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
High earners over about $145,000 must make 401(k) catch-up contributions as Roth in 2027
A change written into federal retirement law will take away a choice that higher-paid savers have long had over their 401(k) catch-up contributions. Beginning in...
A lump-sum pension buyout trades a lifetime monthly check for one cash payout you must manage yourself
An offer that lands in the mail from a former employer can look like a windfall: take a large one-time cash payment now instead of...
Oppenheimer brokerage customers who say idle cash earned too little can file for part of a $70 million settlement by September 17
Oppenheimer & Co. has agreed to pay $70 million to settle claims that it shortchanged customers on the interest owed for cash sitting idle in...
Long-term-care insurance can spare a healthy spouse from spending down savings for nursing care
When one spouse needs years of nursing care, the bill does not stop at that spouse’s share of the savings. Long-term care is one of...
A surviving military spouse can qualify for a tax-free VA payment of more than $1,600 a month
A monthly benefit that many military families never claim can be worth more than $1,600 a month, tax-free, for the rest of a surviving spouse’s...
Medicaid’s five-year look-back can delay nursing-home coverage over money or property given away recently
A gift that felt generous can quietly postpone the day Medicaid starts paying for a nursing home. When someone applies for long-term-care Medicaid, the state...
TrumpRx.gov is set to sell Ozempic and Wegovy for about $245 a month in cash, outside insurance
A federal program is preparing to sell two of the most sought-after weight and diabetes drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy, for about $245 a month in...
Amazon must give identity-theft victims their account records free within 30 days under a $2.25 million federal order
A federal order against Amazon carries a number worth reading correctly: $2.25 million. That figure is a civil penalty the company will pay to the...
The FTC warns your own data can shape the online price you see
The price a shopper sees online is not always the price the person next to them sees. Federal regulators are now warning that the personal...
Section 301 tariffs now cover nearly all U.S. imports at 10% to 12.5%, while a promised rebate check stays a proposal
A broad tariff regime now sits on top of nearly everything the United States imports, applying a duty of either 10% or 12.5% to almost...
A Hartford insurance unit would mail $11 million in refund checks for a premium-tax overcharge, with no claim to file
A former Hartford life-insurance business has agreed to an $11 million settlement over premium-tax charges it allegedly miscalculated, and eligible policyholders would not have to...
Starting in 2027, Medicaid’s expansion enrollees must reprove eligibility every six months, and missed paperwork can end coverage
Millions of adults covered through Medicaid’s expansion will soon have to prove they still qualify twice as often. A provision in the 2025 budget reconciliation...
State Farm is returning $5 billion to auto customers, about $100 a vehicle, and former customers get paid too
State Farm has begun paying out $5 billion in cash to its auto insurance customers, the largest dividend in the company’s century-plus history. The payments...
A proposed IRS rule would require proof of citizenship to collect the refundable part of the child tax credit
The IRS has floated a rule that would attach a new condition to one of the most widely claimed tax benefits in the country: a...
The government will seed $1,000 into a child’s new Trump Account, but about 3 million families still haven’t claimed it
The federal government is offering to deposit $1,000 into a newly created savings account for millions of young children, a one-time seed that requires no...
A payable-on-death beneficiary lets a bank account skip probate and reach heirs directly
A single form at the bank can keep a checking or savings account out of probate entirely, sending the balance straight to a named person...
