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
One more high-earning year can replace an old zero and permanently lift your Social Security check
A common assumption is that once Social Security starts, the monthly amount is frozen except for annual cost-of-living adjustments. It is not. The benefit is...
A severely disabled adult child can collect on a parent’s Social Security record for life
Families raising a child with a severe, lifelong disability often assume that because the child never built a work history, Social Security has nothing to...
You can withdraw a Social Security claim once within 12 months and reset for a bigger check
Claiming Social Security is one of the few retirement decisions that comes with a genuine undo button — but only briefly, and only at full...
A widowed spouse can start a reduced Social Security survivor benefit as early as age 60
Almost every Social Security benefit shares the same earliest starting line of age 62. The survivor benefit is the exception. A widow or widower can...
A repealed pair of rules is raising Social Security checks for about 3 million public retirees
Two provisions that trimmed Social Security for public-sector retirees are gone, and the checks of roughly three million teachers, firefighters, police officers and other government...
A spouse can claim up to half the worker’s Social Security even with little earnings history
Consider a household where one partner spent decades in the paid workforce and the other raised children, cared for aging parents, or worked jobs that...
Delaying Social Security adds about 8% a year to your check up to age 70
Few guaranteed returns in retirement match what Social Security quietly offers a worker who is willing to wait. For each year a beneficiary postpones claiming...
Medicare now caps what Part D enrollees pay out of pocket for prescriptions each year
For years, a Medicare drug plan came with no ceiling. A retiree treated for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, or another condition that relies on an expensive...
A Medicare Savings Program can pay your Part B premium if your income is modest
The single largest predictable cost most retirees face under Medicare is the Part B premium, deducted automatically from the Social Security check every month before...
University of Miami Health is leaving UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage network on January 1
UnitedHealthcare and the University of Miami Health System reached a deal this month that keeps most of their arrangement intact, yet it left one group...
A new $6,000 senior deduction can cut the tax bill for many people 65 and older through 2028
Tucked into the tax law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill is a temporary break aimed squarely at older taxpayers: an extra $6,000 deduction...
A new Senate bill would block the government from garnishing Social Security for old student loans
A proposal taking shape in the Senate would draw a hard line around one of the government’s most powerful collection tools: its ability to reach...
Social Security is easing overpayment clawbacks, adding five-year repayment plans and a simpler waiver
Few notices from the Social Security Administration land harder than a letter announcing that the agency paid a beneficiary too much and now wants the...
A defaulted student loan can take up to 15% of a Social Security check, with a $750 monthly floor
For a growing number of Americans in their late 60s and 70s, a federal student loan that went unpaid decades ago has quietly become a...
Trump opened 401(k)s to private equity and crypto, putting $12 trillion in retirement savings in play
An executive order signed in August 2025 set in motion the biggest change to workplace retirement menus in a generation, directing federal regulators to clear...
A payable-on-death beneficiary lets a brokerage or bank account pass to heirs without probate
When someone dies with money in a bank or brokerage account, that money can spend months tied up in probate court before an heir sees...
A small-estate affidavit lets heirs skip probate entirely for a modest estate
When a parent dies leaving a bank account, a car, and some household belongings but no fortune, the family often braces for probate court out...
A life-estate deed passes a home to heirs while letting the owner live there for life
An older homeowner who wants a house to reach a child without the delay and expense of probate has a tool many overlook: the life-estate...
A special-needs trust can hold money for a disabled person without costing them SSI or Medicaid
Leaving money to a disabled child or grandchild the ordinary way can backfire. A straightforward inheritance or a personal-injury settlement can hand someone a lump...
Supplemental Security Income excludes your home and one car from its $2,000 limit
The number that decides whether a low-income disabled or elderly person keeps their Supplemental Security Income is $2,000. Cross that line in countable assets and...