The financial news that actually matters
A surviving spouse does not have to reach the traditional retirement ages of 66 or 67 to begin collecting Social Security. Survivor benefits become available as early as age 60, years before a person could claim benefits on their own work record. For a widow or widower facing a sudden drop in household income, that…
Families sometimes assume that if several relatives qualify for Social Security on one earner’s work history, each simply receives their full amount and the checks add up. Social Security does not work that way. There is a ceiling, known as the family maximum, on the combined benefits that can be paid on a single worker’s…
Most people assume their future Social Security check is set by a formula they cannot influence. In fact, that formula is only as accurate as the earnings history feeding it, and that history is not always right. A year of wages that never got posted to a worker’s record, because of an employer’s payroll mistake,…
Millions of Medicare enrollees who take prescription drugs are likely to see their monthly plan premiums climb for 2027, and the reason has nothing to do with the drugs themselves. A temporary federal subsidy that has been holding down the cost of stand-alone Part D drug plans is scheduled to end at the close of…
Financial fraud aimed at older Americans keeps producing the same grim arithmetic: a lifetime of savings, dismantled a few thousand dollars at a time by someone the victim trusted. A Florida case that closed this month shows how far that can go when the person doing the stealing is a financial professional. A St. Augustine…
A new executive order is set to reshape what can sit inside a workplace retirement account. Signed in August 2025, the directive aims to open 401(k) plans to so-called alternative assets, including private equity, real estate funds, and cryptocurrency, categories that have long been walled off from ordinary retirement savers and reserved mostly for pensions…
A little-noticed change in how food-stamp benefits are calculated is quietly shrinking the monthly help that many households receive, and the way it is written creates a sharp dividing line based on age and disability. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program long gave households an automatic utility credit when they received even a small amount of…
A change in how Social Security recovers money it believes it paid by mistake is now hitting retirees where it hurts most: the monthly deposit. For overpayment notices dated on or after April 25, 2025, the agency’s default is to withhold up to half of a person’s Title II benefit each month until the balance…
For many older homeowners, the house is the single most valuable thing they will leave behind, and the last thing they want is for it to get stuck in probate court while heirs wait and legal bills mount. A transfer-on-death deed offers a simple way to hand the property directly to the next generation the…
Turning 65 comes with a tax benefit that requires no receipts, no schedules, and no shoebox of paperwork. The standard deduction — the flat amount every taxpayer can subtract from income before tax is calculated — gets bigger for people 65 and older. The extra amount is automatic for those who take the standard deduction,…