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
Earn over $150,000? Your 401(k) catch-up must now go into a Roth, taxed up front
Workers who earned more than $150,000 from their employer in the prior year will no longer be able to stash catch-up 401(k) contributions in a...
$1,690 a month is the most you can earn on disability in 2026 before your benefits stop
Workers collecting Social Security Disability Insurance who pick up part-time jobs in 2026 face a hard earnings ceiling: $1,690 per month for non-blind individuals. Earn...
A revocable living trust passes your home and accounts to heirs without the cost and delay of probate.
Families who lose a loved one often discover that a home, bank accounts, and other assets cannot be touched for months while a probate court...
Search the PBGC database for a pension from an employer whose plan shut down.
When a company shutters its pension plan, the promise of a monthly check can seem to vanish with it. For many workers, the Pension Benefit...
Divorced after at least 10 years of marriage? You can claim up to half an ex-spouse’s Social Security, and it never lowers their check.
Millions of Americans who ended a long marriage may be leaving money on the table. Under federal rules, a person whose marriage lasted at least...
Converting some IRA money to a Roth in the low-income years before age 73 shrinks the required withdrawals later.
Retirees with large traditional IRA balances face a predictable tax squeeze once they turn 73 and mandatory withdrawals begin. Those forced distributions, calculated by dividing...
Social Security has lost about 7,500 workers, and some field offices are now closing or cutting their hours.
Roughly 7,500 fewer workers staff the Social Security Administration today compared with a decade ago, and the squeeze is now hitting the public directly. Several...
Medicare’s GLP-1 Bridge has a catch: the $50 monthly copay won’t count toward your annual drug-cost cap.
Medicare beneficiaries who start filling GLP-1 prescriptions through the new $50-per-month Bridge demonstration on July 1, 2026, will not see those payments chip away at...
2 million seniors who qualify for Medicare’s Extra Help skip $11.4 billion in drug savings.
More than 2 million people with Medicare qualify for Extra Help, a federal subsidy that slashes prescription drug costs, yet they have never enrolled. That...
If you qualify for QMB, providers cannot bill you for Medicare deductibles or copays.
Low-income Medicare enrollees in the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary program are shielded by federal law from paying any deductibles, coinsurance, or copayments for Medicare-covered services. Providers...
Your heirs inherit your home and investments at their value on the day you die, erasing the tax on a lifetime of gains.
Families who inherit a house bought decades ago or a stock portfolio held for a generation receive those assets at current market prices, not at...
Medicare’s GLP-1 Bridge starts July 1, covering Wegovy and Zepbound for a flat $50 a month for eligible seniors.
Millions of Medicare Part D enrollees with obesity or related conditions will gain access to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs for a flat $50 copay per month...
Inherit an IRA and you must usually empty it within 10 years, which can spike your taxes.
Americans who inherit a traditional IRA from a parent, sibling, or other non-spouse relative now face a hard clock: the entire account balance must be...
When your Medicare Advantage plan drops out for 2027, you get a guaranteed right to buy any Medigap policy.
Medicare Advantage enrollees whose plans exit the market at the end of 2026 will be shifted back to Original Medicare, but federal rules guarantee them...
$20,000 is the restored 1099-K reporting threshold, sparing casual online sellers a surprise tax form.
Millions of casual online sellers who expected to receive a Form 1099-K for relatively small amounts of activity on platforms like eBay, Etsy, and Venmo...
Which veterans would lose money under the new bill? Those paid for tinnitus, or for sleep apnea treated with a CPAP machine.
Veterans who file new disability claims for tinnitus or sleep apnea treated with a CPAP machine stand to receive lower monthly compensation under H.R. 9237,...
55 is the age when you can leave a job and pull money from that employer’s 401(k) without the early-withdrawal penalty.
Workers who leave a job at 55 or older can pull money from that employer’s 401(k) without paying the 10% early-withdrawal penalty that normally applies...
Medicare just added 15 more drugs to its negotiated-price list, with lower out-of-pocket costs landing in 2027.
Millions of Medicare Part D enrollees who rely on drugs for cancer and chronic conditions will see lower out-of-pocket costs starting January 1, 2027, after...
Social Security can now withhold half of your monthly check to claw back an overpayment it says you received.
Millions of Social Security recipients who owe money back to the federal government now face a sharply higher default bite from their monthly checks. The...
A spouse who earned little or nothing can still claim a Social Security check worth up to half the higher earner’s benefit.
Millions of Americans who spent years out of the paid workforce or earned modest wages still qualify for a Social Security check equal to half...