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
A surviving spouse can switch to the higher earner’s Social Security check — and timing the switch right can mean hundreds more a month for life
A 63-year-old widow collecting $1,100 a month on her own Social Security record could, at full retirement age, switch to a survivor benefit worth $2,800...
A new $6,000 tax deduction for everyone over 65 can wipe out the tax on your Social Security — but it shrinks once income tops $75,000
A retired teacher collecting $22,000 a year in Social Security and drawing another $55,000 from a pension might have owed federal income tax on a...
Three Medicare programs will pay your $202.90 Part B premium in full and save you $2,400 a year — yet millions who qualify never sign up
Picture this: you’re 72, living on $1,200 a month in Social Security, and every four weeks Medicare takes $202.90 off the top before you’ve bought...
Working before full retirement age can shrink your Social Security check — but that money isn’t gone; benefits are recalculated upward once you reach full retirement age
Picture this: a 63-year-old who filed for Social Security early opens a pay stub and discovers the government withheld hundreds of dollars from the monthly...
Your first required retirement withdrawal can be delayed to April — but that forces two taxable withdrawals into one year and can spike your Medicare premiums
If you turned 73 in 2025 and hold a traditional IRA, the IRS technically gives you until April 1, 2026, to take your first required...
Claimed Social Security too early? You get one 12-month do-over — repay what you’ve received and restart later for a permanently bigger check
Every month, thousands of Americans file for Social Security at 62 and lock in a benefit roughly 30% smaller than what they would collect at...
Earning too much to fund a Roth IRA doesn’t actually lock you out — a “backdoor” contribution is legal and most high earners don’t use it
Every April, high-earning Americans file their taxes, glance at the Roth IRA section, and skip it. They assume their income disqualifies them. For 2025, the...
A 1% fee on your 401(k) can quietly cost six figures over a career — yet most savers have never checked their funds’ expense ratios
Somewhere inside your 401(k) account, a number you have probably never looked at is shaving money off your retirement balance every single day. It is...
After 70½ you can send up to about $108,000 a year from your IRA straight to charity — tax-free, and it counts toward your required withdrawal
A 74-year-old retiree who owes $45,000 in required minimum distributions this year has two choices: pull the money out, add it to taxable income, and...
Old 401(k)s from past jobs often sit in high-fee default funds — rolling them into a low-cost IRA can save tens of thousands over time
Somewhere in the records of a former employer’s retirement plan, $30,000 is quietly losing a race against fees. If that balance sits in a default...
A spouse who never worked can still collect up to half of your Social Security — a spousal benefit many married couples don’t realize they can claim
After 35 years of marriage, Linda and Robert Garcia sat down at their kitchen table in Tucson to plan retirement. Robert had worked as an...
The beneficiary form on your 401(k) and IRA overrides your will — an outdated one can send your savings to an ex instead of your family
In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court settled a case that still catches divorcing Americans off guard. A DuPont employee had split from his wife, and...
The federal pension agency is holding unclaimed benefits from shut-down plans — search by your name and the last four of your Social Security number
More than 80,000 people have retirement money sitting in a federal database, and most of them probably have no idea. That figure comes from the...
Drawing down taxable accounts before tax-deferred ones and Roth last can stretch retirement savings for years — a sequence most retirees get backwards
Picture a married couple, both 65, walking out of their offices for the last time in June 2026. Between them they have $400,000 in a...
Converting part of a traditional IRA to a Roth in a low-income year locks in today’s tax rate — before RMDs and Medicare surcharges hit
A 66-year-old who left a full-time job in late 2025 and plans to delay Social Security until 70 might report only $30,000 in taxable income...
Scammers are filing tax returns under stolen Social Security numbers — but a free six-digit IRS PIN locks them out, and any taxpayer can request one
Last filing season, thousands of Americans discovered they had been robbed before they even knew anything was wrong. They sat down to e-file their federal...
The income limits that make Social Security benefits taxable haven’t budged since 1984 — so every year, more retirees owe federal tax on checks they assumed were safe
A retired teacher in Ohio pulling $22,000 a year from her pension and $1,800 a month in Social Security would not strike most people as...
A teenager with a summer job can open a Roth IRA — and a few hundred dollars saved now can grow into six figures of tax-free retirement money
A 16-year-old lifeguard who earns $3,000 between Memorial Day and Labor Day has cleared the only hurdle that matters for opening a Roth IRA: she...
Retirees hit with Medicare’s high-income surcharge can appeal it after a life change like retiring or divorcing — a refund worth thousands that most never request
A retired teacher in her late 60s stops working in June, watches her income drop by half, and then opens her first Medicare bill to...
Skipping your full employer 401(k) match throws away an instant 50% to 100% return — yet one in five workers leaves that free money on the table
Every pay period, employers across the country deposit matching dollars into 401(k) accounts, but only if workers contribute enough to trigger them. For someone earning...