Feds doing no favors for senior retirees

The Federal Reserve Bank has just announced that banks will be able to pay "zero" interest on a loan. This enables working people to buy a home with lower interest (3 percent?); however, retirees living on fixed income are getting lower interest on their retirement money. Many were duped into taking their pensions early to retire, putting their pension money into regular IRAs. For many people this money was gambled and lost in the stock market, and if not, it now receives little more than 1 percent interest in a safer money market or short-term Treasuries. At 701/2 years of age, seniors are forced to take their money out of IRAs, in increments, and will pay taxes at 10 percent and higher. When they are forced to remove a considerable amount from their IRA, they will then pay taxes on as much as 85 percent of their Social Security also, putting them into a higher tax bracket and preventing them from freezing their homeowner's tax rate. Seniors need higher interest on their fixed income, but as expected, the Fed is only helping financial institutions and not retirees.

Frank J. Sasevich

Bolingbrook