The financial news that actually matters
For millions of Generation X workers, retirement at 65 is starting to look less like a milestone and more like a luxury. Americans born roughly between 1965 and 1980 are moving toward retirement with too little saved, less access to traditional pensions than the generation ahead of them, and growing uncertainty around Social Security. For…
Delaying Social Security is one of the few retirement decisions that can permanently raise guaranteed monthly income. For workers with strong earnings histories, the difference between claiming at 62 and waiting until 70 is not small. It can amount to well over $2,000 a month, every month, for life. That is where a six-figure lifetime…
Nearly 3 million people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans were forced to find new coverage for 2026 after insurers pulled plans from markets around the country, creating one of the biggest disruptions the program has seen in years. The shift affected about 1 in 10 beneficiaries in non-employer HMO and PPO Medicare Advantage plans, according…
Social Security’s financing problem is no longer an abstract warning buried in an annual report. The latest projections now point to a much tighter timetable, with the program’s main retirement trust fund potentially reaching exhaustion early in the next decade if Congress does nothing. That does not mean Social Security disappears. It does mean the…
Tax refunds are up this filing season, but not by as much as Republicans promised after passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. IRS data through the week ending March 13 shows the average refund at $3,623, up from $3,271 at the same point last year. That $352 increase is real money for households that…
Mortgage rates moved lower again in mid-February, opening a refinance window that had been mostly shut for much of the past two years. For homeowners who financed at 6.5% to 7.5% during the recent rate spike, even a modest drop has started to change the math in a meaningful way. That shift matters because refinancing…
Retired workers collecting Social Security in 2026 receive an average monthly benefit of $2,076.41. On paper, that can still sound like a meaningful monthly cushion. In practice, it rarely stretches as far as people assume once the most basic bills start hitting. For millions of older Americans, the problem is not one oversized expense. It…
Retirees often expect their tax bill to drop once the paychecks stop. In reality, federal income taxes can eat into a fixed-income budget long after full-time work ends. For households headed by someone ages 65 to 74, average federal income taxes reached $5,404 a year in the latest data. That is money that could go…
Nationwide Building Society has trimmed fixed mortgage rates in a move that could intensify competition across the UK home-loan market just as buyers and homeowners are searching for clearer signs of relief. The timing matters. Borrowing costs are no longer at the painful highs seen after the market turmoil of recent years, but they are…
A major retirement-plan change is now in force for some older, higher-paid workers, and the costly mistake is assuming last year’s 401(k) catch-up election can stay on autopilot. Beginning in 2026, many employees age 50 and older who used to make pre-tax catch-up contributions must now make those extra contributions as Roth instead. That matters…