Personal Finance

Trump wants to provide caregivers with a tax credit. What experts say

Published

1 week ago

November 13, 2024

Business Finance News

JGI/Tom Grill | Tetra images | Getty Images

At a recent campaign rally, President-elect Donald Trump promised new financial help for family caregivers.

“I will support a tax credit for family caregivers who take care of a parent or a loved one,” Trump said during an October speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“It’s about time that they were recognized, right?” he said. “They add so much to our country and are never spoken of ever, ever, ever, but they’re going to be spoken of now.”

Trump has not elaborated on the details of that tax credit and his team did not respond to requests for comment. He has also promised other tax breaks aimed at helping Americans, including eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits, tips and overtime and a deduction for auto loan interest payments.

“It definitely adds up to big net tax cut,” Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, said of the president-elect’s tax proposals.

Family caregiving having a ‘political moment’

Family caregiving had a “bit of a political moment” this election cycle, with both presidential candidates addressing the topic, Nancy LeaMond, chief advocacy and engagement officer at AARP, said during a Monday webinar hosted by the organization, which represents people ages 50 and up.

About 48 million Americans help taking care of aging parents, spouses or other loved ones, according to AARP. And about 78% of those caretakers have paid for care-related expenses out of their own pockets. On average, that adds up to about $7,200 per year.

“This adds to the economic strain they feel and anxiety about their long-term financial security,” LeaMond said. “They’re cutting back on personal spending, dipping into their savings and reducing what they’re saving for their own retirement.”

A record number of Americans are expected to turn 65 in the coming years. However, the share of potential caregivers is projected to shrink versus the number of older adults who may need long-term care, according to AARP.

Women bear the burden of caregiving in the U.S., and that impacts the workforce

No one policy will be a ‘silver bullet,’ expert says

To enact a caregiver tax credit, Trump will need Congress’ support.

A bipartisan bill — the Credit for Caring Act — proposes a credit of up to $5,000 per tax year to help caregivers cover long-term care costs. Under the terms of the proposal, the credit would cover 30% of expenses exceeding $2,000. To be eligible, caregivers would need to have more than $7,500 in income and be paying for long-term care for a spouse or other dependent.

“We will urge new leadership in Congress and the White House to take it up and pass it,” LeaMond said.

Some states have already taken up the issue, she said. Oklahoma and Nebraska recently passed their own caregiver tax credits, while Maryland has created a caregiver expense grant program.

An October AARP survey found roughly 90% of Americans ages 50 and over support a federal tax credit for eligible family caregivers. Earlier this year, a national poll from Bipartisan Policy Center Action found 82% of registered voters support caregiver tax credits.

The federal caregiving tax credit proposal provides a “key opportunity” to include family caregivers in upcoming federal tax policy discussions, said Jason Resendez, president and CEO at the National Alliance for Caregiving.

However, no one policy is going to be a “silver bullet” to alleviate the burden of caregiving, he said.

“We can’t lose sight of the bigger and larger-scale investments that we need,” Resendez said, including stronger home and community-based supports, paid family and medical leave and additional long-term services and supports.

To be sure, as lawmakers consider tax policy proposals, they may adjust the parameters to limit how much Trump’s proposed tax breaks may cost, Watson said.

“Step one is to figure out amongst Congress what their tolerance is for any debt increase,” Watson said.

Personal Finance

Here’s why you should max out your health savings account

Published

12 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Business Finance News

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Many employees have a health savings account, which offers tax incentives to save for medical expenses. However, most are still missing out on long-term HSA benefits, experts say.

Two-thirds of companies offer investment options for HSA contributions, up 60% from one year ago, according to a survey released in November by the Plan Sponsor Council of America, which polled more than 500 employers in the summer of 2024.

But only 18% of participants invest their HSA balance, down slightly from the previous year, the survey found.

That could be a “huge mistake” because HSAs are “the only triple-tax-free account in America,” said certified financial planner Ted Jenkin, founder and CEO of oXYGen Financial in Atlanta.

Health savings accounts are popular among advisors, who encourage clients to invest the funds long term rather than spending the funds on yearly medical expenses. But you need an eligible high-deductible health plan to make contributions.

Some 66% of employees picked an HSA-qualifying health plan when given the choice, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America survey.

However, the best health insurance plan depends on your family’s expected medical expenses for the upcoming year, experts say. Typically, high-deductible plans have lower premiums but more upfront expenses.

HSAs can look like a ‘health 401(K)’

HSAs have three tax benefits. There’s an upfront deduction on contributions, tax-free growth and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses.

If you invest it wisely, it can look like a health 401(k).

Ted Jenkin

Founder and CEO of oXYGen Financial

“It’s one way to deal with the inflationary cost of health care,” said Jenkin, who is also a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council. “If you invest it wisely, it can look like a health 401(k).”

A 65-year-old retiring today can expect to spend an average of $165,000 in health and medical expenses through retirement, up nearly 5% from 2023, according to a Fidelity report released in August.

That estimate doesn’t include the cost of long-term care, which can be significantly higher, depending on needs.

Why employees don’t use HSAs for long-term savings

There are a couple of reasons why most employees aren’t investing their HSA balances, according to Hattie Greenan, director of research and communications for the Plan Sponsor Council of America.

“I think there’s a lot of confusion about HSAs and [flexible spending accounts],” including how they work and how they’re different,” she said.

While both accounts offer tax benefits, your FSA balance typically must be spent yearly, whereas HSA funds can accumulate for multiple years. Plus, your HSA is portable, meaning you can take the balance when changing jobs.

However, many employees can’t afford to cover medical costs yearly while their HSA balance grows, Greenan said. “Ultimately, most participants still are using that HSA for current health care expenses.”

Personal Finance

73% of workers worry Social Security won’t be able to pay benefits

Published

12 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Business Finance News

Sporrer/Rupp | Image Source | Getty Images

Most Americans are concerned about what may happen to Social Security when its retirement trust fund crosses a projected 2033 depletion date, according to a new Bankrate survey.

Nearly three-quarters, 73%, of non-retired adults and 71% retired adults say they worry they won’t receive their benefits if the trust fund runs out. The October survey included 2,492 individuals.

Those worries loom large for older Americans who are not yet retired, according to the results. That includes 81% of working baby boomers and 82% of Gen Xers who are worried they may not receive their benefits at retirement age if the trust fund is depleted.

“Once someone’s actually staring at the prospect of the end of their full-time employment, the seriousness of the need to fund that part of their life comes into full view,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.

Still, a majority of millennials and Gen Zers surveyed, at 69% and 62%, respectively, are similarly concerned.

Social Security relies on trust funds to supplement its monthly benefit payments that currently reach more than 72.5 million beneficiaries, including Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries.

While payroll taxes provide a steady stream of revenue into the program, the trust funds help to supplement benefit checks. Social Security’s actuaries project the fund the program relies on to pay retirement benefits will be depleted in 2033. At that time, an estimated 79% of those benefits will still be payable.

What financial advisors are telling clients now

Financial advisors say they frequently field questions from clients on Social Security’s future. And they often tell their clients it’s still best to wait to claim benefits, if possible.

Retirees can claim Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62, though they take a permanent lifetime reduction. By waiting until full retirement age — generally from 66 to 67, depending on date of birth — individuals receive 100% of the benefits they’ve earned.

By delaying from full retirement age to as late as age 70, retirees stand to get an 8% annual boost to their benefits.

When talking with clients, George Gagliardi, a certified financial planner and founder of Coromandel Wealth Strategies in Lexington, Massachusetts, said he tells them Washington lawmakers are unlikely to leave Social Security’s solvency unaddressed by the trust fund depletion deadline.

But even if that does happen, it still makes sense to delay claiming Social Security benefits until 70, if possible, unless there is a critical situation where it makes sense to claim early, he said.

“My bottom line on the whole thing is, you don’t know how long you’re going to live,” Gagliardi said. “But basically, you want to bet on longevity.”

Experts say retirees need to be mindful of longevity risk — the potential that you will outlive your savings.

Social Security is “inflation indexed longevity insurance,” said CFP David Haas, owner of Cereus Financial Advisors in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. Every year, benefits are automatically adjusted for inflation, a feature that would be difficult to match when purchasing an insurance product like an annuity.

“You really can’t get that from anywhere else,” Haas said.

Maximizing your Social Security benefits

While more than a quarter — 28% — of non-retired adults overall expect to be “very” reliant on Social Security in retirement, older individuals expect to be more dependent on the program, according to Bankrate. The survey found 69% of non-retired baby boomers and 56% of non-retired Gen Xers expect to rely on the program.

To avoid relying on Social Security for the bulk of your income in retirement, you need to save earlier and for longer, Haas said.

“You need to compound your savings over a longer period, and then you’ll be flexible,” Haas said.

To be sure, shoring up a long-term nest egg is not a top-ranked concern for many Americans now as many face cost-of-living challenges. A separate election Bankrate survey found the top three economic concerns now are inflation, health care costs and housing affordability.

Personal Finance

How Trump’s win was helped in part by young men’s financial struggles

Published

16 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Business Finance News

Voters stand in line at a local polling station in Washington, DC, on November 5, 2024. Americans cast their ballots in the presidential race between Republican nominee former President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as multiple state elections that determine the balance of power in Congress. (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nicolas Economou | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Going into election day, Americans were sharply divided. But the gender gap was among the most glaring splits, with more women backing Vice President Kamala Harris and a majority of men supporting President-elect Donald Trump.

Women favored Harris by an 8-point margin, with the vice president securing 53% support compared to Trump’s 45%. Men backed Trump by a 13-point margin, with 55% favoring Trump and 42% backing Harris — resulting in a 21-point gender divide, according to NBC News exit polls.

Trump gained massive support among men on economic issues, specifically, including Hispanic and Black voters who were feeling particularly pessimistic. Inflation was the top concern among voters overall, followed by the current state of the economy.

A factor that drove young men to the polls may have been perceived economic disparities, according to experts, which ultimately helped Trump win on Election Day.

“Men feel like there’s no pathway for economic mobility for them,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.

‘That is a huge, huge gap’

There is a growing disillusionment taking hold.

Men are steadily dropping out of the workforce, especially those between the ages 25 to 54, which are considered their prime working years.

A study by the Pew Research Center found that men who are not college-educated leave the workforce at higher rates than men who are. At the same time, fewer younger men have been enrolling in college over the past decade.

In 1995, both young men and women equally were likely to hold a bachelor’s degree, at 25%. Today, 47% of women of ages 25 to 34 in the U.S. have a bachelor’s degree, compared with 37% of men their age, also according to Pew.

“That is a huge, huge gap,” Pollak said.

Schools often tout a four-year degree as the ideal scenario. And in many areas, vocational programs and other alternative pathways “aren’t as widespread” as they used to be, Pollak said.

At the same time, some traditional blue-collar jobs that used to employ more non-college educated men declined due to automation and globalization, leading to job displacement and uncertainty about future employment prospects, experts say.

Altogether, you have a group who feel like they’re “being left behind,” Pollak said.

Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia Business School, agreed: “The great concern is that we are developing a pool of young men that are neither developing the additional skills [nor] education necessary to participate fully in the labor force,” he said — particularly in “former manufacturing industrial powerhouse states.”

These days, young men are more likely to be considered NEETs — neither in employment, education or in training — a cohort that has been hardest hit by globalization and the decline of manufacturing in this country, according to Richard Fry, a senior researcher at Pew.

“When you don’t get rewarded for working, you work less,” Fry recently told CNBC. “That is a basic tenet of labor economics.”

Men were more likely than women to say they believed the results of the election would impact their financial life in the short term, according to a separate survey by NEFE. Those voters largely favored Trump.

Those with less than a high school diploma and those with a two-year degree were also most likely to say their financial life will be impacted by the presidential election. NEFE polled 1,000 adults about their financial feelings in relation to the 2024 general election in October.

“It’s reasonable that many Americans were weighing their current financial well-being and prospects for the future while casting their votes this November,” said Billy Hensley, NEFE’s president and CEO. Hensley is also a member of the CNBC Global Financial Wellness Advisory Board.

Young women have ‘made huge gains’ in the workforce

Meanwhile, women have “made huge gains” in their education and careers and working as much, if not more, than their male counterparts, according to Ali Bustamante, an economist and director at the Roosevelt Institute.

Today, women are getting married and having children later, if at all, and are prioritizing their careers, Pollak said. They’re looking to the government to make that choice less difficult through universal child care and access to abortion, she said.

“There was a time when people were either mothers and wives, or spinsters who worked,” Pollak said. “Now women often are prioritizing the career person over the wife and mother.”

However, while the issue of reproductive rights became a major factor in the 2024 presidential race, it did not drive more women to vote. It also did not prove to be one of the most important issues facing the country among voters overall, exit polls showed.

“Trump’s message resonated with young men,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. “The pain that people in this country has been feeling in terms of the economy is real.”

Still, other issues — such as paid leave, affordable housing, child care and equal pay — are also hugely important to families, she said.

“This was one election, but I think it would be a mistake to suggest that women will stop fighting in larger numbers either for reproductive freedom or the things they care about — we have work to do,” Graves said.