Money magazine offers helpful information in special crisis report

To gather ideas for my blogs, I sometimes buy magazines when I’m out shopping if I see an issue or article that may be helpful to my readers.

This fall I bought Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning magazine. With articles such as "Retire Worry-Free," "Protect Your Nest Egg," "Plan Now," and "Live the Dream," I thought there would several articles I could blog about.

However, when I picked up the magazine a few weeks after I purchased it, I was disappointed. The information didn’t fit the current financial crisis. I know the deadline for magazine articles is often three months before publication date. Kiplinger’s Retirement Planning magazine certainly was out of date.

So when I saw Money magazine’s special crisis report called "What Do I Do Now?" I bought it.

Many of the articles are helpful and give boomer consumers ideas to consider. Among the articles are:

• "When Will Stocks Come Back?"

• "Can I Still Retire?"

• "What’s Next for Home Prices?"

• "Will My Taxes Shoot Up?"

• "Is My Job Safe?"

• "Can I Count on My Money Fund?"

One article in the magazine, however, misses the mark: "Why We Have to Cut Benefits for Seniors."

Economist Isabel Sawhill, in an interview by George Mannes, says the American elderly are getting too big a slice of the taxpayers’ money.

Not so.

Many of today’s elderly are poor. Living in poverty in America after you’ve worked hard all of your life isn’t to me the American Dream.

Copyright 2008, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist