{"id":357,"date":"2020-06-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/01\/employment-update-medicare-news\/"},"modified":"2020-06-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T00:00:00","slug":"employment-update-medicare-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/employment-update-medicare-news","title":{"rendered":"Employment Update &#038; Medicare News!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p4\">So how are you feeling?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019ve been at this pandemic issue for about 3 months!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So much has been <b><i>reported, seen and experienced! <\/i><\/b> Certainly the events over the last few days don\u2019t add to our naturally optimistic view of the short &amp; longer term future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">I wake up every day knowing that we are one day closer to Covid-19 being behind us!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">I very much look forward to so much that has been suppressed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I miss seeing my clients in the office.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Zoom and phone calls are ok; however I much prefer seeing everyone in-person.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I am very optimistic that day will be here!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The sooner, the better, baby!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Unemployment and the Economy<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>What\u2019s next for the market and the economy<\/b>?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>NO ONE knows for sure!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The stock market, as I\u2019ve been writing this morning, continues to move higher as Investors appear optimistic about a quick economic recovery leading to normalcy.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>One of the obvious challenges is how quickly, and to what level do companies rehire employees? <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-4007\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/BK-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">If you\u2019re <b>a <a href=\"https:\/\/retirementrefined.com\/business-owners\/\">small business owner<\/a><\/b>, you must ask yourself: <b>what are my options for rehiring staff<\/b>?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Several small businesses (certainly not all), have been able to secure short-term business loans through the Payroll Protection Program.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>That loan is forgiven if 75% of the funds are used for Payroll purposes within 8 weeks of receipt.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>If a business meets the rules, the loan payback is forgiven.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is certainly an encouragement for businesses to rehire however where does their business stand after the 8 weeks?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Certainly much depends on the economic reopening process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">But hold on for a short moment&#8230;..<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I believe Small Business Owners will greatly reassess their needs going forward, asking themselves:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li4\">Can we generate the desired revenue with less staff utilizing more technology?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li4\">How much bricks and mortar do we really need?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"p4\">These answers will certainly have a significant impact on rehiring!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">This Friday, we\u2019ll hear the unemployment #\u2019s for May.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Many are predicting the unemployment rate will increase from 14.7% in April to over 20%.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So far over 40 million people have filed for unemployment benefits, however last week <b>continuing claims decreased<\/b> to approximately 21 million.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is an important weekly number to monitor going forward, for now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-4106 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/shutterstock_1684177549-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"372\" height=\"248\" \/>Something else to keep in mind\u2026. It\u2019s been reported that 60% of people collecting unemployment benefits are netting more income than while working!!!<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Even though they\u2019re apparently required to go back to work when called, many are electing to refuse to return.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I certainly don\u2019t know why we would pay someone MORE for not working, <i>period<\/i>!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Market Update<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Most of the major US Stock Market Indexes increased last week by approximately 3%.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>International developed stock indexes up over 5%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">When I look at year to date performance comparing U.S. Growth, Value Stocks, then large to small companies, the performance differential is staggering.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><b>Large, Mid-size growth<\/b> stocks are in the positive for the year, with <b>Large Growth leading way up over 5%!<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><b>Large Value stocks are down (15%) on average while Small Value stocks are down over (25%).<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Noteworthy, over the last couple of weeks, value has been leading growth.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is reflecting the re-opening of America.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Will this continue?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>As always, time will tell.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s always a good idea to have a good mix between Growth and Value inside of your investment portfolio at all times!<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><b>Medicare \u201cSpecial\u201d Enrollment Update!<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-3618\" src=\"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/shutterstock_389134900-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"317\" height=\"211\" \/>Typically when working past age 65, and you are covered by an employee group health insurance program with a company that employees over 20 employees, you do not need to enroll in Medicare until your group medical coverage terminates.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>You and your employer then manually fill out a Part B application form that manually needs to be sent to Social Security, prior to completing all of your Medicare enrollments.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This slows down the enrollment process and I\u2019ve had Social Security lose a couple of our client\u2019s applications! This form proves you had continuous coverage from Age 65 up until current coverage termination.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This is why you do not receive a penalty for enrolling after Age 65.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">Now, the Part B form can be done online via an electronic signature type of process.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I looked at the online application, and it appears to be a tremendous enhancement to the enrollment process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\">For more information on Medicare, please feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/retirementrefined.com\/contact-us\/\">call our office<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/retirementrefined.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/2020-Medi-QuickRef.pdf\">click here<\/a> for our Medicare Guide for 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So how are you feeling?\u00a0 We\u2019ve been at this pandemic issue for about 3 months!\u00a0 So much has been reported, seen and experienced! Certainly the events over the last few days don\u2019t add to our naturally optimistic view of the short &amp; longer term future. I wake up every day knowing that we are one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"post_statement":"","post_description":"","post_cta":"","post_button":"Read More","post_button_url":"","compliance_id":"","post_disclaimer":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,9,4,30,3,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retirementrefined.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}