Retirement Planning
401(k), IRA, Roth accounts, pension plans, withdrawal strategies, required minimum distributions, and how much you need to retire.
Latest in Retirement Planning
A lump-sum pension buyout trades a lifetime monthly check for one cash payout you must manage yourself
An offer that lands in the mail from a former employer can look like a windfall: take a large one-time cash payment now instead of...
A surviving military spouse can qualify for a tax-free VA payment of more than $1,600 a month
A monthly benefit that many military families never claim can be worth more than $1,600 a month, tax-free, for the rest of a surviving spouse’s...
Medicaid’s five-year look-back can delay nursing-home coverage over money or property given away recently
A gift that felt generous can quietly postpone the day Medicaid starts paying for a nursing home. When someone applies for long-term-care Medicaid, the state...
A payable-on-death beneficiary lets a bank account skip probate and reach heirs directly
A single form at the bank can keep a checking or savings account out of probate entirely, sending the balance straight to a named person...
A free national search can turn up a lost pension from an employer that merged or shut down decades ago
Tens of millions of dollars in earned pension benefits sit uncollected across the country, waiting for people who moved, changed names, or simply lost track...
Roth 401(k) accounts no longer force required withdrawals during your lifetime
A quiet provision that took effect for the 2024 tax year removed one of the last penalties on Roth savings held inside a workplace plan....
Your heirs inherit your home and investments at their date-of-death value, erasing tax on a lifetime of gains
An asset held for decades can carry an enormous embedded tax bill: the capital gains tax owed on all the appreciation since it was bought....
A transfer-on-death deed passes your home to heirs without probate, avoiding thousands in court costs
Probate can consume months and thousands of dollars in court and attorney fees before heirs ever take title to a house, and in some states...
Medicaid can bill your estate after death, but a surviving spouse or disabled child can block a claim on the home
A retiree who spends years on Medicaid-funded nursing care can leave heirs an unwelcome surprise: a bill from the state, sent after death, seeking repayment...
A surviving spouse can roll a late partner’s IRA into their own and delay required withdrawals
When a spouse dies, the IRA left behind carries a choice that can preserve years of tax-deferred growth or forfeit it. A surviving husband or...
The Saver’s Credit gives lower-income workers up to $1,000 back for retirement contributions
A tax credit worth up to $1,000 sits unclaimed by many of the workers it was built for, because few realize the government will effectively...
A Roth IRA carries no lifetime required withdrawals, unlike a traditional IRA
At age 73, the owner of a traditional IRA must begin pulling money out whether the cash is needed or not, and every forced dollar...
A pension survivor option trims your monthly check but keeps paying a spouse for life
Choosing how a pension pays out is one of the few retirement decisions that cannot be undone, and the choice that protects a spouse comes...
Workers 60 to 63 can add an extra $11,250 to a 401(k) in 2026
A narrow group of older workers can shovel far more into a 401(k) in 2026 than everyone else. For employees who are 60, 61, 62,...
A new law set the estate-tax exemption at $15 million per person for 2026
Starting in 2026, an individual can pass up to $15 million to heirs before the federal estate tax applies, the result of a new law...
A qualified charitable distribution lets those 70½ and older give from an IRA and skip the tax on it
A qualified charitable distribution is one of the few moves in the tax code that lets money leave a retirement account without ever being taxed....
A spousal IRA lets a non-working spouse keep saving for retirement on the earner’s income
The tax code normally requires earned income to fund an individual retirement account, which would seem to lock out any spouse who does not draw...
A lump-sum pension buyout swaps a lifetime monthly check for one cash payout
A lump-sum pension buyout puts a single decision in front of a retiree: trade a monthly check that lasts a lifetime for one large cash...
About $2.1 trillion sits in 31.9 million forgotten 401(k)s, and a free federal Lost and Found can reunite you with yours
An estimated $2.1 trillion is sitting in roughly 31.9 million forgotten 401(k) accounts left behind at former employers, according to 2025 research from the retirement-account...
Amazon is cutting about 16,000 corporate jobs in 2026, and a severance check can roll into an IRA to defer taxes
Amazon told employees in early 2026 that it would eliminate about 16,000 corporate jobs, part of a restructuring that has cut close to 30,000 white-collar...