Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
Original Medicare has no out-of-pocket maximum, so one serious illness can run up unlimited bills
Original Medicare, the government-run coverage that pays for hospital and doctor care, carries no ceiling on what a beneficiary can owe in a single year....
Medicare’s Part B “give-back” benefit refunds part of your premium through certain Advantage plans
A feature buried in some Medicare Advantage plans, the Part B “give-back,” quietly hands part of the standard Part B premium back to enrollees by...
Medicaid’s five-year lookback can penalize seniors who gave money away before applying for nursing-home care
Older Americans who hand money to their children, help a grandchild with a down payment, or sign the family home over to a relative sometimes...
Selling a home you’ve lived in can shield up to $250,000 in gains from tax, or $500,000 for a couple
A retiree who bought a home decades ago and sells it in today’s market can be sitting on a capital gain of several hundred thousand...
Retire mid-year and Social Security’s monthly earnings test lets you collect full checks even over the annual limit
A worker who earns a full salary through June and then retires can still collect a full Social Security check for July, August, and every...
Widows and widowers can switch between a survivor benefit and their own Social Security to claim the bigger check
A widow or widower sitting on two possible Social Security checks — one earned on a late spouse’s record, one on their own — does...
A spouse who never worked can still collect up to half of the other spouse’s Social Security
A person who never earned a paycheck, never paid Social Security taxes, and never built a work record of their own can still draw a...
Restarting student-loan collections can dock up to 15% of a retiree’s Social Security check
Up to 15 percent of a monthly Social Security check can be redirected to a defaulted federal student loan once the government switches collections back...
$750 a month is the most the government must leave you when it garnishes a Social Security check for old federal debts
Roughly $750 a month is the legal minimum the federal government must leave inside a Social Security check when it reaches into that check to...
Social Security’s taxable wage base is projected to rise to $190,200 in 2027, so high earners would pay the tax on $5,700 more
Social Security’s taxable wage base, the ceiling on earnings subject to the program’s payroll tax, is projected to climb to $190,200 in 2027, up from...
The 2027 Social Security cost-of-living raise is now tracking near 3.8%, up from this year’s 2.8%
The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 is currently tracking near 3.8 percent, according to the latest estimate from a leading retiree advocacy group, up...
Gas has jumped to a national average of $4.09 a gallon, nearly $1 more than a year ago
The national average price of regular gasoline has climbed to $4.09 a gallon, roughly a dollar higher than it stood a year ago and back...
Who qualifies for the biggest Social Security check of $5,251 a month in 2026?
The largest Social Security check anyone collects in 2026 tops out at $5,251 a month, a number that sounds attainable until the requirements come into...
Ozempic’s price under Medicare drops to $274 a month from $959 on January 1
The negotiated Medicare price for Ozempic will fall to $274 a month on January 1, down from a list price of $959, one of the...
The Federal Reserve held interest rates for a fifth straight time, keeping top savings and CD yields near 4.5%
The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged on July 29, holding the target range at 3.50% to 3.75% for a fifth consecutive meeting...
A romance-scam ringleader got seven years for helping steal more than $100 million from older Americans looking for love
A Ghanaian man who spent years posing as online suitors to drain money from lonely Americans was sentenced on July 28, 2026, to 85 months...