Presidents Day What Is It? President’s Day was originally created in 1885 to commemorate president George Washington’s Birthday. Today it’s the third Monday on February because of the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act and it celebrates “all” presidents past and present. This is when the holiday became a joint celebration of sorts to combine the celebration of George Washington’s Birthday and Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday. Other holidays like Memorial Day and Veterans Day also were also impacted because the law changed their fixed dates into Monday holidays in order to create more three day weekends (THANKS!!!!). While not passed into effect as a day of rest until 1885, the nation began to celebrate George Washington’s Birthday as a day of remembrance following his death in 1799. In 1885 when it became a federal holiday it joined just 4 other nationally recognized holidays (4th of July, Christmas, New Years Day and Thanksgiving). In this article on History.com you can read more about the holiday. It’s interesting to see some of the the things that were commemorated on the holiday (like the reinstatement of the Purple Heart in 1932, etc.). I love knowing where we come from and the internet can help us quench our thirst for trivia pretty easily now. So if you like history or knowing some random facts, you might enjoy this article. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/presidents-day Bloomberg Unveils Social Security Plans As his race for the presidential nomination heats up former Mayor Bloomberg has released plans for some changes in Social Security to allow lower income workers a chance to save better and gain access to better healthcare access. Positives to what are in this article are the idea of an increased social security benefit monthly and changes to the valuation of cost of living increases. Negatives, the concepts are laid out of the benefits but it’s not really clear where the funding will be coming from. Senator Warren and Senator Sanders both propose similar payout benefits through increases in payroll taxes, etc. Needless to say, Social Security needs some overhaul. There are so many issues around Americans who rely on Social Security as a significant part of their income and ability to afford to live. But in the end, while I hope they can make progress on Social Security, hopefully it can be done on a broader spectrum of changes including mindset for saving, consumer habits in commercialism, taxation for retired individuals and more. We shouldn’t be relying on social security as much as we do and that likely means changing the mindsets of those who are in their teens today... https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/16/bloomberg-lays-out-plans-for-social-security-retirement-savings.html The Secure Act Requires Your 401(k) Statement to Show Monthly Retirement Income. You Could Be in for a Surprise. Many of those who enter into retirement have questions about retirement income and the ever changing rules and regulations around how we use those retirement assets. Barron’s has a good article dealing with some of those changes in the Secure Act and your 401k. One of the big changes is that of mindset. Thinking instead of the final “number” and thinking about the monthly income. It’s like so many other things we do in today’s society-think monthly. So perhaps this will help people in today’s world who can frame these changes into something more familiar, or perhaps its layering in another level of complication? Tough to say. But the thing that happens when we look at a monthly target we often believe that rate is a “guarantee” rather than an estimate. Psychologically this could create some added complications in meeting expectations/setting expectations. I’m no financial advisor, so if you have any questions I would suggest reaching out to a financial advisor to stay abreast of how changes to the regulatory environment could impact your retirement plans and strategy. https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-secure-act-requires-your-401-k-statement-to-show-monthly-retirement-income-you-could-be-in-for-a-surprise-51581940801?mod=RTA
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