Things To Do In SW Florida

By Kate Ashford | NerdWallet

A growing number of older adults are in debt in retirement, according to the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances from the Federal Reserve. Among people ages 65 to 74, the share with debt rose to 65% in 2022, up from 50% in 1989 (the first time this question was asked). For people 75 and over, 53% report holding debt in 2022 versus 21% in 1989. This is a big challenge, since people’s income in retirement is traditionally limited. But there are strategies for tackling your balance sheet later in life.

Take note: Not all debt is bad debt. “It’s not necessarily the worst thing to have,” says Jack Heintzelman, a certified financial planner in Boston. If it’s debt that earns you a tax deduction, he says, like a mortgage, it may be fine to hang onto it while you give your money elsewhere a chance to grow.

But if debt is straining your retirement budget or you’re paying a high interest rate, a pay-it-off plan is key. Here are some methods that can help.

Pick up side work

The traditional retirement model — work for 40 years and then quit forever — may not be the most appropriate approach anymore. Supplementing retirement savings and Social Security benefits with part-time earnings can make your money go further and help you pay off remaining debt. read more

Q. My husband passed away in January, two weeks away from his 73rd birthday. I am 65, disabled and receiving disability payments from Social Security. My husband had a 401(k) plan in which I was the only beneficiary. My questions follow:

1. Can I roll over the 401(k) to my IRA account? If I can, when must I take Required Minimum Distributions?

2. Will I owe any federal inheritance taxes?

3. Am I entitled to any additional Social Security benefits?

A. Regarding the 401(k), you can roll over the account to your IRA account. Because your husband had not reached his required beginning date, after you roll over the account to your IRA, you will not have any required minimum distributions until you reach age 75.

You will not owe any federal estate taxes. A surviving spouse is generally not required to pay any federal estate taxes.

Regarding Social Security benefits, because you are older than 60, you are entitled to a survivor benefit of almost 100% of the Social Security benefit your husband was receiving. If you wait until your full retirement age of 67, you would be entitled to 100% of the benefit he was receiving. read more

Michelle and John Lux wake up every morning in their one-story home in Kissimmee and gaze out over hundreds of acres of tranquil pasture land. But that picturesque view may soon be covered — by 3,000 homes.

The Luxs have lived in this house for two years but still own their first home nearby, purchased 25 years ago. Their old home now sits in a cramped subdivision, where development and traffic surged as the area grew. Thinking they could escape the crowded living, Michelle and John bought a second place on a few acres of land off peaceful Hilliard Isle Road.

They didn’t count on the construction of one of the largest master-planned communities in Kissimmee, near Buena Ventura Lakes, complete with a marina just a few feet from their backyard.

“We’re not anti-development,” John Lux said. “We just want it to be respectful of the people that live in the area already… and be thoughtful about everything that comes with putting 3,000 homes in an already cramped area.”

Across Osceola County residents complain of mushrooming development, filling public hearings to let city and county commissioners know they’re angry over traffic, crowding and visual clutter. The Luxs took a different approach. read more

SpaceX is set to send up another Starlink launch from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday night while prepping for a unique cargo launch from Cape Canaveral now targeting Tuesday.

A Falcon 9 rocket is set to lift off at 6:15 p.m. from KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A on a southerly trajectory carrying another 23 satellites for the growing internet constellation.

Backup launch options run through 9:55 p.m. and on Monday beginning at 5:39 p.m.

The first-stage booster is making its 18th flight including Inspiration4 and Ax-1, and will make a recovery landing on the droneship A Shortfall of Gravitas.

Over at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, another Falcon 9 is set to lift off carrying Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo spacecraft on a resupply mission to the International Space Station on the NG-20 mission.

Originally aiming for a Monday liftoff, SpaceX and NASA pushed the flight at least one day, now targeting a 12:07 p.m. liftoff Tuesday. It marks the first time SpaceX has handled a Cygnus flight. The 19 previous missions over the last 10 years for Northrop Grumman flew on its Antares rocket from Virginia, the last of which came on Aug. 1, 2023. read more

An executive at Teva Pharmaceuticals flagged Publix Super Markets in October 2015 after detecting what he called in an email “serious red flags” with the grocery chain’s orders of powerful opioids.

The share of high-strength oxycodone orders was well above normal for a chain of grocery store pharmacies, and the total number of pills sent to Publix stores was “significantly above their peers,” Teva’s head of federal compliance wrote in the email to his supervisors, according to court records in a federal lawsuit pending in Ohio against Publix and other companies.

“This is high-strength oxycodone ultimately going to Florida, a well-established hot spot for oxycodone abuse in the U.S.,” wrote the compliance officer, Joseph Tomkiewicz, in the email explaining why he halted Teva-manufactured prescription opioids to Florida’s Publix pharmacies.

The volume of prescription opioids dispensed in Florida fell 56% from 2011 to 2019 as the pharmaceutical industry was hit by lawsuits for its role in the national opioid crisis, according to a Tampa Bay Times analysis of Drug Enforcement Administration data recently released by a federal court. But while national pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens were dispensing fewer of the highly addictive drugs, Publix’s sales were soaring. read more