Cops cited him for not driving
We all know that you can get ticketed for driving without a license. But we are living in the 21st century and these days you can also get pulled over for driving without a driver. Such was the case for Param Sharma when the California Highway Patrol pulled him over after they spotted him tooling along the highway sitting in the backseat of his car with no one behind the wheel. The CHPs say they saw him quickly jump into the driver’s seat when he saw the police coming. His car was a Tesla self-driving car and it is likely Sharma had engaged the vehicle’s Autopilot or its “Full Self-Driving” system. But even so the Tesla’s owner’s manual specifically tells drivers to stay behind the wheel so they can intervene should the self-drive system fail.
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A very pricey vintage
A bottle of France’s famed Petrus 2000 Bordeaux can fetch $6,500 per bottle or more, but a bottle that Christie’s is offering in a private sale is expected to bring in a lot more -- upwards of a million dollars. Why? Because of its unique flavor, according to a panel of wine experts. The wine, they claim, is extra special and worth the big bucks because it spent 14 months aging in space aboard the International Space Station. A company called Space Cargo Unlimited put the bottle up for sale. Space Cargo’s CEO Nicolas Gaume says that “After spending almost 440 days in Space, or the equivalent of 300 trips to the moon, legendary Bordeaux wine Petrus comes back having been transformed in a way which is, literally, out of this world.” The buyer who winds up with this rare bottle of Petrus will receive a bottle of regular, down to earth Petrus so that he or she can compare them. They’ll also get a decanter, glasses and a corkscrew made from meteorite, to boot.
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A true long shot
It can seem that the quest for a Guinness World Record has achieved “pandemic” proportions with people around the world making up things they can do that no one else has done before, like eating 26,000 Big Macs or growing the longest fingernails. But two guys in Utah have come up with a trick that emphasizes accuracy in a sweet and tasty way. Dallas Anderson, who’s aim with a slingshot is impeccable, is the shooter of the two-man team and his pal, Jon Paleka, is the catcher. They recently won the record for, what some might call, accurately propelling a marshmallow into a far off mouth. In this case, Anderson aimed and shot the marshmallow a distance of nearly 226 feet directly into Paleka’s open mouth.
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Medal of Honor: Marine Corps Pfc. Robert C. Burke
By KATIE LANGE
Department of Defense News
When you're stuck in a bad situation, someone has to take the lead. That's what Marine Corps Pfc. Robert C. Burke did in 1968 when his unit was pinned down by intense enemy fire in Vietnam. Burke didn't make it out alive, but his actions earned him the Medal of Honor.
Burke was born Nov. 7, 1949, in Monticello, Illinois, and lived with his parents, four sisters and two brothers. As a teen, he worked after school helping his dad build fences for area farmers. His mother told reporters later that he had dreamed of being a Marine since he was a young boy.
Burke made that dream a reality when he enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 before graduating from Monticello High School in 1967. By the fall of that year, he had completed basic and individual combat training and earned the rank of private first class.
His first few months as a Marine were spent as a vehicle mechanic at Camp Pendleton in California. By February 1968, he joined the 3rd Battalion, 27th Marines, 1st Marine Division, as a machine gunner in Vietnam.
That spring, the Go Noi Island sector — about 15 miles south of Da Nang Air Base that housed U.S. troops — was considered a haven for the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong. By early May, the 7th Marines were tasked with going into that sector to prevent enemy troops from staging a new offensive. Operation Allen Brook, as it was called, began May 4.
Third Battalion's Company I, of which Burke was part, joined the fray later that month. Within days, their unit and several others successfully took over a major North Vietnamese supply staging area on the island.
On May 17, 1968, the group set out again in the early morning, with Company I in the lead. As Burke's unit approached a dry riverbed near a dense line of trees bordering the small village of Le Nam, they were ambushed by a large force hidden in the tall grass and woods.
Fire from heavy mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons exploded on them. Several men in Burke’s unit were injured, and some were killed, including its captain and two platoon leaders. The heavy enemy fire kept other units from being able to advance to help them.
Burke realized that key enemy points had to be taken out for them to advance and move their wounded. Without hesitating, he grabbed his machine gun and launched a series of one-man assaults against several enemy fortifications.
As he moved to the edge of the steep riverbank, he focused his assault on several enemy bunkers, which allowed his fellow Marines to move forward and get the wounded to relative safety. He then laid down heavy fire into an enemy position filled with automatic weapons, killing three North Vietnamese soldiers as they tried to get away.
Burke kept moving, systematically quieting the hostile fire until his weapon malfunctioned. He then grabbed a rifle and some hand grenades off someone nearby and kept fighting, taking out two more enemy soldiers.
When Burke saw that a fellow Marine had cleared his malfunctioning machine gun, he took it back and moved into an open position. He laid down a heavy line of fire along the trees until his injuries got the best of him. He died where he fell.
U.S. air and artillery support helped more Marines break through to help the stranded unit, and, eventually, the enemy retreated. Fifteen men from Company I died and 50 more were wounded. If it hadn't been for Burke's selfless actions, many more could have been lost.
The 18-year-old's body was brought home and buried in Monticello Cemetery in his hometown.
After recommendations from his comrades and commanders, Burke became the youngest person from the Vietnam era to earn the Medal of Honor. It was presented to Burke's entire family by Vice President Spiro Agnew on April 20, 1970, during a White House ceremony that honored several other Marines.
Burke's sacrifice hasn't been forgotten by the Marines or his hometown. Burke Hall, a recruit training facility at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, stands in his honor. In 1982, a park in his hometown was dedicated in his memory.
Burke's Medal of Honor is on display with some of his other belongings in the Piatt County Courthouse in Illinois in what is now a shrine honoring him.
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How do you know you’re ready for retirement? It’s not just the finances
An intriguing find once emerged from a RAND Corp. survey on Americans and their working conditions. It turned out that 40 percent of employees 65 and older had previously retired, but something lured them back to the working world.
In some cases, financial troubles might have been the cause. But often the reason is that people neglect an important component in their retirement planning. They don’t think about what they will do with their extra time, or how they will give their life the meaning and purpose work provided, says Patti Hart, co-author with her husband, Milledge, of The Resolutionist: Welcome to the Anti-Retirement Movement (www.antiretirement.com).
“Money is certainly important, but it’s not the only thing that determines whether your retirement is a success,” she says. “It may be that you are financially ready to retire, but are a long way from being emotionally ready.”
The Harts offer tips for figuring out when to retire and for making sure you’re successful when you do:
Know your catalysts. Identify milestones or signs that will let you know you are ready to embark on a new post-work life, Milledge Hart says. Yes, that could be when you’ve accumulated a certain amount of savings. But it might also be related to when your spouse quits their job, or when your children graduate college and head out on their own. Maybe your plan is to work until your health gives out. “Knowing your catalysts can mean the difference between successfully transitioning to a fulfilled life after your career is over, or boomeranging back to the full-time workforce simply because you didn’t know why you quit to begin with,” he says.
Plan ahead to avoid separation anxiety from work. For many people, moving from the excitement and fulfillment of a career to the quietness of retirement is too much, Patti Hart says. They develop a form of “separation anxiety,” longing for their old way of life rather than venturing boldly into the new one. “You need to make a plan for what you want to do in your new post-career life so you aren’t floundering when you get there,” she says.
Get comfortable with the uncomfortable. At work, people are thrown into uncomfortable situations and have no choice but to face them head on. In retirement, it’s easier to avoid discomfort, but doing so diminishes your confidence, and you miss out on opportunities for personal growth and fun, Milledge Hart says. “It would seem counterintuitive to think that being uncomfortable brings happiness, but it does,” he says. “Go at life as if it’s an adventure – because it is. When you accomplish something you didn’t think you could, you get a jolt of endorphins that drives you to your next challenge.”
Learn to be your own best friend. Even when people want to try a new hobby or activity, they sometimes are afraid to do it alone. “In retirement, you might not have the social network you once did,” Patti Hart says. “You may long for a good friend you can rely on.” But if you think about it, she says, you already have that friend – yourself. So as you prepare for retirement, be ready to go solo on occasion. “When you get to this stage, you will often find that some things on your list are on your list alone,” she says. “No one in your universe shares your interest or has the time to join you. That’s all right. If you are going to continue to grow, you need to sometimes feel like you did something completely on your own.”
“Don’t convince yourself that in retirement you are going to be destined to a life of watching evening game shows and baking pies, unless of course that is what you love to do,” Milledge Hart says. “My advice is nothing is off limits, so reach for the stars. Look forward rather than backward, and embrace the new you.”
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What a ‘team health assessment’ can reveal about your business
As the nation works its way out of the pandemic and associated economic troubles, some business leaders may fret about their company’s strength going forward.
Perhaps it’s time for those businesses to assess just how well their teams are performing.
“It’s always helpful to take an overview of your company, exploring both the strengths and the weaknesses to see where you can do better,” says Jeanet Wade, the ForbesBooks author of The Human Team: So, You Created a Team But People Showed Up! (www.thehumanteambook.com).
Here’s a hint: Wade says a company’s strengths ultimately come down to its people and how well leaders are able to communicate goals and strategies to them.
“Regardless of what industry sector you’re in, business leadership is people leadership,” says Wade, founder of the consulting firm the Business Alchemist. “No matter how automated or systematized work becomes, inspiration, innovation, and the highest level of problem-solving requires the highest level of human thinking.”
That’s why Wade suggests it’s useful for leaders to ask themselves a few questions about how well their business is doing in relation to their teams. Wade provides a more in-depth “team health assessment” online, but a few initial areas to consider in giving your organization a self assessment include:
Strategy. Does your team have a clearly articulated strategy or plan? “People on teams sorely need clarity, or they’ll lapse into confusion,” Wade says. “Specifically, team members must understand the purpose of the team itself, their role within it, the team’s outcome goals, and how this team fits within the larger organization.” Many leaders don’t communicate the organization’s larger vision and strategy because they believe employees won’t understand it or will get derailed by the minutiae of revenue projections, profit goals, and the like, she says. “But if someone is familiar with strategy and its envisaged implementation, they’ll possess the vision and clarity to guide themselves through obstacles or small misunderstandings that inevitably arise,” Wade says. “Even if they don’t understand every task and step along the way, they can trust in the larger purpose and visualize the final outcome.”
Team building. Does your team participate in regular team building and trust building activities? There are many such exercises on the market that can help team members connect with each other. Wade refers to one activity she likes to use as 3-2-1. People in a group are asked to share three events they’ve experienced, how they responded to them, and how those events impacted them. Then they share two childhood stories or coming-of-age adolescent memories. Finally, they share one of their biggest fears.
Contribution. Is it evident that each team member is contributing their best version of themselves to the team? “As leaders, it’s important for us to acknowledge the human psyche’s need to contribute and reward it,” Wade says. “Contribution allows each person to move from withdrawal, or passive contribution, and to level up to the team – a rising tide lifting all boats. That means that everyone expends their maximal effort instead of doing the bare minimum.”
Reaction to failure. Do team leaders embrace failure as a growth and learning opportunity? “Make failure and learning from failure something to embrace,” Wade says. “Team members shrouded in fear, apprehension, and doubt run from failure. But admitting failure and learning from it helps create a growth mindset – it opens space for trust and courage in teams and organizations, as people know they can learn and improve in a climate of trust.”
“It’s natural for leaders to fall into the trap of going it alone, but it isn’t necessary or even effective,” Wade says. “When you learn to be both compelling and transparent you can truly harness the collective human energy in your business.”
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Why job seekers should vet employers to find the right fit
Hiring managers routinely vet job candidates, weeding out those with questionable skills or who might prove a bad fit with the rest of the team.
But vetting isn’t a one-way street and job seekers should do a little of their own, says Bob Slater, co-author with his son, Nick Slater, of Look Out Above! The Young Professional’s Guide to Success (www.bobandnickslater.com).
“You need a place to work that offers more than just a job,” he says. “Anytime you are deciding whether to work for someone, you should look for evidence of three things: capable leadership, a compelling business model with ample profits and margins, and a supportive culture where your contributions will be recognized.”
When you are out of work, accepting a job – any job – can seem like the right move, but that doesn’t mean regrets won’t await you once you realize something doesn’t quite click between you and your new bosses, Nick Slater says.
Plenty of people have experienced just that situation – much to their chagrin. A Gartner Inc. survey released in 2019, for example, found that 40 percent of Gen Z workers regretted accepting a job offer.
In the rush to find a job, the Slaters suggest taking a moment to do the following:
Compare what is said to what is done. Either through observation, research or by asking current or former employees, you can piece together whether what your leaders say about the company lines up with reality, Nick Slater says. “The company might claim that its growth provides opportunities for advancement, but in truth the hours demanded are suffocating, pay is low, and turnover is high,” he says.
Determine whether the company aligns with your values. You don’t want to find yourself in a job where the company’s values are in opposition to your own, Bob Slater says. Maybe you have strong environmental views, but the company has no concerns about its environmental impact. “If you decide to turn down an offer because your values and the company’s aren’t a match, you won’t be alone,” he says. A survey by Jobvite found that 42% of those polled said they would reject a job offer if the company lacked diversity or clear goals in improving diversity in hiring.
Make sure the job is legitimate. If lassoing a job isn’t difficult enough, job seekers have something else to worry about. The FBI has warned of cyber criminals posing as legitimate employers by spoofing company websites and posting fake job openings on popular online job boards. The aim: gather personal information from the victims, such as bank account numbers. One way to dodge such scams and be certain the job is legitimate is to research the company. Which, of course, you should be doing anyway, Nick Slater says. If you’re suspicious, verify websites and phone numbers independently.
Find a mentor. A trusted counselor can help guide you through a job search, provide advice, and serve as a sounding board after you land the job, Bob Slater says. This person could be a college professor, a boss from a summer internship, or anyone else who has the experience to give you guidance and hopefully provide you with contacts.
“If you do end up in the wrong job, you can always move on to another job that uses more of your best skills, gets you closer to finding your niche, and perhaps even pays more,” Bob Slater says. “But don’t quit your job before you get another one. You don’t know how long the downtime between jobs will be and, if a recession hits while you’re job hunting, you could be out of work for years.
“That said, eventually you will want to move on so you can align your fortunes with a team worthy of your time and talent.”
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Social Security Matters
By National Social Security Advisor at the AMAC Foundation,
the non-profit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens
Ask Rusty – Will Applying for SS Disability Hurt SS Retirement Benefit?
Dear Rusty: My husband turns 65 later this month. He has started having health issues - so much so that we are thinking about talking to his doctor about Social Security Disability. How would this affect him in applying for his Social Security benefits? Should we exhaust disability efforts before applying for his retirement benefits? Signed: Concerned Wife
Dear Concerned Wife: In order to qualify for SS Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, your husband’s disability must be considered total and must be expected to last for at least one year. And that will need to be substantiated by medical evidence from his doctor. So, having a discussion with his doctor is the right first step.
Since SSDI benefits are based upon your husband’s full retirement age (FRA) benefit amount, if he is awarded SS disability it would have no effect on his FRA benefit amount. In fact, if he is awarded SSDI benefits, they will automatically convert to his regular SS retirement benefit (at the same amount) when he reaches his FRA. SSDI benefits are replaced by SS retirement benefits once FRA is attained.
So, should your husband exhaust disability efforts before applying for his SS retirement benefit? Provided that his doctor will support that he is totally disabled and expected to remain so for at least a year, your husband should apply for SSDI online at www.ssa.gov/applyfordisability. This will establish a base date which will be used to establish a disability onset date, which is what his SSDI benefit will be based upon if later awarded. You should be aware that it takes several months to receive an initial SSDI determination, and that about 2/3rds of all SSDI applications are denied. But there is an appeals process in place which can be used in the event of an initial denial and if he believes that is an unfair decision.
It is also possible for your husband to claim his personal early SS retirement benefit at the same time he applies for SSDI, so he can get some early SS income flowing while his SSDI application is being considered. Then, if his SSDI is later awarded, his smaller SS retirement benefit (reduced for claiming before his FRA) will be replaced by his higher SSDI benefit, and his higher SSDI amount will automatically become his SS retirement amount when he reaches his FRA. However, if your husband’s SSDI is not awarded, his reduced SS retirement benefit will be his permanent benefit amount (except, of course, for annual Cost of Living Adjustments).
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Taxes, retirement and the need to develop a strategy – now
By SCOTT STATON
Concerned about how taxes may affect your retirement?
If so, you’re part of a growing cadre of Americans, some of whom are beginning to reassess their finances as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainties it brought about.
In a recent Harris poll conducted in conjunction with Nationwide, 62 percent of those surveyed said they think it is more important now than it was previously for them to develop a strategy to address taxes in retirement.
Actually, it was always important, so it’s good to see that more people are coming to realize they should be proactive in accounting for taxes as they stash away money for what they hope will be their Golden Years.
Sure, we all realize taxes are important. Otherwise we wouldn’t have roads, bridges, a military and all the other services our contributions to the government help pay for.
But that doesn’t mean we enjoy paying taxes – or that we have any interest in paying more than what is necessary.
The trick, of course, is making sure you take steps to ensure you pay what you owe – but not a dollar more. That’s not always easy and lawmakers routinely change the rules and the allowable deductions, making it that much harder.
The good news is, sometimes changes to the tax code benefit you. The bad news is, sometimes they don’t.
That Harris poll showed that 60 percent of Americans, leaning toward the bad news side of things, expect their taxes to go up significantly in the next four years. Also, 62 percent say it's more important to minimize taxes now than to wait until they reach retirement.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at a few tax issues retirees, pre-retirees and others need to know about:
Tax-deferred accounts. When you set aside part of your income to contribute to a traditional IRA or 401(k), you can postpone paying taxes on that money. You also can gain interest on those accounts each year without paying taxes. Of course, with tax-deferred accounts, the key word is “deferred.” Eventually, the tax bill comes due. When you retire and start withdrawing money from those accounts, the IRS will want its share. But what if you decide not to withdraw money from your tax-deferred accounts because you have other income that can pay your bills? Once you reach age 72, you have no choice. That’s when required minimum distributions come into effect. The government requires you to withdraw a certain percentage of your money each year so it can claim those taxes.
Roth conversions. Let’s say you are worried about those tax-deferred accounts and the tax bill that’s going to come due down the road. One solution that’s become popular in recent years is a Roth conversion. In such a conversion, you move money from your tax-deferred accounts to a Roth IRA. You pay taxes when you make the conversion, so typically you move portions of the money over several years to avoid a big tax hit all at once. But once it’s in the Roth, the money draws interest tax free and you pay no taxes when you make withdrawals in retirement.
Capital gains. President Joe Biden has proposed raising the capital gains tax on investors who make over $1 million. Capital gains are profits made from selling investments. Currently, the top capital gains tax rate is 20 percent, but Biden’s plan essentially would eliminate that and tax the capital gains as ordinary income, which could mean a rate as high as 37 percent. As you can imagine, that has some people concerned. What can those investors who would be affected do? One option would be to spread out the sale of their assets over several years to avoid having more than $1 million in gains in a single year.
These, of course, are just a few ways taxes might impact your retirement, whether that retirement is happening soon or is still several years away.
Remember that Harris poll I cited earlier? One of its other findings was that 41 percent of retirees said they wish they had been better prepared for paying taxes in retirement.
In truth, you won’t find many investments that allow you to escape paying taxes completely and no generic advice can account for everything that might affect your individual situation. That’s why it’s important to seek financial advice from someone who can help you navigate the sometimes confusing tax rules so that more money stays in your pocket – and those post-working years can become the retirement you dreamed about.
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Let go my Lego
Ask a cop and he or she will tell you that theft is a top crime of choice among the world’s criminals. There are jewel thieves, auto thieves and, of course, bank robbers. And now, French police are focusing their attention on an international gang of, what England’s Guardian newspaper, calls Lego Looters. They recently arrested a woman and two men in the act of lifting Legos in a toy store near Paris and when questioned they revealed that they were part of a gang specializing in robbing special editions of the popular building block toys. Similar thefts have been reported throughout Europe and in the U.S. There’s big money to be made selling stolen Legos, says professional online auctioneer Van IJken. He explains that the company keeps changing out its offerings and so a special 2007 $150 Lego set can fetch as much as $3,000 today, if kept in its original condition.
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Dracula calls
Tourists visiting Dracula’s Castle in Transylvania are coming out with distinctive puncture marks. Not to worry, the marks are being inflicted on them by qualified medical personnel, not by the fangs of Bram Stoker’s fictional, neck biting Count. It seems that the pandemic has been bad for business at the castle, which is located in Romania’s Carpathian mountains, and so they decided to offer free COVID shots to lure more tourists.
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Duck, the condors are coming
“The Birds” in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie with the same name were pretty scary when they flocked and attacked the hapless heroine. So, you can imagine how scared Cinda Mickols, who lives in Tehachapi, CA, was when a flock of Giant California condors targeted her home recently. These were no scrawny crows; these condors can have a wingspan of almost ten feet and weigh as much as 23 pounds. And, Cinda can tell you it’s a very, very scary, and messy, affair to be under attack by them; her home was their target recently and nearly trashed the place. Her daughter Tweeted photos of the assault and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service responded suggesting fighting back by shouting, loud clapping and spraying them with water.
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History Matters
A feature courtesy of
The Grateful American Book Prize
Showing our children that their past is prelude to their future
By John Grimaldi and David Bruce Smith
The Lincoln-Douglas debates pushed the possibility of a Lincoln presidency into inevitability. Positioned against Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois in a sequence of debates during re-election year, Douglas insisted the legality of slavery should be determined by the states and territories. Lincoln argued for its abolition.
Douglas kept his seat and Lincoln lost the argument, but his rhetoric raised his profile—and that of the unshaped Republican party.
Two years later, on May 18, 1860, Lincoln was the party’s nominee for the presidential election. He faced off with Douglas; Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge; and Constitutional Union candidate John Bell. Lincoln won 40% of the vote and became the first Republican President of the United States.
It was a victory that activated the secession of southern states, the creation of the Confederacy, and--the Civil War.
The Grateful American Book Prize recommends Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates that Defined America by Allen C. Guelzo.
...
At 7:52 in the morning of May 20, 1927, Charles Lindbergh, lifted off in his monoplane, “The Spirit of St. Louis”, from Roosevelt Airfield in Long Island, New York in a win-it or- die-trying” 3,610-mile transatlantic bet. At first, getting airborne was difficult—he had a heavy fuel load--but eventually, he did.
Thirty-three and a half hours later, Lindbergh landed at Le Bourget Airfield, Paris; more than one hundred thousand people; droves of reporters, and correspondents, awaited the arrival of the first pilot—ever--to make a nonstop U.S. to Europe crossing. The news generated headlines around the world, about “Lucky Lindy” and “The Lone Eagle.” In addition to the acclaim, Lindbergh earned a cash award for his feat, the equivalent of more than $500,000 in today’s currency.
The Grateful American Book Prize recommends Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg.
Brooklyn was originally a separate city, bifurcated from New York City by the East River. Then, everything changed on May 24, 1883, when the Brooklyn Bridge opened; two hundred and fifty thousand people sauntered across it within twenty-four hours. It had taken 14 years for John A. Roebling, a German born industrial engineer, to construct what was then the world’s largest and longest suspension structure.
According to History.com, “Roebling is credited with a major breakthrough in suspension-bridge technology: a web truss added to either side of the bridge roadway that greatly stabilized the structure.” Until then, bridges of that type were notorious for their inability to deal with heavy winds and loads.
The Department of Transportation says today-- 138 years later--more than 100,000 cars, 4,000 cyclists, and 10,000 pedestrians, cross daily.
The Grateful American Book Prize recommends David McCullough’s The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge.
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Social Security Matters
By National Social Security Advisor at the AMAC Foundation,
Ask Rusty – When Is the Best Time to Claim Social Security?
Dear Rusty: I will be 64 in May of this year, and I’d like to know the best time to claim Social Security. Signed: Anxious to Retire
Dear Anxious: First, please understand that there is no one “best time” to claim your Social Security benefit, because when you should claim depends upon several factors, such as:
• Your current health
• Your life expectancy
• Your immediate financial need
• Whether you are married
• Whether you are still working
When you should claim also depends upon your personal benefit goals. For example, if you wish to maximize your monthly SS benefit amount you can best do that by simply waiting until age 70 to claim. For each full year you delay past your full retirement age (FRA), your SS benefit will grow by 8%, up to age 70 when you get the maximum you’re entitled to. If you are married and die first, that will also provide your widow with a higher benefit as your survivor if your wife’s own benefit is less than yours. But waiting until age 70 to maximize isn’t for everyone.
If you are in poor health and don’t expect to enjoy at least average longevity (about 84 for a man your age now), then claiming earlier would be prudent. But claiming earlier also means a smaller benefit. Your full retirement age (FRA) is when you get 100% of the benefit you’ve earned from a lifetime of working. Your FRA is 66 ½ and if you wait longer than that you will earn Delayed Retirement Credits (DRCs) of .667% for each full month you delay. That means that if you delay until 70, your SS benefit will be 28% more than it would be at your FRA. But if you claim before you have reached your FRA, your benefit amount will be permanently reduced by .556% for each full month earlier than your FRA that you claim. If, for example, you claim your SS to start at age 64, your benefit will be cut by about 17% from what you’d get by waiting until your FRA to claim. And, if you are married, that smaller benefit is what your widow’s survivor benefit would be based upon if you die first.
Anytime SS benefits are claimed before you have reached your full retirement age, you are subject to Social Security’s “earnings test” which, if you are working, limits how much you can earn before SS takes back some of your benefits. For 2021, the annual earnings limit is $18,960 and if that is exceeded, they will take back benefits equal to $1 for every $2 you are over the limit. The earnings test applies until you reach your FRA, after which there is no longer a limit to how much you can earn. In your specific situation, if you were to claim for your benefits to start mid-year (e.g., in May at age 64), you would be subject to a monthly earnings limit of $1,580 for the remaining months of 2021, and if you exceed that monthly limit in any month, you won’t be entitled to any benefits for that month. Then in 2022 you’ll be subject to the annual limit, which isn’t yet published but will be slightly more than the 2021 limit.
Exceeding the earnings limit means that Social Security will make you repay some of your benefits and, unless you make special arrangements to do otherwise, they will withhold future benefits until they recover what you owe. That means going without benefits for some months, and if you have a spouse or other dependent(s) collecting on your record their benefits will also be suspended for that amount of time. So, as you can see there is no one simple answer to your question of when the best time is to claim Social Security. But a careful look at your personal circumstances relative to the above information should help you make that decision.
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Medal of Honor: Navy Corpsman William Halyburton Jr.
By KATIE LANGE
Department of Defense News
Actions worthy of the Medal of Honor don't always come from a compilation of courageous deeds; they can happen in the shortest window of time. That was likely the case for Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class William Halyburton Jr., a corpsman who died on his first day in combat toward the end of World War II.
Halyburton was born on Aug. 2, 1924, in Canton, North Carolina, to parents Mae and William Halyburton. He had two brothers, Bob and Joe. In 1940, the family moved to Miami, but Halyburton only stayed for a short while before moving back to North Carolina to live with his aunt and uncle in Wilmington, according to newspaper reports from the 1940s.
Halyburton played sports and was a devout Christian during his time at New Hanover High School, from which he graduated in 1943. He entered seminary at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina; however, those plans had to be put on hold when he was drafted to serve in World War II.
According to a 2010 Asheville Citizen-Times article, Halyburton was a conscientious objector, meaning he would serve but would not bear arms. So, in August 1943, he was allowed to choose the Naval Reserve, where he joined the hospital corps and spent more than a year in training.
By January 1945, Halyburton had reached the rank of pharmacist's mate 2nd class and was sent overseas as a medic for the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division. The division had pushed its way across the Pacific and was preparing to battle for Okinawa, an island near Japan's home shores.
On May 10, 1945 — Halyburton's first day in combat, according to his mother — the 1st Marine Division was on the island and preparing to move across the Awacha Draw, a strategically important ravine that was heavily fortified by the Japanese. Americans dubbed it "Death Valley" since many soldiers and Marines fell as they tried to cross it.
Halyburton was serving with a rifle company that day, and he watched a lot of Marines fall. They weren't able to be carried away to safety, so the wounded were treated where they fell or would have to be retrieved later.
Enemy fire on his unit was intense, but, as they crossed the draw, the young medic didn't hesitate. He ran across the ravine, up a hill and into a fire-swept field where his company's advance squad was pinned down. Despite a nonstop barrage of mortar, machine gun and sniper fire, Halyburton ran until he reached the furthest wounded Marine.
As he started to give that Marine aid, the wounded man was struck a second time by a Japanese bullet. Halyburton quickly put his own body between the wounded man and the line of fire, continuing to give aid until he was also gravely wounded. The 20-year-old collapsed and died while trying to save his comrade.
Halyburton's outstanding devotion to duty amid such a terrifying situation led to his immediate nomination for the Medal of Honor. On May 8, 1946 — nearly a full year after he died — Halyburton's family was presented the nation’s highest honor for valor on his behalf. During a ceremony at Bayfront Park in Miami, Navy Rear Adm. John F. Shafroth Jr. bestowed the medal to Halyburton's brothers, who had also served in the Navy during the war.
Halyburton was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
While he only spent one day in combat, his legacy has lived on. In 1984, the guided missile frigate USS Halyburton was commissioned in his honor. Several other military structures were also named for him, including Halyburton Naval Health Clinic in Cherry Point, North Carolina; a barracks at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida; and a road at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
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‘Two birds with one stone’
If 12-year-old Mike Wimmer was like most kids his age you’d find him in grammar school in the sixth or seventh grade. But Mike is not like most kids his age when it comes to the academic side of his life. The Salisbury, North Carolina, “tween” is an achiever who is graduating with a 5.45 Grade Point Average from high school at the end of this semester. He’s is also getting his associate degree from Rowan-Cabarrus Community College with a 4.0 GPA. The boy says he’s got the COVID pandemic to thank for his scholarly achievement. It gave him the time he needed to take extra classes. In fact, he had enough spare time to also create a technology start-up company called Reflect Social. But don’t think for a minute that Mike is boring. As he put it, "A lot of people think I've given up my childhood or somehow lost it and I say to them that I'm having the time of my life."
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They weren’t joshing!
Hundreds of folks named Josh, armed with foamy flotation devices better known as “pool noodles,” gathered for a raucous contest recently in a park in Lincoln, Nebraska, just for the fun of it. It was the brainchild of Josh Swain who, like many of us, was suffering from the loneliness of the COVID lockdown. So, Swain collected a list of people named Josh and contacted them via social media, inviting them to a gathering of Joshes. A few Joshes quickly turned into a lot of Joshes who came from all over the country. It started out as a joke, a way to pass the time online, and it ended with upwards of one thousand people, hundreds of whom had the first name Josh. The event allowed the Joshes to collect hundreds of pounds of food for the needy and some $12,000 for the Children's Hospital and Medical Center Foundation in Omaha.
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They dug down to the bone
The Perkins family of Las Vegas, Nevada, were having a pool put in their backyard recently and joked about the excavators finding a dinosaur. But the diggers weren’t laughing when they stopped digging after finding unidentified skeletal remains just four or five feet underground. The police were called and they quickly determined the bones were not human but that they were mighty old, indeed. So, Matt Perkins contacted the Nevada Science Center and paleontologist Joshua Bonde was sent to investigate. He reported that it wasn’t a dinosaur, but that the bones did belong to a large animal -- perhaps a horse -- that met its demise as much as 14,000 years ago.
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Including more voices in decisions may bring discomfort – and results
When companies struggle, whether because of a bad economy, poor decisions, or other factors, top management’s reaction is often to become tight-lipped about the turbulent situation.
Employees are shut out from strategy discussions, and any ideas they might have for fixing the problem go unheard.
But in many if not most cases, such secretiveness is the wrong approach and can even make things worse, says Joe Ferreira (www.joeferreira.com), the ForbesBooks author of Uncomfortable Inclusion: How to Build a Culture of High Performance in Life and Work.
“For organizations with tens of thousands of employees, it might make sense to limit who participates in strategy,” says Ferreira, who is CEO and president of the Nevada Donor Network. “But for smaller organizations, where every person contributes to a thriving culture and facilitates effective operations, there’s a lot of value in involving everyone.”
As his book title suggests, Ferreira calls this all-inclusive way of dealing with things “uncomfortable inclusion.” He put this philosophy into action when he came to the Nevada Donor Network in 2012 at a time when the organization was dysfunctional and on the verge of losing its membership in the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing. That would have shut down the organization for good. Over time, with a few fits and starts along the way, the organization rose from floundering to soaring as a current world leader in the industry.
Ferreira acknowledges that uncomfortable inclusion is an approach that can be messy and difficult, but also says that involving the entire organization in strategy and problem solving can “reinforce synergy, cooperation, and unity while cultivating better ideas and innovation.” And that’s true whether uncomfortable inclusion is put into action at a failing company, or simply activated at a place where leaders believe their teams and organization could be performing better, he says.
“It is critical to include everyone because ultimately the frontline staff knows best what their environment is going to look like tomorrow and likely a few years down the line, and they are best positioned to be innovators,” Ferreira says. “Why wouldn’t we have them as part of the planning process?”
He says some of the traits needed to embrace this inclusion approach include:
Transparent. This one may be especially important because Gallup reports that millennials especially say they want leaders who are open and transparent. Uncomfortable inclusion means being transparent to the point of discomfort, Ferreira says. If it is not uncomfortable, you are not being inclusive enough. “When you’re transparent with team members and include them in decision-making, you create a network of stakeholders who participate even in small decisions,” he says. “When it comes time to make more impactful decisions, a leader can tap into that banked brain trust to make the best decision possible based on feedback from a proven set of deciders.” Ferreira suggests even taking transparency a step further by including your critics, something he did when he took over at Nevada Donor Network. “In my view, our critics and antagonists are the most important catalysts for growth and innovation,” he says.
Accountable. People within an organization need to be accountable for their actions and to each other. “I talk about how we’re serious about our values, and we hold people accountable,” Ferreira says. “It isn’t enough to be technically competent. Each member of our organization, regardless of title, role, or results, must adhere to our values. We maintain our commitment to quality and excellence, and we are supremely, publicly accountable when we fail.”
Committed. Adopting a more inclusive approach requires commitment, possibly a commitment to changing the organization’s very culture. But the goal may be more attainable than it first seems, Ferreira says. “Achieving success in a seemingly hopeless situation requires hard work and a committed mindset, but it does not require the reinvention of the wheel,” Ferreira says. “It does not even require luck. All it requires is willingness and a mind open to learning and implementing actions that can facilitate transformative success.”
“Make no mistake, doing this is messy and hard,” Ferreira says. “It might seem unnecessarily difficult, complicated, and yes, uncomfortable. But keep chipping away and remember this: Success is achievable, even from the bleakest and most dysfunctional starting points.”
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Social Security Matters
By National Social Security Advisor at the AMAC Foundation,
the non-profit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens
Ask Rusty – My Social Security Card Is Incorrect – What Should I Do?
Dear Rusty: My sister and I have the same first and last names but are distinguished by our “middle” names. Our last name consists of two family names, which gives us both four, with only our middle names unique. We received two Social Security cards with the same name (middle name excluded), each with a unique number, but with our last name misspelled. So, my questions are:
· Which card is mine, and which is my sisters?
· Is it okay that our last name is misspelled?
I called Social Security and was told to make an appointment online, which I tried but could not because it wouldn’t accept my last name. I don’t know what to do now and hope you can advise me. Signed: Confused Sister
Dear Confused Sister: You haven’t shared your age, but unless you’re ready to apply for Social Security, you and your sister have time to correct your last name in your Social Security records. In any case, your Social Security Number is what is used to record your earnings for the purpose of future SS benefits, so you aren’t losing anything where your earnings credits are concerned. You should, however, get your correct last name reflected in your Social Security records to be sure that your future benefits will be properly paid.
For Social Security purposes, only first names and last names (surnames) are considered your legal name. You can include a middle name if it will help distinguish you from another, but your legal name for Social Security purposes will be your first and last name only. Thus, you should correct your Social Security profile to reflect your correct first and last name and include your unique middle name for personal purposes to distinguish you from your sister. For additional awareness, SS last names are limited to 13 characters. Also, it’s not uncommon for many people to share the same first and last name (e.g., John Smith) in Social Security’s records – it’s the SS number associated with that name that counts.
Other factors might apply too, such as whether the SS cards and numbers you and your sister now have are new, or if either or both of you have been using those SS numbers for past employment purposes. In any case, those numbers have been assigned to you, so getting your profile to reflect your correct last name is important. It’s also important that each of you separately use only one SS card/number (you use one; your sister the other).
To correct your name with Social Security, you should fill out and submit form SSA-5, which you can download/print at this link: https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ss-5.pdf. Note that the form is used to apply for a new card, get a replacement card, or to change information for an existing SS number. The form includes complete instructions on how to fill it out, and you can submit it via the US Post Office to your local Social Security office, the mailing address for which you can find at www.ssa.gov/locator. Take note of the form’s instructions for including additional documentation for identification purposes. I suggest that you and your sister both do this separately, each of you taking ownership of one of the SS numbers. When Social Security processes your name change, they will schedule an appointment to discuss any remaining questions they may have. They will notify you via U.S. mail of the date/time of the appointment and the next steps to be taken.
Since all Social Security offices are temporarily closed to public access due to the pandemic, you can do this transaction entirely over the phone if you wish, but you will need to first call for an appointment. If you choose the phone method over submitting form SSA-5, you should call 1.800.772.1213 and request an appointment to correct your name on Social Security’s records. They will send you an appointment notice, at which you will be able initiate the name change process (you’ll still need to provide them with identification documents via the US mail).
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Tips for safe traveling in the COVID age
One of the things people are eager to get back to in their life is traveling. COVID has put a damper on their traveling, and millions of people are already working on travel plans now that things are opening up and the vaccination rate is so high. The good news is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that people can travel once they have been fully vaccinated. Even so, there are safe traveling precautions that people should take in order to help reduce their risks because vaccines do not provide 100% protection.
“We all want to get back to our normal lives, which includes visiting people and traveling,” explains Shan S. Haider, chief executive officer of CurexLab, one of the largest suppliers of COVID-19 PPE and lab supplies. “But it’s still a good idea to take a few precautions to help reduce your risks of virus exposure. You will never regret having taken those little safe traveling steps.”
Once people are fully vaccinated, they can begin to cautiously travel. According to the CDC, people are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after they have received their final vaccine. For those who have received the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, that would mean two weeks after their second dose. For those who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, that would be two weeks after their one shot.
Here are some tips for safe traveling in the COVID age:
Choose a destination that won’t have big crowds. Now is not the time to plan to visit a big city where there will be crowds of people. If possible, opt for places where there are fewer people, such as national parks or other places in nature.
Stick to wearing a mask when you travel. While airplanes require them, it’s a good idea to continue to wear them everywhere. They are a good line of defense when it comes to the germs and viruses you are exposed to.
Take supplies with you that you can use on the airplane, in the rental car, and in the hotel. A container of sanitizing wipes gives you a quick way to clean your tray table, wipe down your rental car, and clean the television remote and doorknobs in the hotel room.
Wash your hands regularly and carry hand santizer with you for when it’s not possible. Avoid touching your face after you have been touching things and haven’t been able to wash your hands.
Try to socially distance where possible. If you see a crowd gathered, go the other way. You can still be social and get involved in things, but try to limit your exposure to a lot of people, especially indoors and where it’s poorly ventilated.
Eat healthy, exercise and get plenty of sleep so that your body stays healthier and your immune system stays stronger. This will help your body combat germs and viruses that do make their way into your body.
“There are different variants of the COVID virus, and we don’t know everything about them at this point,” added Haider. “Taking precautions is going to help keep you safe yet allow you to get back to enjoying doing things. Have fun, but protect yourself, too.”
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3 ways an evolved HR team drives profits
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to adapt to a new reality, many human resources departments faced challenges like never before.
Now a question that confronts companies is whether their HR departments have evolved enough to come through for them in a world that continues to change with unprecedented rapidity, says Bill Lyons, the ForbesBooks author of We Are HR: The Business Owner’s Definitive Guide to Professional Employer Organizations.
“HR departments really have had to step up in the last year, adjusting their focus to make sure they were providing the right support in the right areas,” says Lyons, who also is the CEO of Lyons HR (www.lyonshr.com), one of the largest privately held Professional Employer Organizations in the country.
“Businesses need to make sure they are giving HR the prominent role it needs to meet the challenges head on.”
Issues such as safety and employee accountability are charging to the fore, creating the necessity for nimble minds behind those HR doors.
“As more challenges emerge, HR must continue to evolve just like any other department, making sure company policies and practices match the reality that managers and employees deal with on any given day,” Lyons says.
He says some ways HR can help companies improve their profitability on a per-employee basis include:
Talent acquisition and retention. Remote work is changing the face of recruiting, Lyons says. For many professional service companies, recruiting efforts do not have to be confined by geography. Rather, companies can open recruiting to the entire country because in many cases there’s no need for an employee to live near company headquarters. But that of course comes with its own difficulties. For example, former techniques for onboarding new employees become obsolete in these circumstances, so HR teams must develop new processes that utilize technology to onboard those workers virtually. Also, HR should identify and nurture current employees who are ambitious, motivated, knowledgeable and loyal, so businesses can keep them and promote them when the time is right, he says.
Improved safety programs. Depending on the industry, product or service, companies have a certain level of risk in their business models– especially if employees operate vehicles, heavy equipment or specialized machinery. HR best practices will help business owners be proactive in managing that risk, Lyons says, potentially lowering workers’ compensation costs, which in turn impacts the bottom line, he says. “Above all else,” he says, “it’s on you to keep your company safe at all times and to ensure that employees leave work the same way they arrived, which hopefully was healthy, secure and injury free.”
Staying up-to-date on labor laws. Employers face a growing, constantly changing web of regulations from agencies on the regional, state and federal level. Now added to the mix are Covid-19 guidelines. “You often have to dig deep to find the answers you need, in order to avoid costly mistakes or litigation,” Lyons says. “Staying educated on labor law is just plain smart – and good business. Chances are, your employees are confused about one or more issues, and it’s your job to provide clarity.”
“As we’ve seen repeatedly, and as this pandemic has reminded us, a crisis is unavoidable,” Lyons says. “When it happens, you are either an adapter to that crisis, or you're destroyed and put out of business by that crisis. The businesses that are able to say, ‘Here are the challenges, but here's how we're going to modify, adapt, and change our behaviors and our service model’ — those are the ones who are going to emerge as the real winners.”
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Tips for raised bed and elevated gardening success
By MELINDA MYERS
Raised beds and elevated gardens provide easier access to gardens and can increase space available for growing vegetables and flowers. You will enjoy convenience and easy access when including one or more in your landscape or on your patio, deck, or balcony.
Providing proper care for these elevated planting spaces will ensure the biggest possible harvest and a growing season filled with beautiful flowers. Adapting planting strategies and care to fit the needs of these unique growing spaces can help reduce maintenance.
It starts with creating and maintaining a healthy growing foundation. Fill your raised beds with a quality planting mix composed mostly of topsoil and compost. Or create your own planting mix with lasagna and Hugelkultur techniques. These methods allow you to convert plant trimmings, compost, and a minimal amount of soil into a quality planting mix.
Elevated gardens are basically containers on legs and usually filled with a quality, soilless planting mix. The lighter weight makes it much more suitable for this type of gardening. Look for a product that provides drainage yet retains moisture. Both features are important when gardening in smaller volumes of soil.
Make sure you have easy access to water and your gardens have means for excess water to drain. The limited soil mass and increased exposure to wind, heat and sunlight make planting mixes dry out more quickly than in-ground beds. Always water thoroughly to encourage deep, more drought tolerant roots.
Extend the time between watering by as much as 25% with the help of a sustainable, organic product like Wild Valley Farms’ wool pellets (wildvalleyfarms.com). Made from wool waste, these pellets absorb and retain moisture releasing it when needed by the plants.
Purchase an elevated garden with wheels or add casters to the legs if you need to move your garden out of the way for entertaining. Take advantage of the added mobility to move your planter into the sun or shade as needed throughout the season.
Employ space saving techniques to maximize your gardens productivity. Space plants just far enough apart to reach their mature size. Plant quick-maturing vegetables like radishes, lettuce and beets between tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables that take longer to reach full size and start producing. You will be harvesting the short season vegetables just as the bigger plants need the space.
Look for compact flower and vegetable varieties that allow you to make the most of every square inch of these gardens. All-America Selections winner Patio Choice Yellow Cherry tomato produces up to 100 tomatoes on an eighteen-inch plant. Mascotte compact bush bean and Patio Pride peas are big producers suited to these and small space gardens.
Extend your enjoyment and harvest with succession plantings. Fill vacant spaces left once a row or block of vegetables are harvested. Freshen up ornamental plantings by replacing weather worn flowers with healthy new selections. Add more planting mix along with wool pellets if needed.
Train vining plants onto trellises or other supports to save space and reduce the risk of disease. Dress them up by allowing trailing herbs and flowers to cascade over the edge of these planting beds.
Increasing growing success and reducing maintenance will make raised beds and elevated gardens a practical and productive addition to your gardening endeavors.
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Medal of Honor: Army Pfc. Sadao Munemori
BY KATIE LANGE
Department of Defense News
During World War II, everyone who identified as American wanted to fight for the U.S. — including Japanese-Americans, who were initially denied entry into the military due to wartime prejudice. Eventually, they were allowed to enlist, and many fought in a unit that became one of the most decorated in history. Army Pfc. Sadao Munemori was one of them.
Munemori's parents emigrated from Hiroshima, Japan, in the early 1900s. Born Aug. 17, 1922, Munemori was the fourth of five children who grew up in the Glendale area of Los Angeles county; his family called him "Spud" because he preferred potatoes to rice.
Munemori faced some tough realities early in life. As a teen, he tried to go to a public swimming pool with a friend, but he was turned away because he was Japanese. Then, his father died when he was 16.
After graduating from high school in 1940, Munemori worked as a mechanic until enlisting in the Army in November 1941 — one month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After the attack, the anti-Asian sentiment that had been brewing finally erupted. Three months after Munemori enlisted, his family was relocated to an inland internment camp — along with about 120,000 other West Coast Japanese-Americans.
When the U.S. joined the war, Japanese-Americans — called Nisei — were barred from military service due to fears about their allegiance. Since 19-year-old Munemori had already been accepted, he was chosen for the Military Intelligence Service Language School in Minnesota.
In 1942, the Army created the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which were segregated units for Nisei who wanted to prove their allegiance to America. Meanwhile, Munemori's oldest sister, who lived in Japan, had a husband who was drafted into the Japanese Army. For that reason, Munemori chose to transfer into the 100th to avoid fighting in the Pacific. It was a move that required him to revert in rank from technical sergeant to private, but he accepted it.
Before leaving for boot camp in May 1943, Munemori visited his family at the internment camp. It was the last time they would see him.
About a year later, the young soldier joined the 100th on the beachheads of Anzio, Italy. The battalion had been fightin
