The financial news that actually matters
For decades, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public employees who also qualified for Social Security ran into a frustrating surprise at retirement: their earned benefit, or the survivor benefit from a spouse, arrived far smaller than expected — sometimes wiped out altogether. Two obscure rules were the reason. A law that took effect at…
A retiree who takes Social Security early and keeps a job can be in for a jolt: the monthly check shrinks, sometimes to nothing, once earnings climb past a certain point. The reaction is often anger, followed by a decision to quit working. Both are usually mistakes. The reduction is real, but it is not…
A retiree who already gets a monthly Social Security deposit may assume the size of that check is settled for good. It is not. Between full retirement age and age 70, the government lets beneficiaries hit pause on their own payments — and every month spent on hold quietly ratchets the eventual benefit higher. It…
Plenty of people sign up for Social Security the day they become eligible, then watch their finances settle into a stronger shape and wish they had held off. What many of them never learn is that the decision is not always final. Federal rules give retirees a limited chance to erase an early claim, hand…
A new work requirement is set to reshape Medicaid across most states, and it lands on enrollees no later than January 2027. Under a rule the federal government issued in June 2026, many adults will have to show they are working, studying, or volunteering at least 80 hours a month to keep their coverage. Health-policy…
An executive order President Trump signed in August 2025 set in motion a change that could reshape what sits inside millions of workplace retirement accounts. The order pushes federal regulators to clear the way for 401(k) and similar plans to hold private equity, private credit, real estate, and cryptocurrency — assets long reserved for pensions…
A new federal tax break aimed squarely at older Americans took effect for the 2025 tax year, and by law it is set to disappear after 2028. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed in July 2025, created a temporary senior deduction worth up to $6,000 for each taxpayer who is 65 or older, stacked…
When a spouse who paid into Social Security dies, the survivor faces a choice that can shape the rest of their retirement income — and getting the order wrong can leave money unclaimed for years. A widow or widower can receive as much as the full benefit the late spouse was collecting, or was entitled…
A year into the largest overhaul of federal food assistance in decades, the number of people dropped from the program has climbed past four million — and a large share of them are children. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, still widely called food stamps, has lost participants every month since the summer of 2025, when…
A common fear after a long marriage ends is that a former spouse’s Social Security record disappears along with everything else divided in the divorce. It does not. Federal rules let a divorced person collect a benefit worth as much as half of an ex-spouse’s full retirement amount, as long as the marriage lasted at…