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 pension lump sum can quietly push your income over a line and raise your Medicare premiums
Retirees who accept a one-time pension buyout can find themselves paying hundreds of dollars more each month for Medicare, even if their regular income never...
A widow can take a reduced survivor benefit at 60 and let her own Social Security grow until 70
Widows who lose a spouse face an immediate financial shock, but Social Security offers a little-known sequencing option that can soften the blow over decades....
7-Eleven is closing about 600 U.S. stores this year
Seven & i Holdings, the parent company of 7-Eleven, disclosed plans to close 645 convenience stores across North America during fiscal year 2026, which began...
Teachers, firefighters and police are getting bigger Social Security checks after Congress repealed a decades-old penalty
More than 3.2 million retired public servants across the United States are seeing their Social Security benefits restored after Congress eliminated two provisions that had...
California is bringing back Medicaid asset limits and a 30-month look-back for nursing-home care in 2026
Hundreds of thousands of older Californians and people with disabilities who rely on Medi-Cal for nursing-home or long-term care face a new financial test starting...
Private forecasters put the 2027 Medicare Part B premium near $219, above the official $209.50
Millions of Medicare beneficiaries budgeting for 2027 health costs face a potential gap between what the government projects they will pay and what independent analysts...
The FTC is mailing $2.7 million in automatic refunds to nearly 63,000 Angi workers
Nearly 63,000 people who cleaned homes, assembled furniture, or performed other gig work through Handy Technologies are set to receive automatic refund checks from the...
The $8 cap on credit-card late fees was struck down, sending them back toward $32
Credit card holders who miss a payment will keep paying roughly $32 in late fees after a federal court struck down the Consumer Financial Protection...
Grandparent scams now clone a relative’s voice, and one mother wired $15,000
A mother in distress wired $15,000 after hearing what sounded exactly like her child’s voice on the phone, pleading for emergency help. The call was...
Fannie Mae is dropping its minimum credit score to help first-time buyers qualify
First-time homebuyers with limited credit histories stand to benefit from a federal policy shift that allows lenders to use a newer scoring model when selling...
A younger spouse left off a reverse mortgage can now stay in the home for life
Surviving spouses who were left off a reverse mortgage now have a federally protected right to stay in their homes after the borrower dies, a...
Coffee and other grocery staples are set to rise more than 5% this year
American grocery shoppers are absorbing a 5.8 percent year-over-year jump in nonalcoholic beverage prices, more than double the 2.8 percent increase forecast for food-at-home overall...
Blood-pressure and diabetes drug shortages are forcing seniors to hunt for refills
Seniors who depend on daily blood-pressure and diabetes medications are spending hours calling pharmacies, switching drugstores, and sometimes going weeks without refills as supply disruptions...
Best Buy is recalling Insignia gas ranges whose knobs can switch on by accident
Owners of certain Insignia-brand gas ranges sold through Best Buy face a straightforward but serious safety problem: the control knobs can switch on with nothing...
A California man, 70, lost $84,000 to a fake McAfee agent before police arrested the courier
A 70-year-old Camarillo, California, resident handed over $84,000 in cash to a stranger after a phone caller posed as a McAfee Security agent and convinced...
Greenworks is recalling 554,780 Kobalt yard tools after 34 caught fire
Greenworks Tools is recalling 554,780 Kobalt-branded yard power tools sold across the United States after 34 units caught fire. The affected products, which include 24V...