The financial news that actually matters
A health savings account is often described as a checking account set aside for medical bills, but that description sells it short. For older Americans who qualify to fund one, it doubles as one of the most tax-friendly retirement accounts in the entire code, stacking three separate tax advantages on top of one another. And…
For decades, retirement savers had to start pulling money out of their tax-deferred accounts not long after they stopped working. A pair of recent laws pushed that starting line back, and it is still moving. The age at which the government requires those withdrawals now depends on the year a person was born, and for…
Two retirement accounts can hold nearly identical investments and still be governed by opposite rules once their owner reaches their seventies. A traditional IRA or 401(k) eventually forces money out on the government’s schedule, whether the owner needs it or not, and a missed withdrawal carries one of the steeper penalties in the tax code….
Retirement often arrives with plans to travel, whether that means a long-awaited cruise, a visit to family living overseas, or an extended winter in a warmer country. Many older Americans assume the Medicare coverage they paid into for decades simply travels with them. In most cases it does not. Original Medicare generally stops at the…
Choosing a Medigap policy is often treated as a one-time decision, made once around age 65 and then forgotten. For some buyers, though, the price on that policy is designed to rise as the years pass, and a plan that looked like a bargain at signup can become one of the largest fixed costs in…
When a parent starts needing help at home, many families assume Medicare will send an aide to handle the day-to-day. The home-health benefit is real and valuable, but it is far narrower than that hope suggests. It pays for skilled help delivered in short, periodic visits under a doctor’s plan of care, not for the…
Medicare Advantage plans are sold hard on their low or zero monthly premiums, and for a healthy year that pitch holds up. The part that rarely makes the advertisement is the ceiling on out-of-pocket spending, the amount a member can be asked to pay in a serious health year before the plan starts covering everything….
Most people who reach 65 never see a bill for Medicare Part A, the piece of the program that pays for inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing care, and hospice. That absence of a premium can make hospital coverage feel like a free part of turning 65, but it is not free at all. It was…
Many households know that a spouse and minor children can draw benefits on a retired or deceased worker’s Social Security record. Far fewer know that the total those family members can receive together is capped. The Social Security Administration sets a family maximum on each worker’s earnings record, and once the benefits owed to relatives…
Social Security retirement benefits are not handed out automatically to everyone who reaches a certain age. Eligibility has to be earned through years of paying into the system, and the program measures that history in units it calls credits. Most workers need 40 credits, which usually adds up to about ten years of work, before…