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
Assisted living averages $6,200 a month, and Medicaid covers only the care
At a national median of $6,200 a month, a year in an assisted-living community now runs about $74,400, a bill that lands squarely in the...
Medicare will pay $274 for Ozempic and Wegovy in 2027, down 71%
The government has set a negotiated Medicare price of $274 for a month’s supply of the blockbuster semaglutide drugs sold as Ozempic and Wegovy, a...
Your Medicare plan must mail its 2027 Annual Notice of Change by September 30, and skimming it can lock you into higher costs
Every September, private Medicare Advantage and standalone Part D drug plans drop a document called the Annual Notice of Change into millions of mailboxes, and...
Social Security counts your highest 35 years, so one more year of work can replace a zero and lift your check
Social Security bases every retirement check on a worker’s 35 highest-earning years, a quirk of the formula that quietly reshapes millions of monthly benefits. For...
A spousal Social Security benefit maxes out at half the worker’s full amount
The most a spousal Social Security benefit can ever reach is half of what the working spouse would collect at full retirement age — no...
Claiming Social Security at 62 locks in a check about 30% smaller for life
Filing for Social Security at 62, the earliest age most workers can, permanently trims the monthly benefit by about 30 percent for anyone whose full...
Workers earning over $150,000 lose their 401(k) catch-up entirely in 2026 if their plan offers no Roth option
A new provision that took effect on January 1, 2026, can quietly erase a valuable tax break for higher-paid workers without any change on their...
Workers 50 and older can add an extra $8,000 to a 401(k) in 2026
Savers who turn 50 this year gain access to a larger shelter than any younger colleague can use: an extra $8,000 they can steer into...
Rolling a 401(k) straight into an IRA avoids the automatic 20% tax withholding
A worker who wants to move a 401(k) into an IRA can lose a fifth of the balance to the IRS the moment the check...
Donating an appreciated stock through a qualified charitable distribution lets retirees over 70½ satisfy a required withdrawal tax-free
Retirees who no longer need every dollar of a required withdrawal often watch it inflate their tax bill anyway, dragging more of their Social Security...
About 2 million seniors skip $11.4 billion in Medicare Extra Help each year
Roughly 2 million older Americans who qualify for Medicare’s most valuable prescription-drug subsidy never sign up for it, leaving an estimated $11.4 billion in assistance...
Fifteen more prescription drugs face Medicare price cuts in 2028, and for the first time the list includes doctor-administered Part B medicines
Medicare took its price-negotiation program into new territory this year, naming 15 more prescription drugs whose costs the government will bargain down for 2028 and,...
Who can get their entire $202.90 Medicare Part B premium paid? Limited-income seniors enrolled in a Medicare Savings Program
The standard Medicare Part B premium climbed to $202.90 a month in 2026, an increase of nearly $18 that lands on every enrollee’s Social Security...
The new $6,000 senior tax deduction phases out entirely above $175,000 in income and disappears after the 2028 tax year
A new federal tax break hands Americans 65 and older an extra $6,000 deduction, but two conditions quietly decide who actually benefits and for how...
Social Security’s 50% overpayment clawback still spares SSI recipients at 10%
When the Social Security Administration decides it paid someone too much, it can now recover the money by withholding half of that person’s monthly benefit,...
A divorced spouse can claim on an ex’s Social Security at 62 if the marriage lasted 10 years and they haven’t remarried
A divorce does not erase a person’s claim to Social Security built on a former spouse’s earnings record. As long as the marriage lasted at...
A dropped Medicare Advantage plan triggers a guaranteed right to buy any Medigap policy
Losing a Medicare Advantage plan through no choice of one’s own opens a door that is normally hard to walk through: the right to buy...
Waiting until survivor full retirement age unlocks a late spouse’s entire Social Security check
A surviving spouse who claims Social Security survivor benefits before reaching full retirement age gives up a permanent slice of the late partner’s check —...
Next year’s Social Security raise is tracking near 3.8%, enough to push the average spousal check past $1,000 for the first time
The projected 2027 cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security is holding near 3.8 percent, according to the latest independent forecast, and that estimate comes attached to...
An inherited Roth IRA is tax-free to heirs, but they must empty it within 10 years
Inheriting a Roth IRA can feel like receiving a gift with no strings attached, and on the tax side that is largely true. Money withdrawn...