The top retirement posts of 2023

Here are the newsletter's best-read posts of the year

As the year draws to a close, I want to thank you for subscribing to the RetirementRevised.com newsletter. It was a busy year, with publication of my book, Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track, and numerous articles that I published in the New York Times, Reuters and other news outlets. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Here’s wishing you a peaceful, happy holiday season. Look for the newsletter to resume in January.

In the meantime, here are the ten posts that attracted the greatest reader interest this year.

States tackle the long-term care problem. The federal government shows no signs of addressing the looming crisis in long-term care in this country, so a handful of states are acting on their own. In July, Washington State started the WA Cares Fund, a public long-term care insurance program. California is considering a similar plan. Minnesota and several other states are studying options.

Health systems dropping Medicare Advantage pose a new enrollment challenge. A growing number of health systems, fed up with denial of care and payment problems, are terminating their contracts with Medicare Advantage plans.

Cutting through the marketing noise on Medicare enrollment. Government officials and researchers have voiced rising concern about the way Medicare Advantage plans are marketed to more than 66 million Americans enrolled in Medicare.

Social Security COLA forecast is around 3%. This forecast, back in July, turned out to be spot on: the final announced 2024 COLA was 3.2%.

New Alzheimer’s drug holds promise but adds cost pressures for Medicare. Federal officials gave the green light to an expensive new drug that may be able to slow the advance of Alzheimer’s disease. But the approval of Leqembi also will put new upward pressure on Medicare premiums, and it casts a fresh spotlight on escalating drug costs borne by the Part B program.

If you're 65 and still working, should you enroll in Medicare? A growing number of Americans are working past age 65—typically the age when you enroll in Medicare. But if you’re still getting health insurance through your employer at that age, does it make sense to move to Medicare?

What happens to Social Security and Medicare if the government shuts down? That’s the question I asked back in September. It didn’t happen, but it looks as though my answer could be just as relevant in January.

Housing and care for older adults: We're not prepared for what's coming. A new report finds that as the population of older adults swells, so too does demand for housing that is both affordable and able to accommodate their changing needs. Millions of older adults are cost burdened, and homelessness is on the rise. I moderated a panel discussion on the report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. You can find the webinar here.

How a higher retirement age would hurt low-income workers. Should you keep working as you get older, or retire and claim Social Security when you first become eligible for benefits? Some people do both, and not necessarily by choice.

How to use home equity to fund retirement. Mention the idea of tapping home equity to fund retirement, and people often think you’re suggesting a reverse mortgage. But a reverse mortgage is only one option—and more people should be considering ways to extract value from their homes in retirement.

Honorable mentions

Here are a few more posts that generated strong reader interest this year: How to protect your retirement from inflation . . . HSAs look better as a tax shelter than they do for saving . . .Could traditional pensions make a comeback in the private sector?

And . . . the Retirement Rebootcast

The Retirement Rebootcast also scored well with readers. This was a six-part podcast series featuring conversations with expert guests discussing many of the key themes of Retirement Reboot. Topics included the future of Social Security and Medicare, saving for retirement and more. Listen to the podcasts using the links on this page.

What I’m reading

A new era of income investing is turning boomers into bond buyers . . . Reporting on long Covid taught me to be a better journalist . . . R.S.V. vaccine is slow to reach older adults . . .