Retirement Planning Is Essential

Our financial goals change at various stages throughout our lives. Below are some helpful tips and services that may help consumers reach thier debt settlement savings goals.

Mass Mutual reports that as Americans near retirement they have less confidence in the economy and new fears about whether they can afford the high cost of growing older. On September 15, PBS will premiere Retirement Revolution: The New Reality, a documentary that will show several families sharing their personal stories about retirement. For several online retirement calculators, visit www.massmutual.com/calculators.

The Budget Queen Can Help You Save Money.

Visit www.thebudgetqueen.com for a variety of budgeting tools, money tips, and free calculators to help you reduce your everyday spending habits.

Elderly:

National campaign helps elderly with prescription costs. By the end of this summer, more than one million older Americans will have fallen into the "doughnut hole," a coverage gap in Medicare's prescription drug program that leaves individuals on the hook for all of their own drug costs while still paying premiums. AARP is launching a new online resource to help older Americans avoid this dreaded coverage gap. The AARP Doughnut Hole Calculator, available at www.aarp.org/doughnuthole, guides visitors through their prescription drug options using localized information about their plans and prescriptions to determine if or when they will fall into the coverage gap. Visitors can view a graph of their out-of-pocket spending by month, look up lower cost drugs for their conditions, create a Personal Medication Record, and print out personalized letters to their doctors to help start a conversation about safely switching prescriptions. As a part of its Health Action Now campaign, AARP is calling on Congress to close the doughnut hole and lower prescription drug prices so that no one has to go without the prescriptions they need to stay healthy.

National campaign helps elderly with prescription costs. According to Help Senior Homeowners, a non-profit mortgage counseling organization, thousands of senior homeowners (age 62 or older) are already delinquent or in foreclosure. Reverse mortgages are the answer for some but approximately 30% of 12 million seniors who may have qualified for a reverse mortgage two years ago no longer have enough equity in their homes to qualify. Visit www.helpseniorhomeowners.org for more information.