Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
Remarrying generally ends your right to claim on a living ex-spouse’s Social Security
A divorce does not necessarily sever a person’s claim to Social Security on a former spouse’s record — but a second marriage usually does. Someone...
Qualifying for a Medicare Savings Program automatically enrolls you in Extra Help with drug costs
One approval can unlock two separate forms of help with Medicare costs, and most people who qualify never realize the second one is automatic. Getting...
The 2026 Social Security raise was 2.8%, about $56 more a month for the average retiree
Social Security benefits rose 2.8 percent in 2026, adding roughly $56 a month to the average retired worker’s check. The adjustment lifted the typical monthly...
Medicare Part A is free only with 40 work credits; fall short and you pay a monthly premium
Medicare Part A carries no monthly premium for most people, but that free hospital coverage is earned, not automatic. The dividing line is roughly forty...
Most states don’t tax Social Security benefits, and the short list that does keeps shrinking
For the large majority of retirees, a Social Security check arrives untouched by any state income tax. Only a small group of states still counts...
A family maximum limits how much a household can draw on one worker’s Social Security record
When a spouse and children collect Social Security on one earner’s record at the same time, the household does not simply add up every benefit....
Medicare now covers every recommended adult vaccine at no cost
Every vaccine an older adult is advised to get now arrives without a copay or a deductible, a change that quietly removed one of the...
Your online Social Security account is the fastest way to catch earnings-record errors that lower your check
A Social Security retirement benefit is built from a lifetime of reported earnings, and a single missing or wrong year can quietly shrink the eventual...
Medicare pays nothing for care outside the United States
A retiree who assumes Medicare travels with them across a border is in for an expensive correction. Original Medicare almost never pays for medical care...
Keep working past 65 with job coverage and you get eight months to join Part B without a penalty
Turning 65 does not force a worker off the job and onto Medicare Part B, and for someone still covered by an active employer plan,...
Two lesser-known programs, SLMB and QI, will pay a senior’s Medicare Part B premium
The Specified Low-Income Medicare Beneficiary and Qualifying Individual programs sit almost invisibly inside Medicare, yet either one can erase the entire monthly Part B premium...
Waiting past age 70 to claim Social Security adds nothing to your check
Delaying a Social Security claim is one of the few guaranteed ways to raise a monthly benefit — until age 70, when the reward abruptly...
You can no longer take just a spousal benefit and let your own Social Security grow
For years, a married worker at full retirement age could file a restricted application, collect a spousal benefit worth up to half of a husband’s...
For 44% of homeowners, insurance now costs about as much as the mortgage, and non-renewals have surged
The cost of insuring a home has climbed so steeply that, for many owners, the annual premium now rivals the mortgage itself. A first-of-its-kind national...
A fifth U.S. bank failed in 2026, and naming beneficiaries can insure far more than the basic $250,000
The list of 2026 bank failures grew to five on August 21, when regulators closed Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank of Philadelphia and handed its roughly $67...
An ex-Fidelity broker got six and a half years for draining $2 million from a 75-year-old over 600 transfers
A former Fidelity Investments broker was sentenced on August 20 to six years and eight months in federal prison for siphoning more than $2 million...
