One of the many myths about the minimum wage is that it mainly helps teenagers. That is false, but also ironic - because one of the groups that would be helped most by a higher minimum wage is seniors.

The most urgent retirement issue facing the new Biden administration and Congress is not Social Security reform or figuring out how to boost savings in 401(k)s and IRA accounts.

President-elect Joe Biden will be plenty busy battling the pandemic when he takes office next month, and Social Security will likely not be on top of his agenda. But nudging higher reforms for Social Security, our most important retirement program, would be a very smart move.

(The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.)

What happens to Social Security if we eliminate its funding? 

Charlie Rich, the late country music singer and songwriter, had it right when he crooned this famous line: “Oh, no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.” We need to remind Congress of the truth of that line as it tries to push a plan to negotiate changes to Social Security and Medicare as part of its latest pandemic relief bill.

The idea of using investments to promote environmental and social causes has grown quickly in recent years, and retirement plans looked like the next frontier - until the Trump administration weighed in last month.

Employer retirement plans are not known for their flashy investments - a majority of 401(k) investors these days use target date funds that invest in broad, diversified equity and fixed income mutual funds that automatically rebalance to minimize risk as retirement approaches.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a bright spotlight on weaknesses in many of the systems designed to protect Americans from risks. But with older people more susceptible to serious illness and death from the virus, the problems in our Medicare system that were evident pre-pandemic have come into especially sharp relief.

In what now seems like a galaxy far, far away, Republican lawmakers routinely talked up the idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. In fact, we were in that galaxy just three years ago.