Don't get sick or take a vacation...and you can retire

The Obama administration announced new programs to encourage Americans to save more for retirement. Under the plans, workers could convert payments for unused vacation time and sick leave into retirement savings. And your tax refund? Don't spend it, deposit it into retirement accounts or used to buy savings bonds. (Not sure how the latter will help the flagging retail economy though).

No COLA for SSI...

...and that acronym-laden phrase has got many seniors in an uproar. Misleading headlines, such one from the Associate Press, shout "Millions face shrinking Social Security payments." It's only when you read further that the facts arise: Social Security payments are not "shrinking"--by law they cannot go down--but there won't be a cost-of-living increase added in January 2010.

The issue here is that medical costs, which often hit retirees hard, are going up faster than the core rate of inflation (or deflation, as the case may be). So if a SSI payment stays flat and Medicare prescription drug costs go up, the net amount to recipients may drop slightly.

This probably becomes a political hot potato going into the 2010 congressional election cycle.

Remember those "retention bonuses"?

Well the poster child for the financial meltdown--AIG--is set to pay $249 million in such bonuses to employees who stayed to help clean up the mess they and their bosses made at AIG. Even the concept of a retention bonus gets stretched pretty far in the current climate.

Never, never, never give up...work

Failing banks, no credit, high unemployment, layoffs, 401(k) losses....the list of recession woes has become a familiar litany. In addition, an ING Direct study shows that 40 percent of Americans think the recession will mean they must delay retirement and many of them now expect to work 10 or more years longer than planned.