Posts Tagged With ‘ self-employed ’

Older Americans who want to be smart about retirement finances are curious about the intricacies of Social Security. The blog that drew the most traffic from our readers last year – “The Bridge to a Larger Social Security Check” – suggested a strategy for getting more out of the program: delay signing up for Social Security by withdrawing savings from a 401(k) to pay the bills. Each year that Social Security is postponed adds 7 percent to 8 percent to a retiree’s monthly benefit check. A couple of years of delay, funded with savings, can provide significantly more money, month after month,... Continue Reading

The transition to retirement can take many paths. A couple years ago, Joelle Abramowitz at the University of Michigan described three groups of self-employed workers over 50. The bulk of them work independently, either as independent contractors or doing odd jobs, and are more often minorities, with very low pay and few employee benefits. Think Uber driver. The other two groups are business managers and business owners, who are predominantly white, male and in good financial shape. In a follow-up to her earlier research, Abramowitz dug into 24 years of data to understand the self-employed older... Continue Reading