposed to be in place – we already had applied in a timely way and that 60 day period was already over. It is how they allow automation to take effect and someone knowledgeable to not intervene at the local level and have it in place appropriately. Calling daily so the local manager could intervene with the payment center that was not handling things correctly. Months ago for the local manager to call - at that point we should have ‘dogged’ calling until it was properly handled.
We are now back paying when we could not be certain the government would have the insurance stating Sept 1 2021 Medicare B effectivity date. Way too much angst. Supremely disappointed in being shoved over and shoved over. We as tax payers pay for things to be handled. We follow the rules and they should too. Honor the 30 - 60 day processing; if they make a mistake, be able to get it fixed within days instead of keep bumping out a 30 - 60 day window or giving feedback “it is being processed, or pending” when it clearly was not!
Congrats @SOSConcern.
We are getting the “It is in process” thing at SSA to get Medicare for ShawWife. We tried to sign up online but ShawWife fell into a category that required a call. Our first call, in October, scheduled a call in December. We had that call in early December and had to extend her coverage at my firm for another month.
Good job with perseverance!! It must feel good to have this Done.
Right after I ‘retired’ it was like my job to call along with DH to give the local office what they asked for and wanted. Then to find out about the delays. Sometimes I felt like I could not go out of town because we had to deal with this. Now we have some medical appointments - quite a few that will dominate our January schedule.
Having this backpack of rocks off my back is glorious!
We have a ‘reprieve’ until DH does file for his Social Security benefit later in 2022. We plan to schedule a phone appointment on it. Maybe his SSA/MC electronic file will be able to handle it w/o a problem.
@bluebayou I had thoroughly gone through their “Medicare and You” official publication - I did not see the applying for Medicare B chart about initial enrollment the month of birth and the few months after (which is found on their web site - I pulled it up after a specific search).
You don’t know what you don’t know – and many at our local office did not know or understand this chart either!
Sister in law will sign up for Medicare A in the initial enrollment period prior to her birth month as she turns 65 in Feb. Brother and sister-in-law have two things with Medicare B sign up – she will be affected by the initial enrollment ‘rule’ on the two months after her birth month - so like DH, she will need to have Medicare B in place a month before she actually ‘needs it’ due to the special rule on those months after birth month but during initial enrollment. Brother has Medicare A in place and will enroll with Medicare B under special enrollment when his insurance ends with his retirement. These two are going on the SSA and MC site today and reviewing everything. They will have to stay on top of ‘checking’ after their stuff is submitted on a timely bases because, unlike us, going Oct 1 - Dec 28 w/o having Medicare B card/insurance ‘in place’ – which was supposed to happen for Sept 1 for DH (we had to ‘bug’ the local office/manager 3 days in a row this week to finally have her be able to get whoever at the billing site to properly process it!) is definitely not acceptable – they cannot go with this ‘window’ of not being able to present the Medicare B insurance information to medical providers. I do regret not ‘bugging’ the local office management because we did apply in the time frame and we should not have needed to wait w/o having the insurance processed, no matter how ‘complicated’ his electronic file got.
Sister-in-law has a good handle on understanding now on how SSA and MC processing works and the ‘caveats’. She may not have enough individual earnings, so her SS will be handled with her SS being as spouse of her husband and his SS – but that can be dealt with after they do the Medicare A for her (easy), Medicare B for both - a little more careful on those inputs. The on line system, you have to go to the form – otherwise you risk having the electronic file messed up like DH’s.
As soon as we got DH’s Medicare B info – Dec 29th, processed Dec 29th!!, we printed his card and he went and got the over 65 flu shot (DH wouldn’t take it in Sept - but now he has a ‘changed heart’ about having all the vaccines in place). His Medicare B was effective 9-1-2021. Now DH can go to all the scheduled Jan medical appointments, including the cardiac evaluation we would have had earlier but we didn’t have his Medicare B card nor did Medicare/SSA have his Medicare B insurance application processed until months late.
People cannot be naïve about their health insurance. A friend was getting the run around from his local HR staff of the company he worked for about getting his new wife on his insurance coverage – 10 days after they were married she had a heart attack; thankfully they were in the window to add her to the policy and her medical bills were then covered.
Does anyone know what happens if the 3rd stimulus check was never received? Both DH and mine were lost earlier this year. The first two were direct deposited, so we were surprised they tried to mail the third. Once it never arrived, we called IRS, and the “Get my Payment” status was “corrected” to direct deposit, but has remained at that status for 7 months.
I called IRS several months ago, and was told it will be deposited by December. Nope. So I called again last week, and the agent could not/would not identify the status. Obviously not coming this year. It sounded like we claim it as a credit on our 2021 tax forms? Of course that means we’ll be due a refund, and who knows how long that will take 
.
Kid never received some of her checks. She claimed them on her tax return. The IRS held her tax return for extra review then sent her the whole refund.
If you use TurboTax, it will ask you about stimulus checks in the interview portion. I am not sure what triggers this but I recall it from last year when filing my son’s taxes.
Yup, this is what kid did; she used TT. She answered she never got her checks except the last one.
Hi,
Has anyone used Personal Capital to manage their retirement assets (401k) or manage brokerage account? If so, please share good or bad experiences? How do they compare with biggies like Vanguard, Fidelity?
Thanks
Kiplinger Personal Finance, Feb 2022 has an article which includes a brief analysis of Personal Capital as one of the 12 Major Robo Advisors - and how they compare is on a chart in the article. The article gives some very good information, including “Ask the Right Questions” on getting a better understanding of the advisor/most suitable advisor or tier of services. Robo industry is maturing but still rapidly evolving. The chart has very good breakdown of information, like minimum to invest, annual advisory fee, average portfolio expense ratio, and helpful comments about services/tools/access to CFP professionals/etc.
Thanks
UPDATE: Per helpful feedback from @notrichenough I had accidentally used an old 2013 link.
FYI - This is one of the few sites I could find to look at medical costs (for long term “what if” exercises) without providing email/phone number. It is federal, not state.
https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/healthpolicy/calculator/index.shtml
Per this fictitious example, unsubsidized cost of silver plan at age 55 is $488. (Age 60 $594). Anybody going this route?
@vpa2019 and @SOSConcern, I have thought about a Robo Advisor for part of my money, but pay a fixed fee from my primary advisor to oversee all assets (whether they manage them or not). It is a pretty attractive rate. This has dissuaded me from adding another layer of fees, albeit small. But, I’m really interested as I don’t think it is a bad way to go and for most investors probably better than what they would do on their own or with a financial advisor.
The US department of education seems to think we don’t need much to retire according to our EFC. 
They seem to think we can use our investments outside of our 401K to pay for college instead of saving it for retirement.
I just hopped onto the Access Health site for CT. Silver plans w/o subsidies for 55 year old range from $1000 to $1150 per month for one person.
Did you provide a zip code to the calculator you used?
You can look at CT’s site w/o providing any info, but would be pointless unless you planned to retire in CT.
Actually, Congress sets the EFC formula … so you know who to blame!
