Retirement investors under the age of 30 participating in defined contribution plans are seeing their accounts bounce back at a much faster rate than over-55 investors who are near retirement, according to Mercer, the benefits consulting firm.

Mercer analyzed its defined contribution data for participants under 30, and those over...

When Jim Siegfried was an undergraduate in the early 1970s, he wanted to become a teacher. But there was a large surplus of teachers at the time and mentors advised him to consider a career elsewhere.

Siegfried chose a career in business and spent several decades working for large corporations...

A growing number of older Americans are robbing Peter to pay Paul by filing early for Social Security.

New federal government data shows that applications for Social Security benefits are running well ahead of the rate expected due solely to aging of the population. The most likely cause is the...

Is the Great Recession bypassing seniors? That's the conclusion drawn by a new study looking at the downturn's impact on different age groups. But I'm not buying it.

The Pew Research Center poll reports that Americans over age 65 are less likely to have been forced to cut their...

The bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC is requiring painful sacrifice all around, but an especially big cut is being taken by the health care plan that covers the company's retirees.

A health care trust fund established earlier by the big three automakers will become the new majority owner of Chrysler, and...

Three months after President Obama's inauguration, one phrase from his speech on the steps of the Capitol comes back to me often: "The time has come to set aside childish things."

That line, which quotes loosely from 1 Corinthians:13 in the New Testament, refers to our collective need to...

A growing list of employers have reduced their matching contributions to workers' 401(k) accounts as they struggle to preserve cash in the recession. But here's how bad it's become: Even AARP has suspended its 401k match for the rest of 2009.

When the nation's most prominent defender of retirement...

Barbara Parks stumbled onto a way to do well by doing good. Divorced in her early 60s and ready for something new, she drove from her home in Minnesota to resettle in San Francisco, where her two sisters lived.

She expected to look for work in career counseling, the field...

When you think of national community service, young people probably come to mind, along with programs like the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps. But national community service programs are about to undergo a major change that will involve more midlife and retired people who want to get involved in helping their...

The exploding cost of health care poses one of the most serious threats to retirement security--even with Medicare covering everyone over age 65. The pressures have accelerated in recent years as health care costs accelerate. Today, Fidelity Investments reported that a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2009 will need approximately $240,000...

Laurie Orlov grew up in the corporate high-tech world, working for 30 years as an information technology executive and later as an analyst for Forrester Research, the respected technology research company. More recently, she has been applying her knowledge to a pressing questions facing baby boomers and seniors: how to...

Remember that old ad slogan? "When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen."

Wall Street uber-ranter Jim Cramer wants America to keep listening to what Wall Street says, but no one is in the mood right now.

Cramer took a stab at reasserting the stock market's importance in setting the agenda yesterday...

What industry is least qualified to question the competence of others to handle money right now? Would you guess . . . the banking industry, maybe?

Not if you're a banker, of course. Firing back at the Obama Administration's plan to end federal subsidies to lenders who provide tuition...

Details are surfacing on the federal subsidy of COBRA health insurance contained in the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The law aims to help laid-off workers by paying for 65 percent of COBRA premiums for up to nine months.

COBRA is the federal program that allows workers to hold on...

Here's a quiet part of the housing crisis we haven't heard much about -- yet. The nearly frozen residential real estate market in many parts of the country has made it very difficult for seniors to sell their homes when the time comes to move for health or lifestyle reasons.

When Fidelity Investments issued a report on 401(k) performance for 2008, most media accounts focused in on the obvious: we all got creamed last year. The investment giant's "State of the 401(k)" report--reflecting returns for more than 11 million workplace retirement savers--showed that the average account balance dropped 27 percent...

Are seniors about to get a new deal on prescription drugs from Washington?

Medicare recipients have been able to purchase drug coverage since 2006 under Medicare Part D, which provides for federal subsidy of prescriptions. The coverage is provided through hundreds of private insurance plans and they have become popular,...

Barack Obama isn't wasting any time taking on two of the toughest political and fiscal issues in Washington -- Social Security and Medicare. In an interview last week with the Washington Post, Mr. Obama said he plans to tackle entitlement reform head-on, because it's the only way the federal...

For journalists, the new year is a time for crystal ball gazing, despite our miserable track record as forecasters.

Making predictions for 2009 is especially treacherous, considering the instability we're living through. That didn't stop me from assembling a forecast for a recent column on the top trends for 2009...

A question for Conrad Black and David Radler: How can we miss you when you won't go away?

Black is serving six years plus in federal prison for looting millions from Hollinger International, the Canadian-based media empire he founded and built with sidekick Radler back in the 1980s and...