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
Some states let Medicaid pay a family member to provide a senior’s home care
A growing number of state Medicaid programs will pay an adult child, and sometimes a spouse, for the hours they already spend caring for an...
A surviving spouse can face higher tax rates as a single filer, the \”widow’s penalty\”
The loss of a spouse carries a tax consequence that catches many survivors off guard, and it arrives after the grief, not during it. Once...
A surviving spouse can roll a late partner’s IRA into their own and delay withdrawals
Inheriting a retirement account triggers very different rules depending on who does the inheriting, and a surviving spouse holds the most valuable position in that...
A married couple can now shield up to $30 million from federal estate tax
The federal estate and gift tax exemption has risen to $15 million per person for 2026, which means a married couple can pass roughly $30...
A working spouse can fund a full IRA for a partner who has no earned income
A common assumption sidelines a whole category of retirement saving: that a person needs a paycheck to fund an individual retirement account. For married couples,...
Leave a job at 55 or later and you can tap that 401(k) without the early-withdrawal penalty
Turning 55 while still attached to a job opens a narrow but valuable escape from one of retirement saving’s harshest rules. Ordinarily, money pulled from...
After 65, health-savings-account money can be spent on anything with no penalty
A health savings account changes character the year its owner turns 65, and the shift is one of the more generous quirks in the federal...
Read the Medicare plan letter arriving by September 30 before your costs change January 1
Each fall a plain envelope arrives that decides how much a Medicare beneficiary will pay the following year, and too many people set it aside...
A free \”Welcome to Medicare\” visit is available during your first year on Part B
New Medicare enrollees have a benefit waiting for them that costs nothing and expires if it is not used in time. The one-time “Welcome to...
Many Medicare Advantage plans give a monthly allowance for groceries or over-the-counter items
A benefit that puts money on a card for groceries or drugstore purchases sounds too good to be true, yet many Medicare Advantage plans offer...
Some doctors can add a 15% surcharge to Medicare’s rate, and a few states ban it
A Medicare beneficiary who assumes the program’s approved rate is the final price can be caught off guard by a bill that runs higher. Doctors...
Medicare covers hospice care in full, including drugs and support for the whole family
Among the benefits Medicare offers, few are as complete as its coverage of hospice care, and few are as widely misunderstood by the families who...
A special Medicare plan for people who also have Medicaid can cut costs to nearly zero
Older Americans who hold both Medicare and Medicaid often pay almost nothing for their medical care, yet many never enroll in the plan built for...
Social Security is shielded from most creditors, but the government can still take part for taxes or support
A Social Security check enjoys one of the strongest legal shields in American finance, but the shield has deliberate holes. A federal law known as...
A younger spouse caring for the worker’s child can collect Social Security with no age penalty
Social Security’s spousal benefit normally punishes anyone who claims it early: file before full retirement age and the check is permanently reduced. There is one...
Pulling retirement income from a Roth can keep more of your Social Security check untaxed
Which account a retiree taps for spending money can quietly decide how much of a Social Security check the IRS gets to tax. The reason...
Social Security added 14 severe conditions that can win a disability approval in days, not months
On August 11, 2026, the Social Security Administration added 14 conditions to its Compassionate Allowances list, raising the total to 314. The change is not...
Grandchildren raised by a grandparent can sometimes draw benefits on that grandparent’s Social Security
Millions of American children are being raised by grandparents, and Social Security has a rarely used provision that can turn that arrangement into a monthly...
You can claim on an ex-spouse’s Social Security two years after divorce, even before they file
A marriage that ended years ago can still put money in a retiree’s monthly Social Security check. Under the agency’s divorced-spouse rules, a person whose...
Years of military service can add hidden credits that raise a veteran’s Social Security check
A veteran’s Social Security benefit can be larger than the pay records alone would suggest, because the government quietly adds extra earnings for years of...