Friday, November 25, 2016

What Will A Trump Presidency Mean To Your Retirement? (Baby Boomers

by Pamela Williams
What will a Trump Presidency mean to the 46 million Baby Boomers living in America right now with retirement around the corner?  President-Elect Trump is a Baby Boomer, too, and he needs to secure Social Security and Medicare.  Of course, he may not need it personally, but most of us will.  Personal Capital just released its 2016 Election Report today, which can be seen here:  https://www.personalcapital.com/assets/email/Election_2016_Trump.pdf
Wall Street has rallied with a President-Elect Trump win, but Personal Capital advises not to let this affect your long-term investment strategies.  Hold to your current strategy, and this especially applies to seniors.  Trump has implied during his campaign that he will lower taxes, and Personal Capital says that taxpayers should wait to see what legislation is passed before changing tax strategy


“One of Trump’s tax plans would have a single filer with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of under $25,000 pay no taxes. A married couple filling jointly could together have AGI of under $50,000 and pay no taxes. This would mean that seniors in low income tax brackets could possibly be looking at tax-free income in retirement.”
This is such good news for seniors, and it seems President-Elect Trump truly seeks to come to the aide of the Country.  Trump has also promised to protect Social Security, so Personal Capital advises as one reaches retirement age, which they define as the age when one elects to start receiving Social Security, maximize benefits under the assumption no major changes to payouts will occur.
Personal Capital advises: Don’t rush to take it. It remains very possible, according to Personal Capital, that investors over the age of 60 will experience benefit reductions and that cost of living adjustments will be reduced to reduce the risk of Social Security insolvency. While this may be bad news to those already receiving it, this “reduced risk” means you shouldn’t let fear push you to take payments earlier than planned, because the good news is it won’t run dry.

We know that President-Elect Trump will do what he can to protect our interests as we become senior citizens.  I think he truly cares about the vulnerable in our society, and we can trust him to protect Social Security and Medicare.  Judith Stein, executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy said:  “We hope the new administration will … remember why Medicare was enacted and how best to ensure it helps today’s beneficiaries as well as coming generations. We needed Medicare because private insurance failed to cover 50% of older people. We hope they won’t turn back history by giving Medicare away to that private insurance world, a world that didn’t, and doesn’t, want to insure people who most need health care”.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to repeal and replace Obamacare. Whether a full repeal will happen remains to be seen. However, President-elect Trump has reiterated that he wants Americans to have access to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which are tax-free medical savings accounts that allow individuals to save a portion of their income to help defray medical costs. He also has said he wants to allow the purchase of insurance across state lines. According to Personal Capital, if Trump’s plan is enacted, investors should not expect health care costs (and especially prescription drug costs) overall to get significantly less expensive.
For most Baby Boomers, whether to expect any incoming changes to Medicare of course remains a great concern. Trump’s transition website pledges to “Modernize Medicare, so that it will be ready for the challenges with the coming retirement of the Baby Boom generation – and beyond.” But other than that, details are yet to be heard.

No comments:

Post a Comment