Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
A surviving spouse can switch to the higher earner’s Social Security check — and timing the switch right can mean hundreds more a month for life
A 63-year-old widow collecting $1,100 a month on her own Social Security record could, at full retirement age, switch to a survivor benefit worth $2,800...
A new $6,000 tax deduction for everyone over 65 can wipe out the tax on your Social Security — but it shrinks once income tops $75,000
A retired teacher collecting $22,000 a year in Social Security and drawing another $55,000 from a pension might have owed federal income tax on a...
Three Medicare programs will pay your $202.90 Part B premium in full and save you $2,400 a year — yet millions who qualify never sign up
Picture this: you’re 72, living on $1,200 a month in Social Security, and every four weeks Medicare takes $202.90 off the top before you’ve bought...
Fake debt collectors are pressuring people to pay debts they don’t owe — demand written validation, which real collectors must send within five days
The call comes out of nowhere. Someone on the line says you owe $1,200 on an old account, rattles off a case number, and warns...
Hospitals quietly offer “prompt-pay” discounts of 10% to 30% — but only if you ask before the bill goes to collections
Somewhere in the billing office of nearly every nonprofit hospital in the country, there is a written policy that could knock 10% to 30% off...
You don’t have to use the title company your lender picks — shopping your own title insurance and closing services can cut hundreds off the bill
Picture this: you are three weeks from closing on a $400,000 house, buried in paperwork, and your lender emails you the name of a title...
Big banks still pay about 0.4% on savings while online banks pay near 4% — leaving the same $10,000 earning $360 less every year
Big banks still pay about 0.4% on savings while online banks pay near 4% — leaving the same $10,000 earning $360 less every year Put...
See every piece of mail before it arrives with free USPS Informed Delivery — it flags stolen checks and new-card envelopes before a thief beats you to them
In late 2023, a Cincinnati letter carrier was walking her route when 19-year-old Lamarion Gray put a gun to her and stole her master mailbox...
Earning too much to fund a Roth IRA doesn’t actually lock you out — a “backdoor” contribution is legal and most high earners don’t use it
Every April, high-earning Americans file their taxes, glance at the Roth IRA section, and skip it. They assume their income disqualifies them. For 2025, the...
A 1% fee on your 401(k) can quietly cost six figures over a career — yet most savers have never checked their funds’ expense ratios
Somewhere inside your 401(k) account, a number you have probably never looked at is shaving money off your retirement balance every single day. It is...
Old 401(k)s from past jobs often sit in high-fee default funds — rolling them into a low-cost IRA can save tens of thousands over time
Somewhere in the records of a former employer’s retirement plan, $30,000 is quietly losing a race against fees. If that balance sits in a default...
You can stop the preapproved credit offers scammers steal from mailboxes — opting out at OptOutPrescreen is free and cuts your identity-theft risk
A preapproved credit card offer sitting in an unlocked mailbox looks like junk mail to the person who lives there. To a thief walking the...
The beneficiary form on your 401(k) and IRA overrides your will — an outdated one can send your savings to an ex instead of your family
In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court settled a case that still catches divorcing Americans off guard. A DuPont employee had split from his wife, and...
A retiree moved her life savings to a “safe account” on a caller’s orders — and lost all $740,000 to scammers posing as her bank and a federal agent
The first call came with a simple warning: your bank account has been compromised. A recently retired woman did what most people would do. She...
Companies charging hundreds to “lower” your student loans are selling what the government does free — real help lives at studentaid.gov
A borrower gets a call, a text, or a social-media ad promising lower monthly payments on their federal student loans. The pitch sounds official. The...
Many states will knock hundreds off your property-tax or rent bill through a “circuit breaker” rebate — but you have to file, and most never do
A 70-year-old renter in Springfield, Missouri, paying $900 a month could get back up to $1,100 from the state this year. A retired homeowner in...