#128 - 10 Retirement Websites Every Woman Should Bookmark

Eric Blake: Welcome to another episode of the Simply Retirement Podcast. I am your host, Eric Blake.

Joining me as always is Wendy McConnell. Wendy, how are you?

Wendy McConnell: Good. How are you?

Eric Blake: I am good. Honestly, a little stressed. We were just talking about before we hopped on the air that I had a really great guest, I'm really excited to have her on at some point, but unfortunately she had to reschedule. So we actually do have another date and time on the calendar here in about a month or so. So hopefully that'll work out. But yeah, so I was kind of scrambling on what I might come up with to talk about on this episode.

Wendy McConnell: And you're stuck with me.

Eric Blake: And I'm stuck with you, but that's all right. I'm always happy to have you on, Wendy.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: Yeah. So as I thought about what would I talk about, I thought back to actually a social post I put out probably, I don't know, a week or so ago, that actually got a lot of positive response.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And so I thought I might talk through that. If you're looking for our social platforms, it's basically Eric Blake CFP across all Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, wherever you might be on. But I shared 10 websites that I think every woman ought to bookmark when it comes to retirement planning.

Wendy McConnell: 10? That's a lot of bookmarks.

Eric Blake: It is. Well, but hey, when we're talking about retirement, this is it. You got big decisions to make. And I think one of the things that was important to me as far as what should these websites consist of, was the idea that you can get information without feeling like you're going to get sold something.

Wendy McConnell: Oh, yeah.

Eric Blake: So I think that was really one of the things I was looking for, because, you know, one of my priorities with this podcast is always, how can I help you ask better questions? I'm not expecting to know the answers, but how can we ask better questions? And that's really what the theme of these websites is going to be. Where can I get information that I can utilize, but also how can I use this information to ask better questions, whether you're asking about Social Security or Medicare or retirement benefits, whatever it might be.

And whether you're asking a financial professional, whoever you might be talking to, how can I ask better questions, and also again, not feel like I'm getting sold something when I'm asking those questions, that I'm getting taken down a path, right?

Wendy McConnell: Mm-hmm.

Eric Blake: I want to know that this information is legitimate, that it can be utilized to make better decisions. And so that's what I thought I would talk about today.

Now, one thing I always point out, obviously we know there's a lot of scams these days. There's a lot of phishing emails, all these different things, so I would definitely caution you before you enter any personal information. There's a few of these sites that would ask you to provide some information. Make sure you're verifying the web address very carefully before you go down that path, right? And we're also going to include all the links to these websites in the show notes for the episode at the simplyretirementpodcast.com, so don't feel like you got to write all these down. We'll make sure that you have access to these as well.

Wendy McConnell: I'm writing it down.

Eric Blake: If you write all 10 of them down, I will give you a thumbs up. How's that? 'Cause I don't know. These...

Wendy McConnell: The way you say that, I'm out. I'm going to wait for the show notes.

Eric Blake: That's right. That's much easier.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: So let's get into the first one, and this one is obvious since it's something I talk about a lot on the podcast, and that is ssa.gov, and specifically ssa.gov/myaccount. SSA of course stands for Social Security Administration, and this is where you create your personal Social Security account. Now, you either use the login.gov or the ID.me. Most people have those by now, but if you don't, you'll need to set up a login to be able to access this information.

But once you're there, this is where you can review your earnings history to make sure it's still right, that you're not missing years, or that everything has been reported correctly, all those things that we've talked about in the past. But even if it's as simple as saying, "Hey..." I've heard stories about people actually getting on there and saying, "Hey, somebody's actually filed for Social Security under my ID."

Wendy McConnell: Oh, that's not good.

Eric Blake: So there's that. There's making sure that your identity is protected, but for the most part it's reviewing your earnings history, what is my benefit estimate, all these different things that we want to have as we're making these important decisions.

And the one thing I'm also going to share with some of these is whether there may be any costs associated with it. For the most part, there's no cost with each of these different sites. There might be some cost if you take it whatever the next step further might be as we get into some of these. But especially for ssa.gov, there's no cost to create an account. And it again allows you to verify your information, review your benefit estimates, what are you eligible for, all these different things can be found. It also is where you would apply for benefits. And actually, that's something that, I don't know what your thoughts are, I've actually thought about doing an episode on how do you actually apply for Social Security.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah.

Eric Blake: And the reason I think that might be helpful is because depending on the benefit, sometimes you can file online, sometimes you got to schedule an appointment. And so there's some different thought process about, or different options you have available to you, depending on what type of benefit you're filing for.

But this is a very good starting point. If you're filing for retirement benefits, you can actually file online here. Also, if you need to schedule a time, obviously you can find phone numbers, whether nationally, you can find local offices, all these different pieces of information that might be helpful as you're looking at your financial situation. You can get this information from this website. So that was number one.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: All right. Then we get into number two, which is medicare.gov. Okay? And obviously by the title, you're getting a pretty good idea of what this is about, right? But this is where you can start getting some of the Medicare basics. Review eligibility, enrollment periods, which is really critical when we're talking about Medicare applications. Different parts of Medicare, you've got A, you've got B, you've got Part C, Medicare Advantage, Part D, prescriptions. So all the different fundamental pieces of Medicare you can find here, and you can also find out what the basic costs are.

So when we're thinking about the different parts of Medicare, just the basic basics, Part A is typically free for most people, and then Part B is what we typically pay for. You pay a premium for Part B, and then you also have deductible information. What are my out-of-pockets going to be when I actually enroll in Medicare? Okay? So that's really where you want to start gathering those basics of Medicare.

Now what can often happen, of course, as may be obvious as well, with Medicare, it can become pretty overwhelming, right? There's a lot of information there. And so the other thing that you want to start thinking about next is our next website, which is shiphelp.org. So once you've kind of gotten the basics, at least have some idea of what's involved with Medicare, now you can start figuring out, well, who should I talk to? Where can I get information about choosing Medicare plans and getting enrolled, right?

And shiphelp.org is a great place to start, and the SHIP stands for State Health Insurance Assistance Program. Because if medicare.gov gives you more information than you know what to do with, this is where you want to come, the website shiphelp.org, where you can actually find local guides and local consultants who don't get paid, and they can start helping you filter through some of the information that you may have found on Medicare. Because one of the most confusing parts for so many people with Medicare is that the premiums that you pay for, say, Medicare supplements, can vary so much from state to state and geographically by ZIP code, right?

Wendy McConnell: Well, yeah, and that's what those commercials they have. They always say, "Your ZIP code changed," and all of this stuff. And I'm like, "Why? Why is it on my ZIP code? That shouldn't have anything to do with it," but it does.

Eric Blake: It does. Well, and actually there's demographic information that goes into the calculations and all that kind of stuff. But again, exactly back to your point, when you see those advertisements, those commercials, and the famous people that are telling you that you get free this and free that and everything else, it's hard to know who to believe. Now, you think Tom Selleck ought to know what he's talking about, right?

Wendy McConnell: Yeah.

Eric Blake: Or JJ from Good Times and Joe Namath and whoever else.

Wendy McConnell: But they are being paid to say these things.

Eric Blake: Exactly. And that's exactly why I thought this episode would be valuable, so we can figure out where can I get the right information and not feel like I'm getting sold to, right? And that's really where these websites can come in and are really valuable to those who are just trying to seek information.

So again, what they do is they serve as consultants. The shiphelp.org folks, they serve as consultants. They're not trying to sell you anything, right? And so they're just trying to give you the information on understanding, again, what is Medicare Advantage? How does that compare to what would be called traditional Medicare, right?

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: So traditional Medicare is Part A, Part B, and a Medicare supplement. That's typically what we think of as, quote-unquote, traditional Medicare. But now, several years ago, we had the invention of Medicare Advantage, which is kind of all-encompassing. It includes everything in there, but what are the key differences? How do I understand which might be better for me?

And then ultimately, again, back to the idea of asking better questions. If you can gather this type of information, now if you are going to go talk to a health insurance broker, a Medicare broker, you have a better idea of what you should be asking them. And maybe even what some of the red flags may be, right? And so that's one of the big advantages of this website.

Wendy McConnell: Got it.

Eric Blake: Next we have irs.gov, and specifically irs.gov/retirement-plans, okay? So irs.gov is obviously the Internal Revenue Service, and you're going to find all kinds of great information there. I love hopping on the IRS website from time to time.

Wendy McConnell: No. No, no, no, no, no.

Eric Blake: The reason I point this one in particular out, the retirement-plans, is because this is where you're going to find specific information related to retirement accounts. So whether you're looking for information on retirement contributions, how much can I put into my IRA? Or what age do I have to start taking required distributions? So that's where this is going to be most helpful, just getting those basics of retirement plan related contribution amounts, limits, annual requirements, all these different things that might be important as you're trying to, again, make some of these important decisions.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah.

Eric Blake: So the first four we talked about were more kind of the government benefits, things like that, but there's also several, what I would call, great sources for finding money, right? And this is where some of these you may not have actually heard about. So the first one is lostandfound.dol.gov, okay?

So if you've ever changed jobs, which most people have at least a few times, right? You may not remember what happened to every retirement account that you may have had. So lostandfound.dol.gov is the Department of Labor's retirement savings lost and found database. Okay? Typically, we hear of Department of Labor shortened to DOL, but this database can identify plans connected to your Social Security number and provide contact information for the plan administrator, right?

So if you're thinking, "Hey, I was at this employer, I think I had a pension or had a 401(k), but I just don't remember," this is where you can go to try to find those. You know, if you've been working for 30 or 40 years, you may have forgotten employers that you used to have. And there's so many stories about, "Well, I didn't even know about this, and all of a sudden I got this thing in the mail. Not even sure how they found me, and it was for a 200 bucks a month pension."

Wendy McConnell: Yeah. And when you say, you know, find money, my eyeballs get like saucers. And I'm like, "I want to find some money." And right away, immediately I'm like, "No, I don't have any of that."

Eric Blake: It is your money, but...

Wendy McConnell: No, but what I'm saying is I know for a fact I don't have any of that out there. So it's like when people say to save money, don't buy coffee when you're out. I already don't buy coffee when I'm out. That's not helping me. So, but yeah, okay.

Eric Blake: But yeah, if it's maybe a few thousand bucks. Everything helps, right? So every little bit helps.

Wendy McConnell: Absolutely.

Eric Blake: There's also one that kind of ties to this as well. It's pbgc.gov, and this is where it relates to pension information. So again, if you forgot about a pension you might have, and a lot of times people didn't know they had pensions, as pensions have kind of disappeared. Depending on what your work history is, if you've been working for 30, 40 years, there may have been some employer many, many years ago that you didn't actually realize had a pension.

You changed jobs multiple times maybe, and not realizing, again, maybe just a couple hundred bucks a month, but it all adds up. And so this is a great place to be able to track that information down and say, hey, let's just see. Let's check it out and see. Just type in your information, make sure you're at the right website. But see what happens, see if there's something out there that you just forgot about or maybe didn't even know about.

Wendy McConnell: Well, and what's interesting is my very first job, like a part-time job, it was at Friendly's. And they had a pension. I don't know if it was based on hours or whatever, but when I left they're like, "You have a pension." Yeah, so unfortunately I cashed that out, but yeah, check it because you don't know what kind of part-time job you had that may have been contributing to something.

Eric Blake: Well, and the fact that, again, if we're talking about, you know, folks that are in their 50s, 60s, and they maybe have a longer work history, these places that you worked many years ago where pensions were more regular, more employers had them, again, just like you point out, you just never know. There may be something out there you just didn't have any idea about. Let's find any bit of money that is yours that may be lost or forgotten about. Whichever the case might be.

Wendy McConnell: All right.

Eric Blake: Then we have unclaimed.org, and I think this is one of those that maybe even happens more frequently. Rather than loss of a retirement account, it might be a bank account that you forgot about, that you maybe had closed, or maybe there's some interest earned that you just forgot to fully close out.

But unclaimed.org connects you with your official state unclaimed property programs. And again, these programs may hold old bank accounts, uncashed checks, insurance proceeds, utility deposits, securities, other property that maybe never reached you for whatever reason that might be. But this site helps you map to the various state programs that might have specific information for you. So the state of Texas, where I'm at. I would assume New Jersey, where you're at, probably has something similar to that.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah.

Eric Blake: But with unclaimed.org, again, this is where you're going to find these accounts, you know, bank accounts that may have closed. I think one of the other things, we actually had a client that reached out not long ago where it was a stock purchase plan. Depending on how the plan is set up, you might buy shares of stock through a stock purchase plan, or they may have been bonused to you, whatever the case might be.

They end up going in an account, and again, as part of just separating from service or changing jobs, it's just one of those things that's easy to sometimes forget about, especially if it's only maybe a few shares, and you just didn't know that it was there, or you forgot about it. But trying to find that information can be really challenging unless you use a website like this as well.

Wendy McConnell: Imagine if you purchased Apple in the '90s or the early aughts and you didn't know. That would be incredible.

Eric Blake: Yeah, yeah. That would be great. What was it, Forrest Gump, when he's kind of... just casually says, "Well, it had this piece of fruit on it," or something like that, and now he's... Yeah, but this is a great way to find those extra dollars that you just didn't know about, but they can all add up.

Hi, everyone. It's Eric. Hope you're enjoying today's episode. I want to take just a quick moment to share a resource I think you'll find really valuable. If you've ever asked yourself, "How much is my Social Security reduced if I file early?" Or, "Am I eligible for benefits as a spouse, surviving spouse, or even after divorce?" You're not alone. That's why we created our ultimate guide to women's Social Security success. It includes six of our most popular Social Security guides and checklists for women. Inside, you'll find a 2026 quick reference guide with key Social Security amounts and limits to be aware of, along with five additional guides and checklists to help you make more informed decisions about eligibility and filing strategies. You can download it for free at womenssocialsecurityguide.com. Keep it handy wherever you may be in the decision-making process. Now back to the episode.

So next we get into what I would call our caregiving or long-term care resources. The first one I have here for you is eldercare.acl.gov, and ACL stands for the Administration for Community Living. It's an elder care locator that basically is a free public service, and you can search online or contact trained staff by phone, by text, by chat, or email, and it connects older adults and their families with some of the local aging and caregiving resources in your area, including area agencies on aging.

So we hear the stories all the time about, you know, the elderly, whether they don't have a lot of income, they're dependent on Social Security, whatever they don't have, how can we start tracking down resources? It may be food programs, it may be support or help with healthcare needs or healthcare costs. So this is a great way to find the information specific to your area, because basically what you'll do is you'll enter a city, state, or ZIP code to find the nearby organizations and their contact information.

And then, depending on your community and what's available, there may be caregiving support, transportation, that's a huge one. If it's trying to get to the store, trying to get to doctor's offices, whatever it might be, there may be actual free transportation services available to you that you can utilize to get you where you need to be.

Then we also talked about the meals, and benefits counseling, saying, "Hey, how can I understand," back to the Social Security issue. When you think about if a spouse passes away and you're trying to figure out, "Well, what do I do next?" Or, "Do I apply? Do I not apply?" Understanding who I can talk to, to filter through some of these issues and make sure you're aware of what your resources are and what your benefits may be. And again, back to the healthcare issue of Medicare and understanding what your options are. All those things can come into play when we're talking about the elderly and understanding what resources may be available to you.

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: Then we get to longtermcare.gov, and this is one that connects to the Administration for Community Living's free long-term care guide. And so this is more of what I call a free resource, but when people say the words long-term care, sometimes you don't necessarily know what that means, right? Because when you think about long-term care, so many people immediately jump to nursing home. Right?

But that's not always the case, okay? So this can give you a better overview of what long-term care might actually mean specifically for you. So we're thinking about assisted living, or it may be adult daycare services. There's many different services that fall under that long-term care category, but most people aren't actually aware of those. Or what they cost. And also, we've already talked about Medicare, but what does Medicare cover and what does it not cover as well? Right? So that's where we can get these types of resources to understand what's available to me, what are some of the different services, what may the cost be, and what may or may not be covered by Medicare.

And what I typically recommend is use this information to make a list of the choices you would want someone to know if you were going to have a conversation. We had Tammy on a couple episodes ago talking about those difficult conversations we have with adult parents. Part of having better conversations is having better information, right? And I think it starts with knowing where can I get this type of information, and this is a great place to start with that.

Wendy McConnell: Got it.

Eric Blake: Then we get into what I would call areas where we want to protect yourself and your financial situation. So next we have investor.gov, and this is a resource from the Securities and Exchange Commission, often what you might hear as the term SEC. But what this basically allows you to do is if you are looking at hiring a financial professional, or maybe you already have one, you can actually enter that firm or that person's information and it will tell you whether or not that advisor has any types of issues on their record. That might be complaints, it might be disputes, but you can review their registration, their employment history, and any available disclosures that they may have.

Again, it doesn't mean it's good or bad necessarily, but it's things that you might want to be aware of. And I would definitely suggest thinking about doing this before you're hiring someone. Even if that person was referred to you by someone that you trust, it's still worth doing your due diligence on their background, right?

And beyond doing like a background search, there's educational information. There's also a number of different calculators that you might be able to find on there, if you're looking at starting an investment strategy or starting an investment program. Beyond just looking at whether you're going to hire an advisor or not, there's a lot of great information on there as well that provides you with more educational content on getting that process started.

Wendy McConnell: Okay. What number are we on, Eric?

Eric Blake: We are on, I believe that is number nine, so now we're on number 10.

Wendy McConnell: Wow, that went so fast.

Eric Blake: You got all these down?

Wendy McConnell: No, because you told me... And I could've totally kept track of all of those.

Eric Blake: They're in the show notes. You don't have to worry about it. You're all good.

Wendy McConnell: Exactly. Exactly.

Eric Blake: Now, I didn't necessarily put these in any particular order, so they're kind of somewhat gathered by the type of service or type of help that you can get. But this one specifically I think is really valuable. Many people have probably heard of it, but they may not necessarily know how to utilize it, and it is annualcreditreport.com. Okay? And this is a federally authorized website for requesting free credit reports from all three primary bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and you can request those. It used to be once a year, but now it's actually as much as once a week, and there's no charge, right?

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: And actually what you're looking at is those reports can help you find incorrect information, maybe unfamiliar accounts, old accounts, old joint accounts, even looking for signs of identity theft, okay? And you would request a report to review each one of them because you also may find things that are different across all three of those. So is there something different on one that may not be in the other, and why is that? Again, it may not be good or bad necessarily, but there may be some red flags there. And you can either dispute some of those items that might be on there or make sure it gets corrected.

But that's one of those that really becomes important, again, in these days of protecting your identity and scams and everything that you hear on the news all the time. How can I do a better job of protecting my identity and being aware of things before it's too late? And so when you think about, again, back to the ssa.gov example of checking your earnings history and making sure nobody's filed on your Social Security number, this is another great way, combined with that, to avoid some of the identity theft issues that may face so many people.

Wendy McConnell: And, you know, you might have just been reported for something you don't realize as well. That happened to me. I think I've mentioned this before. It was something with my mortgage, and...

Eric Blake: Right.

Wendy McConnell: They reported me late. I did not realize that they had done that, and it caused my score to go down about 200 points.

Eric Blake: Wow.

Wendy McConnell: Yeah. I mean, it was huge. It was in the 500s, and typically I was in the 700s, so it went down a lot. So just make sure that everything is as it should be.

Eric Blake: Absolutely. And again, my wife had something similar to that not long ago with an insurance situation. It was kind of weird. The insurance agent just went out and found somebody with the same name and used that record. And you don't necessarily think about insurance, but a lot of the property and casualty companies use credit score now in determining what your rates may be, right?

Wendy McConnell: Oh.

Eric Blake: And so there's all kinds of issues that you're not going to know unless you check these areas, right?

Wendy McConnell: Okay. Yep.

Eric Blake: So those are our 10 websites. The other thing I would point out, you know, I wouldn't necessarily visit all 10 of them today, right? Start with the resources that are most connected to the decision or concerns in front of you right now. And even, like, when you're thinking about investor.gov, these websites will give you a starting point. They can provide facts, estimates, records, comparisons, but they can't necessarily address your full situation and tell you which decision may be right for you. So again, these are used for gathering information to help you ask better questions or make better decisions using the information that's available.

And as you review this information, what I would suggest is that you ask yourself, "What did I learn?" We just talked about this. "Is there anything missing or incorrect?" You also want to know what they cost. So again, most of these websites are free. If you take that next step, there may be a cost associated with that.

So for example, we talked about the resources available for Medicare. Well, those resources are free. The counseling that shiphelp.org provides is going to be free. But then if you say, "Okay, I'm going to use this information to go talk to an agent and help me get my Medicare supplement plan in place or my Medicare Advantage in place," obviously you're going to be paying for that. So you want to know what these resources or these websites are going to do for you, that again, in many cases are free, but that next step, there may be some costs associated with that, and you just want to understand what that might be.

You also want to think about what questions should I bring to the tax person, the financial person, the Medicare person, these different professionals that I work with? How can I use this information to, again, ask them better questions?

Wendy McConnell: Okay.

Eric Blake: You help me, right?

Wendy McConnell: Right.

Eric Blake: So that's what we're looking at, thinking again, how can I ask the right questions? 'Cause if you go into it unknowing or uneducated, you may get sold something you really don't need, and that's really the bottom line. It's just understanding what's available to me, how can I ask better questions, how can I use this information to better help my decisions when it comes to retirement planning.

Wendy McConnell: And don't be afraid to say no, and don't be afraid to wait...

Eric Blake: Absolutely.

Wendy McConnell: ...get other advice from other people about if you really need something or not.

Eric Blake: So I told you there were 10 websites, but there's one more you need to know about, and I'll admit I'm a little bit biased. It is the simplyretirementpodcast.com. I know you probably didn't see that coming, right?

Wendy McConnell: No. I mean, I was going to say get yourself a guy, but, you know. Or a gal.

Eric Blake: But you can obviously find episodes and resources covering many of these decisions that we've already shared with these websites. And unlike a few of the government websites, we try not to make you click through seven different menus to actually find out what you need.

Wendy McConnell: Thank goodness.

Eric Blake: Absolutely. So we will include links to all 10 resources that we shared, along with the additional PBGC search that allows you to find those pension plans that may be floating out there. If this episode could help someone you know, please consider sharing it with somebody. Also, be sure to follow the podcast so you're notified when new episodes are released. And until next time, please remember, retirement is not the end of the road. It's the start of a new journey.