The financial news that actually matters
Each year the government sets the amount older Americans pay for Medicare’s medical coverage, and for 2026 that figure jumped hard. The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B climbed to $202.90, a roughly 9.7 percent increase that lands on nearly every retiree enrolled in the program. Because that premium is pulled straight out of…
A frozen-screen warning that a computer has been infected, paired with a phone number promising instant help, is one of the most reliable ways criminals separate older Americans from their savings. These tech-support scams form a category all their own, distinct from the investment and impersonation frauds that tend to grab bigger headlines. In its…
A class-action settlement is turning unwanted robocalls and text messages into a small but real payment for the people who received them. Under the agreement, certain Farmers Insurance customers and prospects who got automated telemarketing calls or texts without agreeing to them can file for up to $160, and the window to submit a claim…
Many older Americans treat a Social Security check as money that no one can touch. For the debts most retirees actually carry, that instinct is correct: a credit-card issuer or a hospital collection agency generally cannot pull a dollar out of a monthly benefit. Federal law, though, keeps a short list of obligations that can…
Federal prosecutors in Rhode Island have secured guilty pleas from two people who helped run a fraud ring built around one frightening message: a pop-up warning that a person’s financial accounts had been compromised. The operation reached older Americans in dozens of states, and by the government’s own accounting it stripped away more than five…
When a spouse dies, the surviving partner often assumes the household will keep drawing two Social Security checks, or at least a share of both. Social Security does not work that way. A widow or widower receives one benefit, the larger of their own retirement benefit or the survivor benefit based on the late spouse’s…
As gold trades at lofty levels this year, a cruel side effect has followed the rally: a surge in scams that convince older Americans to convert their life savings into gold bars and hand them to a stranger. The pitch works precisely because gold sounds safe, and criminals have learned to weaponize that trust. Police…
For the millions of Americans who receive Social Security Disability Insurance, one of the most common worries is what happens to the payments at retirement age. The answer is reassuringly simple. When a disability recipient reaches full retirement age, the benefit automatically converts to a retirement benefit, and the dollar amount stays the same. The…
Many lower- and middle-income workers hand back a benefit they never knew they had earned. A federal tax credit rewards people of modest means simply for putting money into a retirement account, and it can cut a tax bill by as much as $1,000, or $2,000 for a married couple filing jointly. Yet a large…
For decades, “full retirement age” for Social Security meant 65, and the number is lodged in the public imagination. It has quietly moved. For anyone born in 1960 or later, the age at which a worker qualifies for a full, unreduced benefit is now 67. That two-year shift changes the math on when to claim,…