Retirement & Taxes
Long-term financial planning, retirement accounts, government benefits, tax law, and IRS rules. Covers the intersection of policy and personal finance that affects how people save, invest, and plan ahead.
Latest in Retirement & Taxes
Medicare covers cataract surgery and one pair of glasses afterward, though not routine vision care
Vision coverage under Original Medicare confuses many people over 65, and for good reason: the program refuses to pay for the eye exams and everyday...
A surviving child can collect up to 75% of a late parent’s Social Security check
When a parent who paid into Social Security dies, the system can send monthly survivor payments to the children left behind, up to 75 percent...
Social Security’s “deemed filing” rule can force you to take your own and a spousal benefit at once
A claiming strategy that once let married couples collect a spousal check while their own benefit fattened toward age 70 is effectively gone, closed by...
The Social Security earnings limit jumps the year you reach full retirement age, then disappears entirely
Working while collecting Social Security before full retirement age triggers an earnings test that can claw back part of each check, but the rules loosen...
Same-sex and common-law married spouses can qualify for Social Security spousal and survivor benefits
Social Security’s spousal and survivor benefits, worth up to half of a living worker’s full benefit or the entire amount after a death, reach far...
Social Security bases your check on your 35 highest-earning years, and any missing years count as zeros
Social Security’s monthly retirement benefit rests on one long calculation: the agency indexes a worker’s lifetime wages, singles out the 35 best years, and averages...
A spousal Social Security benefit stops growing at full retirement age and earns no delayed credits
Delaying a Social Security claim from full retirement age to 70 rewards a worker’s own record with delayed retirement credits worth roughly 8 percent a...
A spouse who never worked can still get premium-free Medicare Part A on the worker’s record
A husband or wife who spent decades outside the paid workforce, or who never piled up enough covered earnings alone, can still walk into hospital...
You start earning Social Security cost-of-living raises at 62, even years before you claim a check
A worker who turns 62 this year quietly crosses a financial line that has nothing to do with signing up for benefits. From that birthday...
Waiting from 62 to 70 to claim Social Security can raise your monthly check by about 77%
The single largest lever most retirees hold over their monthly Social Security income is the calendar. A worker who claims at 62, the earliest age...
Dropping a hospital that leaves your Medicare Advantage plan can cost you up to $13,900 out of pocket
A hospital walking away from a Medicare Advantage network rarely arrives with much warning, yet the financial fallout can be severe. When roughly two dozen...
Drawing from taxable, then tax-deferred, then Roth accounts can make retirement savings last longer
Two retirees can hold the same balances across the same accounts, spend the same amount each year, and still watch their savings run out years...
A brokerage’s cash “sweep” often pays far less than a money-market fund you choose yourself
Every brokerage account has to do something with the cash that lands in it between trades, from a dividend payment, a maturing bond, or a...
Keeping a year or two of spending in cash lets a retiree ride out a market drop without selling low
A retiree who keeps one to two years of living expenses in cash holds something a rising market cannot supply: the freedom to leave investments...
Some states add a monthly supplement to the federal SSI check for aged, blind or disabled residents
The federal Supplemental Security Income check pays a single recipient $994 a month in 2026 and a couple $1,491, the amounts set after a 2.8...
Medicaid may pay for home modifications like ramps and grab bars through a waiver
A wheelchair ramp, a set of bathroom grab bars, or a widened doorway can be the single change that lets an older adult stay home...
Veterans and their spouses can combine VA benefits with Medicaid to pay for long-term care
A veteran facing long-term-care costs does not have to choose between the Department of Veterans Affairs and Medicaid. The two programs can run at the...
A caregiver child who lived with and cared for a parent can shield the home from Medicaid recovery
For most families that rely on Medicaid to pay for a nursing home, the house is the one asset that survives the spend-down — and...
Medicaid can cover adult day care in many states, giving a family caregiver a paid break
Adult day care can run families hundreds to well over a thousand dollars a month, and for households built around a single unpaid caregiver it...
You can move leftover 529 college savings into a Roth IRA for the student, up to a lifetime cap
A change written into the SECURE 2.0 retirement law removed one of the biggest fears attached to college savings: that unspent money would be trapped...