Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
Medicare’s Part B late penalty is permanent, adding 10% for each year you delayed
Most Medicare cost mistakes can be corrected the next year. The Part B late-enrollment penalty is the exception: it is a surcharge that attaches to...
Original Medicare has no yearly out-of-pocket limit, unlike Medicare Advantage plans
Original Medicare covers hospital stays, doctor visits, and outpatient care, but it does something no Medicare Advantage plan is allowed to do: it lets the...
Working before full retirement age, Social Security withholds $1 of every $2 over $24,480, then repays it later
Plenty of people claim Social Security early and keep working, then watch part of the check disappear and assume the money is simply gone. It...
Most big banks now cap overdraft fees at $5 to $10 or have dropped them, and turning overdraft off stops them entirely
The overdraft fee that once ran more than $30 a transaction has quietly collapsed at the country’s largest banks. Most now cap it somewhere between...
This year’s Medicare fall enrollment, October 15 to December 7, is the main window to replace a plan leaving in 2027
With major insurers dropping and reshaping Medicare Advantage plans for 2027, the calendar has quietly become the most important tool a beneficiary has. Medicare’s annual...
Medicare won’t post 2027 drug-plan prices until late September, so seniors can’t compare next year’s coverage yet
Medicare’s fall enrollment season is approaching, yet the one figure a senior most needs to make a smart choice, the actual price of each 2027...
A widow can take a survivor benefit first, then grow her own Social Security until 70
When a spouse dies, the survivor often faces a choice that Social Security presents as one decision but that actually holds two separate benefits inside...
A spouse can claim up to half the higher earner’s Social Security, but filing before full retirement age cuts it for life
A married retiree with little or no earnings record of their own is not shut out of Social Security. The program lets a husband or...
Next year’s Social Security raise is tracking near 3.6%, about $69.75 a month, before September’s inflation reading sets it
The next Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is shaping up near 3.6%, an estimated $69.75 more on the average monthly retirement check — but that figure...
Sentara’s contract fight with Anthem could push about 380,000 Virginians out of network on January 1
A contract dispute between Sentara Health and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield has put roughly 380,000 Virginians on notice that their hospitals and doctors could...
Garnishment of Social Security for defaulted student loans is set to restart, taking up to 15% from 452,000 retirees
A collection tool that had been switched off for years is powering back up, and it reaches straight into retirees’ monthly income. The federal government...
No $2,000 tariff-dividend check is approved, and scam texts promising the payment are now spreading
A $2,000 “tariff dividend” that President Trump floated on social media has not been approved, funded, or scheduled by anyone in a position to authorize...
UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana are all cutting Medicare Advantage plans after 2.6 million members were dropped for 2026
The three biggest names in Medicare Advantage are all pulling back at once. UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana are each shedding plans heading into 2027, a...
Trump is ending a subsidy that held down Medicare drug premiums, and about half of plans could cost more in 2027
The federal government is ending a temporary subsidy that has quietly held down Medicare prescription-drug premiums for two years, and the Centers for Medicare and...
Social Security overpayment clawbacks are back to 50% of a check, yet most who qualify for a hardship waiver never ask
A single line buried in a Social Security overpayment notice now carries far more sting than it did two years ago: the agency’s default response...
Claim Social Security after full retirement age and you can take six months of back pay, but every future check shrinks for good
Social Security offers a tempting shortcut to anyone who files after reaching full retirement age: a single deposit covering up to six months of past...