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 bill in Congress would repeal the federal income tax on Social Security benefits, but it has not cleared committee
The idea of ending federal income tax on Social Security benefits has a real bill behind it, and that bill is going nowhere fast. Legislation...
South Carolina joins the states banning soda and candy purchases with food stamps starting August 31
South Carolina is about to change what its food-stamp recipients can put in the cart. Beginning August 31, 2026, candy, soft drinks, energy drinks and...
VA disability pay starts at $180.42 a month for a 10% rating in 2026
A veteran with a service-connected condition rated at 10 percent disabling receives $180.42 a month from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2026, the entry...
A bill would let about 50,000 combat-injured veterans draw both military retirement and disability pay, roughly $1,200 more a month
A long-stalled bill in Congress would end a rule that forces many combat-injured veterans to give up part of their military retirement pay for every...
Required retirement withdrawals now begin at 73, and missing one brings a steep penalty
For decades the government let retirement savings grow untouched only up to a point, then demanded a share back through required minimum distributions. Recent law...
Your heirs inherit your home and investments at their value on the day you die, erasing tax on a lifetime of gains
One of the most valuable provisions in the tax code is also one of the least understood by the families it benefits: when a person...
Each Roth conversion starts its own five-year clock before penalty-free withdrawals
Moving money from a traditional IRA into a Roth is one of the most common retirement tax maneuvers, and one of the most misunderstood. Savers...
Heirs must empty an inherited IRA within 10 years, and many now owe a yearly withdrawal along the way
Inheriting a parent’s individual retirement account once meant a lifetime of small, tax-advantaged withdrawals stretched across decades. That option is gone for most heirs. Under...
After a senior dies, Medicaid can bill the estate for nursing-home care, though a surviving spouse or disabled child can block a claim on the home
When a parent who spent their final years in a nursing home dies, the family often braces for a letter from the state Medicaid program...
A Trump executive order clears the way for private equity and crypto inside 401(k) plans holding $12 trillion
A single executive order has reopened one of the longest-running fights in retirement policy: whether ordinary 401(k) savers should be steered toward private equity, cryptocurrency...
Workers can deduct up to $25,000 in tips and $12,500 in overtime on their 2026 return using the new Schedule 1-A
A new federal deduction lets workers who earn tips or overtime subtract a large slice of that pay before their income is taxed, and the...
Trump’s proposed $2,000 tariff-dividend checks lost their legal footing after the tariff authority behind them expired in July
President Trump’s pitch to mail nearly every American a $2,000 “tariff dividend” has run into a problem that no rally speech can fix: the legal...
A transfer-on-death deed passes your home to heirs without going through probate
A transfer-on-death deed lets a homeowner name who inherits the house and then hand it over at death without the property ever passing through probate....
About $2.1 trillion sits in lost retirement accounts, and a free federal database helps reunite you with yours
An estimated $2.1 trillion in retirement savings has been left behind in old employer plans, forgotten by the workers who earned it and waiting in...
A federal program helps pay part of a low-income household’s summer cooling bill
Help with a summer electric bill is one of the least-known corners of the federal safety net, even though the program that provides it reaches...
Anyone on SNAP or Medicaid can cut $9.25 a month off a phone or internet bill through federal Lifeline
A standing federal discount can shave up to $9.25 a month off a phone or internet bill, yet many of the households that qualify never...
