First of all, some basics. Calculation of the benefits you will receive are based on your body of work over a period of forty years. The five years that you earned the least amount are dropped, and the other 35 are averaged to determine your monthly payment. Those who did not work do not get benefits. This is based on a set system where an individual must have worked 40 quarters during their life, and a minimum amount must have been earned during these 40 quarters in order to be considered for Social Security benefits.

A spouse who did not work is eligible for 50% of their working spouses full retirement benefits, and 100% after they die. If a spouse divorced someone after being married at least 10 years, they are eligible for 50% of that spouses full retirement age benefit, if they wait until age 70. At 60 this number is 37.5%.

SS retirement benefits can be started as early as 62 years of age. This does not mean that you have to start receiving benefits when you are 62; you can wait until you are as old as 70. If you choose to start getting benefits at an earlier age, your monthly payments will be smaller. There is a graduated scale involved with the calculations for payments; a 62 year old will get approximately 30% less than one who waits until they are 70. This percentage drops as you near 70.

The SSA, or Social Security Administration, uses your birth date to define retirement age. If you are planning on retiring in 2011, for instance, your retirement age is most likely 66 or 67 years of age; full retirement age means you will get 100% of your benefits.

One consideration to make when deciding when you will retire is that although your monthly payments will be lower if you retire early, this does not mean that you will receive less money in the long run. The reduction takes into account the fact that if you retire at 62 you will end up getting a lot more payments before you pass away than if you retire at 70, and recalculates your monthly benefits based on this. So there is actually no penalty for retiring early.

There are other advantages to waiting until 70 to start Social Security benefits. These individuals can immediately get retirement credits, which can boost monthly payments by 5 to 8%. These credits are assigned based on age; if you are born after 1943 you get 8%. These benefits stop going up when you reach 70.

So, unlike what you may hear from friends and family, there is no disadvantage or penalty involved for retiring early. On average, everyone who retires between the ages of 62 and 67 should see the same amount of money over their lifetime; the difference is in the amount of the monthly benefit check.

There are other considerations. If it is in your plans to continue working after retiring early, you should know that you will need to continue to pay SS taxes on all earning, even if you are receiving benefits. If you are not at full retirement age, there is an earnings cap of $14,160; this goes up to almost $40,000 after reaching full retirement age.

Once again, this should not be seen as a penalty. If you work when receiving benefits, and happen to go over the cap, some of your earnings may be taken from you, but these will be credited to you after full retirement age, and could mean higher payouts later. This is one of the most complicated aspects of Social Security benefits, but is also one of the most beneficial to you in the long run.

Getting to the point where you are considering whether to retire early or wait until full retirement age can be an intimidating time in your life. With many people nowadays deciding to work after retirement, it has become more important than ever to know exactly what is involved when filling out your Social Security paperwork. Understanding all the benefits and implications behind the Social Security system can help ease some of the stress involved with the numerous decisions that need to be made at this important point in your life.

The study borrowed an innovative technique from Mark Cohen, the grandfather of violent-crime cost estimates, called the “willingness to pay” estimates. Economists had developed this methodology to measure the price of invaluable, intangible goods for which a market would never exist. To put numbers on it, researchers would ask, for example, how much concerned parties would be willing to pay to save a nearby forest or prevent its development. By factoring responses, the researchers would then come up with estimates to determine the forest’s monetary value.

Going back to the cost of crimes, the research found out that each robbery in U.S., a car-break in, for example, costs $41,288; armed robberies costs eightfold at $335,733; every aggravated assault costs $145,379; rape costs $448,532; and then there is murder with a whooping $17,252,656 price tag.

Apparently, homicide and other forms of violent crimes compel Americans to pay extra just to prevent future violence. The study argues that if we knew how much a crime costs the society, then, perhaps people will better decide how much money to spend trying to stop these crimes from happening.

http://www.slate.com/id/2271951/

But why does China continuously refuse the inevitable yuan value reform?

It’s true – China wants its currency to become a major force in world trade and finance. China can only achieve this by letting their currency’s value to be representative of market forces. China also fears that allowing the yuan to appreciate will only undermine the country’s competitiveness when it comes to its job-creating export sector and force domestic reforms that could destabilize their economy.

Of course, there is a deeper reason: in China, fattening people’s pockets has become the primary –and even arguably, the only – way the Chinese regime maintains its legitimacy. Despite the fact that China is now the second largest economy next to U.S., the country still holds the record for having the largest population in the world. In fact, according to the World Bank, roughly 200 million Chinese lives on less than $1.25/day.

In the end, you can’t blame China. When your country’s grassroots’ statistics tell your government you’re still poor, you tend to think more of protecting your own economy, regardless of how intense the global community badgers you.

Source: Time

This is an effort to finally plug the gap where seniors have to pay out of pocket once they go past the initial coverage limit just before they reach the catastrophic coverage threshold.

80,000 people are expected to get checks once the first ones get mailed on June 10.

“We think our members will see these checks as a good faith down payment on what they’ve been looking for so long: closing this coverage gap,” said Cheryl Matheis, AARP’s senior vice president said.

In a nutshell, here’s how the donut hole works:

In addition to a $310 deductible, Medicare beneficiaries pay 25% of their drug costs until the total reaches $2,830 for the year. Then, they fall into a coverage gap. At that point, enrollees must pay all costs out of pocket until their annual expenses exceed $6,440. After that, seniors pay 5% of drug costs for the rest of the year.

Source: CNN

Bernanke’s current term will be up in January and President Obama nominated him for another four-year term. The vote now goes to the whole Senate. It does look like he’s going to get it.

Many would consider Bernanke’s leadership as pivotal in preventing a toal economic crash – what could have been another Great Depression. Though critics would also point out that the housing bubble burst could’ve been prevented and that he has gone overboard in bailing out companies.

Bernanke’s recently been hailed by Time magazine as its Person of the Year.