Daniel Harper
Daniel is a finance writer covering personal finance topics including budgeting, credit, and beginner investing. He began his career contributing to his Substack, where he covered consumer finance trends and practical money topics for everyday readers. Since then, he has written for a range of personal finance blogs and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, straightforward content that helps readers make more informed financial decisions.
Latest Articles by Daniel Harper
A housebound allowance raises a veteran’s monthly VA payment
Veterans who are largely confined to their homes because of a service-connected condition can receive more money each month than their disability rating alone would...
An income-only trust can qualify a retiree for Medicaid nursing care in states with a hard income cap
In roughly half the states, being even a few dollars a month over the Medicaid income limit can disqualify a retiree from long-term care coverage...
Medicaid estate recovery can be waived when repayment would cause a survivor real hardship
Many families are blindsided months after a parent’s death by a letter from the state seeking repayment of that parent’s Medicaid long-term care, a claim...
A long-term-care partnership policy lets you protect extra savings and still qualify for Medicaid
Long-term care is the expense most likely to drain a lifetime of savings, and the usual advice is grim: buy insurance you may never use,...
Medicaid’s self-directed home care can let you hire and pay a family member as the caregiver
Families who take on the daily grind of caring for an aging parent often assume the work has to be unpaid. In much of the...
Medicaid lets you keep one home, one car and a prepaid burial while qualifying for nursing-home care
The fear that keeps many families from applying for Medicaid long-term care is that the program will force them to sell everything first. It will...
Medicaid’s five-year look-back turns recent gifts into a penalty that delays nursing-home coverage
A generous gift to a grandchild or a quiet transfer of the family home can quietly cost a retiree months of paid nursing-home care. When...
Adults over 64 stay exempt from Medicaid’s new 80-hour work rule, but 55-to-64s must document the hours
A federal rule finalized this summer will require millions of adults in the Medicaid expansion group to prove they are working, volunteering or in school...
A national registry tracks down forgotten 401(k) money from old jobs
Roughly $1.65 trillion in retirement savings is sitting in 401(k) and pension accounts that their owners have lost track of, scattered across former employers who...
A free federal search finds old pensions from employers that closed
Millions of dollars in earned pension benefits sit unclaimed because the people owed them lost track of a job, moved without leaving a forwarding address,...
A pension from a failed company is insured by the federal PBGC up to a yearly maximum
When a company collapses and its pension plan folds with it, retirees do not simply lose the checks they were promised. A federal agency, the...
An inherited Roth IRA passes to heirs completely tax-free, unlike a traditional inherited IRA
Two heirs can inherit the same dollar amount in retirement accounts and face wildly different tax bills, and the reason comes down to which letter...
Retirees in the lowest brackets can pay 0% federal tax on long-term capital gains
A retiree can sell an appreciated stock or fund held more than a year and, in the right income range, owe the IRS nothing on...
The gift-tax annual exclusion lets you give thousands to each person every year, tax-free
Every year the federal government lets one person hand money or property to as many others as they choose without filing a single tax form,...
Seniors 65 and older get a higher income threshold before they must file a federal tax return
A retiree living on a modest fixed income may not owe the IRS anything, and in many cases is not even required to file a...
A new law raised the state-and-local tax deduction cap to $40,000, easing the bill for many homeowners
For nearly a decade, a $10,000 ceiling on the federal deduction for state and local taxes squeezed homeowners in high-tax areas, capping the property and...
