New Social Security Changes buried in Budget Act of 2015 kills "File and Suspend" Strategy for Retirees

The Congress, Senate, and President screwed future retirees and didn't tell you about it.

They cut our Social Security Benefits !!!
(from http://theliepolitic.com/2015/10/why-they-really-want-to-cut-social-security/)

On Monday November 2, 2015, President Obama signed into law the "Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015" which was proposed and passed by both the Republicans and Democrats in both Houses of Congress. As part of this Act, the section "TITLE VIII - SOCIAL SECURITY, Subtitle C - Protecting Social Security Benefits" essentially eliminates the ability for future retirees to collect spousal benefits while suspending their own at the same time.

The new Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 still allows individuals to:

• "File and Suspend" their benefits once they reach full retirement age, allowing benefits to grow by 8% annually; or to
• Collect the higher of spousal benefits or the benefits based on their own work record.

But, people cannot both "file and suspend" and "collect" at the same time unless they are already doing so. This means that nothing can be collected from a "suspended" account.

In the past, any person who reached full retirement age could "file and suspend" their benefits. Then, if married (or divorced), they could collect spousal benefits based on their partner's SSI work history. This meant that both a husband and wife could simultaneously suspend their benefits from age 66 to 70, and one of them could collect a spousal benefit at the same time (which is equal to 1/2 of a persons FRA benefit).

However, the new  Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 prevents anyone from collecting benefits on "suspended" account, and after April 30 2016, nobody can "file and suspend" if they are collecting spousal benefits.

Congress provided very little time for both retirees and near-retirees to react and adjust their retirement strategies:

• They prevent anyone who turns 62 after December 31 2015 from both collecting spousal benefits and suspending their benefits. Once they have received a benefit (either theirs or spousal), they have forfeited their right to suspend. However, if they do not collect, they may suspend.
• Those who are 62 and above at the end of 2015 can collect spousal benefits and suspend at the same time.
• But, to qualify for the above, their spouse has only 180 days to have either: begun collecting or have "filed and suspended" benefits. Since the Act was signed into law on November 2 2015, the 180 day grace period ends on April 30 2016. If a spouse has not filed before this date, the spousal benefit is forfeited.

What steps MUST you take?

There is very little wiggle room in this new law. However, the "small" group of people who are 66 or older can still protect most of their benefits.

• First, if you are of Full Retirement Age (now or soon), either file for benefits or "file and suspend" before April 30 2016.
• Second, if you have reached FRA and have not filed - do so immediately. If you do this after April 30 2016, you lose the ability for someone to collect your spousal benefits.
• Third, if you can file, do so immediately. We anticipate that SSI will experience backlogs as the April 30th deadline nears, and many will be "out of luck" simply due to bureaucracy.
• Fourth, those of you who are already collecting benefits are "grandfathered-in", meaning you will not lose their benefits. So, don't worry, you are not affected.

Examples

Situation 1:Tom 68 has filed for benefits 2 years ago and suspended his payments. His wife, Elaine 66, began collecting spousal benefits and suspended her payments as well. Action: Since they have both filed, above FRA, and already collecting, nothing will change.

Situation 2: Fred is 67, above FRA, but he did not file for benefits. By not filing, Fred's benefits are growing at 8% per year (just like suspending). His wife Alice is 65 and will turn 66 next October, and she expects to suspend her benefits then and begin collecting spousal benefits. Action: Fred must "File and Suspend" NOW. If he does not file before April 30 2016, Alice will not be able to both suspend her benefits and collect spousal benefits in October.

Assuming Fred does file in time, Fred and Alice must make more decisions. If Alice begins to collect spousal benefits, then Fred must "unsuspend" and beging receiving SSI as well. Alice can continue to defer her benefits until age 70 because she was older than 62 on December 31 2015.

Because Alice does is not of FRA before the April 30th deadline, Fred cannot collect spousal benefits on Alice's account.

Situation 3: Mike turns 66 in February. His wife Jean is 64. Action: Mike must file for SSI in February. He can either take benefits or defer. Because Jean is currently above 62, she retains the ability to collect spousal benefits and to defer her own SSI payments. If Mike files after April 30, Jean will lose her option to collect and defer.

Situation 4: Bobby is turning 66 in March 2016. His wife Rachel is 61, and turns 62 on January 1 2016. Action: Bobby should file in March and can defer or receive payments. Rachel cannot defer if she receives any SSI benefits at all whether they be her own or spousal. This is because she is under 62 on December 31 2015.


Why were these changes made?

• Because only a small group of old people will be affected (those near retirement age)
• Those already receiving benefits will not care
• The younger people are too dumb to know what happened
• The Congress and President want to increase their own retirement benefits
• To save Social Security?
• To close a loophole?
• Because we want to spend more on Government and screw the American public

Notes and references:

H.R.1314 - Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015

• TITLE VIII - SOCIAL SECURITY
• Subtitle C - Protecting Social Security Benefits
• Sec. 831. Closure of unintended loopholes.
• Signed into law by President Obama on Monday November 2 2015
• Senate Passed
• Congress Passed

42 USC 402: Old-age and survivors insurance benefit payments

• Existing SSI Law - prior to Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015

Neither of  two articles below mentions the above changes.

• Obama signs 2-year budget, debt deal before default deadline
• What the budget deal means for retirees

This source helps to describe the changes.

• Here's How Congress Just Cut Social Security For Baby Boomer Couples

Know what your website is worth to you and others

Determining the value of your website or blog depends on the viewpoint of the person asking. To those who are hoping to sell their website, the buyers viewpoint (others) is most important. The consensus of all experts agree that:

Your site is worth whatever someone is willing to pay.

This is because: a buyer estimates the worth of a website based on the income it will return.

Similarly, however, a site owner also values its website based on the income it currently returns.

Example: Let us consider a 5 year old website which nets a clear profit of $2,000 per year and targets a unique audience. At current interest rate levels, we find that 5 year CD's are yielding 2.00% per year. This means that the site owner has the equivilent of $100,000 invested in the CD which returns $2,000 per year. Thus, the owner correctly considers the value of his site to be worth $100,000. His risk, however, is interest rates. If the 5 year rate increases to 4.00%, then the value of the site will drop to $50,000.

Many authors cite a website's worth based on a fixed multiple of current income. The multiples range from 5 times earnings to 20 times earnings.  This seems rather arbitrary, but from this, we can value the above site to be worth $10,000 to $40,000. Remember however, most of these multiples were established several years ago when interest rates were higher, and may have been in line at that time.

A person who purchases an emerging website is taking a risk, and therefore expects to earn a higher rate of return on his investment. Assuming an investor targets a 10% return, he is willing to spent $20,000 for a website that is returning $2,000 per year. The $20,000 value can be determined using a 10 times multiple.

However, there are many intangibles which can increase or decrease a sites value. For example, if the site is being developed on a part time basis, the full suite of its potential reach may not be acheived. A buyer may indeed see that by adding a bit more manpower resources, the site may grow exponentially.  Conversely, a blog whose content is based solely on the author's experience or memoirs, may be of little or no value to a potential buyer.

If the income of a website has continually increased since the launch of the site, future income growth may also be anticipated. If this is the case, the the value of a website should increase. However, if newly launched competition hits the web arena and threatens to reduce a website's reach, then the value of a website would naturally decrease.

So, returning to our original example and utilizing all of this information, we could reasonably expect the 5 year old website profiting $2,000 per year to be conservatively valued at $100,000 to the owner, but only $20,000 (plus an intangible margin which could range anywhere from $0 to millions of dollars). Thus, I would set a minimum price of $50,000 for this particular website example but would push for its upside potential.

Remember: It's up to you to influence what a buyer is willing to pay in order for you to receive its full potential value.

Below is a summary of intangible items that can potentially increase your website's worth substantially:

• Content Uniqueness
• Cost to replicate
• Demand
• Potential earnings
• Branding
• Domain name desirability
• Income Diversification
• Traffic sources
• Visitor demographics
• Design
• Age of site
• Search Engine position
• Tax implications

You can learn more by reading the websites below.

• How to Value a Website (Will Edwards)
• Thinking of Selling Your Web Site? How to Determine Your Web Site’s Value
• How To Find Out How Much Your Website Is Worth!
• How Much Is My Website Worth?
• How Much Might Your Website Be Worth?
• How Much Is My Website Worth?

Where do my tax dollars go? Find out what the White House says.

In their commitment to bring more transparency to the American public, the White House recently launched its new taxpayer receipt calculator. The intention of the calculator is to help everyone understand where their tax dollars go after they are received. To access this calculator, you can visit their page:

Your 2010 Federal Taxpayer Receipt

To use it, you will need to enter 3 items from your 2010 tax return. These are your: Social Security, Medicare, and Federal Income Tax amounts. After entering, press the "Calculate Receipt" button and the distribution of your tax dollars will be displayed.

The receipt consists of three groups of data. The first two are: Social Security and Medicare Taxes. The output of the receipt for these categories simply duplicates the amounts you enter and provides no other information. So, it is not particularily interesting.

The meat of the calculator is in the Income Tax breakdown section. Using its predefined percents of income, the receipt calculator shows how your tax dollars are allocated across 14 different categories:

1. 26.3% - National Defense
2. 24.3% - Health Care
3. 21.9% - Job and Family Security
4. 4.8% - Education and Job Training
5. 4.1% - Veterans Benefits
6. 2.1% - Natural Resources, Energy and Environment
7. 1.7% - International Affairs
8. 1.2% - Science, Space, and Technology Programs
9. 2.0% - Immigration, Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice
10. 0.8% - Agriculture
11. 0.5% - Community, Area, and Regional Development
12. 0.4% - Response to Natural Disasters
13. 2.4% - Additional Government Programs
14. 7.4% - Net Interest

Based on our first impressions, we must commend the Administration for creating this valuable tool. It provides a great overview of where our dollars go. We encourage all of you who pay Federal taxes to take a look at this tool and get a little more clarity about your tax dollar distributions.

However, like all good things, it can be criticized. For example, there is at least one item missing, and not enough clarity as to many of their descriptions.

Next week, we will take a deeper look into some of the individual line items and explain what we believe is missing.

On the overall, we believe this is a great start and a valuable tool for the American taxpaying population.

Rock Paper Sissors - CMF Ads

As a followup to last week's post, I'd like to emphasize the other major features of CMF Ads that make it an important network for all bloggers whether new or old. Below I've described 4 of the primary reasons why this blog, Ask the Blogster (ATB), likes the CMF Ads network.

First is the CMF Ads site itself. Developed by Ben Barden and administered by Turnip, the CMF site has undergone many transformations. In its present state, members can easily traverse the site by use of a well organized series of pull down menus. One can quickly see their account information, advertisements, blogs, or view the overall membership community as well. Without having to go anywhere, you immediately see your account balance as well.

Second, CMF Ads is an advertising network, aimed at allowing you to advertise your site within the community. For this purpose, CMF offers members the opportunity to purchase 4 different type of ads:

• Rock Paper Sissors- Spikes: which begin selling for $0.20 for 50 unique clicking visits
• Rock Paper Sissors- Fireworks: which begin at $1.00 for 50 unique visits.
• Rock Paper Sissors- Campaign: directly targeted ads to individual member blogs for various terms
• Rock Paper Sissors- Network: broad based ads randomly displayed on all member sites.

This wide range of advertisement choices allows users of all budgets and interests to maximize the reach of their blogs.

Third, all members are publishers as well, meaning that they can easily earn both passive and active income. As publishers, blogs earn passive income from all Campaign and Network ads displayed on their blogs. Those who wish to be more active can boost their earning by clicking on all of the daily Spikes and outstanding Firework ads. All earnings can be utilized to purchase any or all of the offered ads types, or can be withdrawn from the system for only a 10% fee.

Fourth and lastly, its content is family orientated and well monitored. CMF Ads does not accept all blogs who apply for membership. All content must be original and the blogs must be free of spam, pop-ups, music, etc.

CMF Ads was launched in 2009 after extensive rounds of beta testing. The same group of members have operated the site, continually enhancing it and making improvements. So, if you are looking for a way to boost your visitor count and earn some income at the same time, then join CMF Ads and its membership community!

Related articles

• CMF Fireworks Illuminate Your Exposure (asktheblogster.blogspot.com)

CMF Fireworks Illuminate Your Exposure

CMF Ads recently introduced a new advertising alternative called Fireworks. These are similar to Spikes in that a member may purchase a fixed number of unique visits through their advertising widget. However, there are two primary differences between Spikes and Fireworks.

• First, Firework ads are hosted on member blogs after installing the associated widget. Whereas, Spikes are displayed on a unique CMF page.
• Second, Fireworks ads can provide unlimited impressions because only clicks by unique visitors are counted.

Firework ads cost approximately 5 times that of Spikes, but return 4 times the amount of income to visitors. For those trying to click on all the available Fireworks is like entering a scavenger hunt. Since ad placement is random, members must visit a variety of blogs to locate a Firework. However, there is no guarantee that you will find a new Firework ad. This feature provides advertisers the opportunity to have their ad displayed with an infinite number of impressions.

We believe this new product is a great complement to everyone's blog because the CMF Fireworks illuminate your exposure.

Use of Merchant Name an Affiliate Trademark Violation?

Overnight, I was surprised to receive an email notifying me that one or more of my pages were in violation of a trademark infringement. The company sending me this notice is one in which I am currently an approved ShareASale and GoldenCan affiliate marketeer. As an affiliate, I have the opportunity to earn a commission for any product sale generated from one of the links they have provided me and others.

At present, I will not name the company, but will simply refer to it as:  XYZs Things.

For years, XYZs Things has been a prominent member of Internet Retailer’s Top 500 list. One reason for its success is its utilization of affiliate marketing services which it authorized both ShareASale and GoldenCan to manage. I joined its ShareASale program at the end of February 2007. When XYZs Things joined GoldenCan in June 2008, it provided an integration solution for its affiliate data feed, coupons, and search functionality. This service is funded by XYZs Things and is free to its affiliates only. GoldenCans distribution encourages affiliates to create individual stores for each individual merchant.

Having met GoldenCan's requirements, I established my own XYZs Things store, and linked to it from my website. I do not advertise and have never received any income from this merchant. However, one day I hope that it will generate income. My stores page is clearly labeled "XYZs Things" so that it does not confuse any visitor about the source of products displayed. The items are not mislabeled to prevent the true merchant source from being misrepresented.

For reference, I have provided a description of trademark infringement from Harvard Law's Overview of Trademark Law:

If a party owns the rights to a particular trademark, that party can sue subsequent parties for trademark infringement. 15 U.S.C. �� 1114, 1125. The standard is "likelihood of confusion." To be more specific, the use of a trademark in connection with the sale of a good constitutes infringement if it is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of those goods or as to the sponsorship or approval of such goods. In deciding whether consumers are likely to be confused, the courts will typically look to a number of factors, including: (1) the strength of the mark; (2) the proximity of the goods; (3) the similarity of the marks; (4) evidence of actual confusion; (5) the similarity of marketing channels used; (6) the degree of caution exercised by the typical purchaser; (7) the defendant's intent. Polaroid Corp. v. Polarad Elect. Corp., 287 F.2d 492 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 820 (1961).

Prior to writing this article, I performed a search for XYZs Things. There I found three interesting things.

1. My XYZs Things store appears on the first page of the results in 6th place and below the XYZs Things site listing, even though I do not advertise or promote this store.
2. Since Google implemented Panda, XYZs Things traffic plunged by 2/3rds, site ranking was lowered, and XYZs Things earnings dropped dramatically.
3. The CEO fired the firm he used to acquire inbound links and hired new copywriters.

Learning this information, I concluded that XYZs Things considers my site to be a threat to their income. This is evident by the fact that they reduced my affiliate commission from their standard 6% to 2.5%. They really do not want to pay out affiliate income and are trying hard to build up their traffic to their site once again.

By requiring me to remove their name from my XYZs Things store by saying that I am in violation of trademark infrigement, they believe that my store will drop off the search engine cliff, which is true. However, I believe that by not labeling the store's content with the XYZs Things name would truly place my page and content in jeopardy of a trademark violation. The reason is because visitors would believe they are purchasing items from me, and not XYZs Things, thus the "likelihood of confusion" would exist.

I understand the actions that XYZs Things has taken, but I believe that if they really wanted to eliminate my store as competition, they would simply remove me as an authorized affiliate. However, it is possible that another one of their affiliates would take my place on the search engine results. Thus, they would have to remove that affiliate as well. Eventually, they would conclude that all of their affiliate marketing efforts must be stopped completely in order to ensure that they do not pay out commissions.

Add Blogger's "Support My Blog Widget" for Extra Income

Last week, Google released a new "Support My Blog" widget that allows your visitors to give you a donation. The widget utilizes Google Checkout to collect your income and deposit the money directly into your checking account. Blogger Buzz describes this as a "virtual tip jar" that allows you to receive a little bit of unexpected income.

Adding this functionality to your blog is a two step process.

First, you must create a Checkout Merchant account. You can do this by clicking on this link:  Checkout Merchant Sign Up. If you do not have an account, click on the "Sign up now >>" button in the upper right of the page, and then follow the instructions. Once this is complete, you will need to enable the new API. This is done by:

1. clicking on the "Settings" tab (at top), 
2. then click the "Integration" choice on the left sidebar. 
3. In the center of the page you will see a checkbox. Uncheck the box that says: "My company will only post digitally signed carts", 
4. press the "Save" button at the bottom of the page,
5. and lastly, write down your "Google merchant ID" number shown on the right side of the page (because you will need to enter this in the Support widget).

Second, now we are done with Checkout, and we can add the Support widget to your blog. This is easily done by visiting your Blogger Dashboard. For each blog you have:

1. you must click on the "Design" link (or tab depending where you are)
2. then click on the "Add a Gadget" link (right side of page)
3. in the "Add a Gadget"  pop-up window, click on the "Featured" link at left.
4. scroll down to the "Support My Blog" widget and click the title or plus sign.
5. in the "Configure Gadget" window that appears, enter your "Google Checkout Merchnt ID" (from step 5 above)
6. lastly, press Save and you are now in business!

An example of this widget is shown on my sidebar near the top of the page. Now, if someone wishes to make a donation to me, they can easily enter the amount they would like to donate and then press the Support checkout button.

Note: At present, the gadget has a formatting problem which will sometimes cut off the bottom of the "Support" button. Resizing the widget does not fix this formatting problem.

Related articles

• Add a virtual tip jar to your blog (buzz.blogger.com)
• Google's Blogger Releases "Tip Jar" (searchenginejournal.com)

The Blogsters Gift Shop - My OpenSky Store

After seeing a post on Blogger Buzz, I've joined Open Sky. In doing so, I created my account and a store:

The Blogsters Gift Shop

Since I'm still discovering how this works, I've only added one item for now:



Start & Operate Your Own Home-Based Business DVD - Buy Now

When adding an item, we have the ability to "Grab the link", and "Grab the HTML". So I've included both. The first I defined as an image, and the second is simply a hyperlink. (We'll see if the item image displays, at present it doesn't).

Once the account is set up, you are asked to create a store. That process is fairly simple. You need to make up your store a name, a Open Sky mail address, identify the type of items you're interested in selling, and upload a picture of yourself. Next, you have to enter your real mailing information which tells Open Sky where to send your earnings.

After that, you have to add items to sell in your store. There is a search box in the upper right. You must use it to start the browsing process. For example, enter the word "Kitchen" or "Gift".

Once done, you'll see a list of items. When you see something you like, click on the image. Then, press the Sell this button on the next page.

At that point, a little pop-up will appear and you have to copy the links to your blog post.

Next, you have to publish your post, and tell Open Sky the URL of that post.

In order to make everything work, you will need to install a javascript OpenSky distributed cart. From the help page, it says this code is currently unavailable. It tells us to contact them, so that is what I'm going to do.

So this is where I am at.

Hopefully, I'll be all set up by next week and can report back to you the final steps.

JL.......