Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Ideas for Retiring
America is on the verge of a retirement revolution. The oldest of the baby-boomers -- the 76 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 -- are turning 59½, the magic milestone when they can start tapping their retirement accounts penalty-free. In just three more years, the same advance team will be eligible to take early benefits from social security.But just because they can pack it in doesn't mean that they should. In case you've missed the great national debate, social security alone can't guarantee you a smooth transition to living without a salary.The stark reality is that to live comfortably in retirement -- whatever that means to you -- you must have your own resources. And given longer life expectancies, your savings may have to last 20 years or more. Don't just sit around and wait for benefits. Let us discuss the steps we can take to ensure a comfortable retirement.
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People in unmarried partnerships are much less likely to have health insurance than married couples, and the effect is greater for heterosexual cohabitants than it is for homosexual ones, according to a recent study.
"People in gay couples are about twice as likely to be uninsured and people in opposite-sex couples are three times as likely to be uninsured (compared with) married people," said M.V. Lee Badgett, research director of UCLA's Williams Institute, a think tank that researches sexual-orientation law and public policy.
Twenty percent of people in same-sex couples are uninsured, compared with only 10% of married people and 15% of the overall population, according to the institute's study, which analyzed data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and was published in the journal Contemporary Economic Policy.
Unmarried heterosexuals with partners fared even worse, with almost a third uninsured, the study found. Than means more than 3 million heterosexual couples and 300,000 gay couples potentially lack health insurance, Badgett said.
Unmarried partners are at financial risk should they face a sudden, serious illness or injury. They also may delay or forgo preventive care and resort to seeking costly emergency-room care, Badgett said. "We know lack of insurance is related to poorer care, less care and care that has to be paid for by someone else in many cases," she said.
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