Correct.
Sometimes it’s labeled, G-Plus, or G-Extra, or something along those lines, which can include vision with VSP.
1 Like
That’s what I thought but I think some of them do offer little perks like Silver Sneakers. My county government has great rec centers all over the county that offers gyms and walking tracks and fitness classes at great discount to seniors so the Silver Sneaker didn’t matter to me either. I didn’t pick the least expensive, I picked what I was comfortable with, Aetna, my employer insurance. I have received letters from local and surrounding hospitals and doctors regarding problems they have with BCBS in Georgia over the last decade - not sure if that is anywhere else in the US, but they seem to be in constant battle down here. Dr and Hospital say they will not process BCBS patients until issues are resolved. Not sure where that sits now as I have never had BCBS but the Drs and hospitals sent out general letters to all their patients. I’m happy with Aetna, could probably be cheaper, but maybe not.
1 Like
BCBS is not the same in every state. BCBS of AL is run well, does not have management or other issues, is the plan that MDs and hospitals all approve if they accept insurance payments (some MDs choose not to participate with some insurance plans for legitimate reasons).
We shop for our drug coverage - and yearly DH and I have different plans from each other. I kept the same drug plan in 2023 as I had for 2024.
If we do travel internationally, we can choose to pick up the International BCBS coverage on the time we are out of the US.
We have our $30/month for each of us go to our Hospital Fitness program, which I had belonged to prior to Medicare.
The reason they provide this ‘Silver Sneaker’ or other is that people that try to be healthier with fitness/gym membership do spend less on health care - so it saves the insurance company money.
1 Like
if that is true, why do they charge more for the “Extra”?
The company H has does not charge for the equivalent of Silver Sneakers. It’s included, and the plan is definitely not the most expensive.
3 Likes
US Government is changing login for social security from SSA.gov to creating a new login.gov.
I did mine today. Had to go into login.gov to set up a new account. Their system then linked my social security information.
Here is the article that told me about this change:
Social Security announces big change for millions of recipients - al.com
1 Like
My husband was already using login.gov for his SSA account (which he created just a few months ago).
1 Like
I changed to login.gov when I applied for global entry.
Seemed to be a bit glitchy for me. Could have been user error
Thank you for posting this. I got an email from SSA explaining this, and providing a link. Being the paranoid person I am I deleted the email - even though it looked very real.
2 Likes
When I went to SSA.gov, their instructions were not ‘terrific’ IMHO - and honestly one has to just go to login.gov. My SS linked up, while with DH, he had to probe a little more, but then got his SS linked up.
IMHO this was a good move on the government’s part to not duplicate things and also can probably help with identity theft.
I believe I read in one of the AARP publications that SSA does not reveal what it takes to issue a new SS number to someone – it evidently is sometimes discretely done.
1 Like
I transitioned to a new login.gov id before applying for SS a few weeks ago. It seemed pretty straightforward. The SS approval still in-progress, but it says that can take 30 days.
1 Like
My husband turns 65 in September. So, we recently set him up on the SS site, Medicare site, etc. His comment was, how can your average senior citizen do this all correctly without any help!
8 Likes
I did it for my mom. In NYC senior citizens get a discount on public transportation. They give you a code that you could use it to link a credit card to it so you could just tap the card to pay for a ride. I don’t think any average senior citizen (lets say over 70) could figure it out.
5 Likes
Yep, my husband and I consider ourselves very tech savvy, and yet we were stymied at one point trying to find where on the SS site a certain option was hiding (yes, it was hiding in my opinion).
1 Like
I wish DH would be offered a voluntary severance package. They don’t want him to leave so won’t 
3 Likes
Yea, the SS process can be a challenge. We have a friend who tried to do it all from his cellphone (after having issues with his bogged down chromebook). Actually caused all kinds of grief. Months later he gave up and went to the office to resolve things in person.
I guess this doesn’t apply to all federal gov’t business—I logged into the State dept’s STEP program to register an upcoming trip abroad and was able to use my old login credentials specific for STEP.
Thanks for the tips!
1 Like
OK, I have two questions for the great minds here.
Let’s say you have $15k. Would you spend it to fund your/spouse’s Roth or use it to pay for taxes on a Roth conversion? What are the reasons one is better than the other? And obviously a little of both (fund one Roth, use the balance to pay taxes on a smaller conversion) is an option.
Second question: If you have the ability to be all Roth, is there an advantage to keeping a regular IRA as part of your portfolio anyway? I can think of tax harvesting as a reason. Is there another one?
We did a Roth conversion simply to have easier access to that money in the event we needed it.
2 Likes