The financial news that actually matters
A retired engineer in Dallas who earned six figures for 30 years and waited until 70 to claim Social Security might collect more than $61,000 a year from the program. Under a proposal now circulating in Washington, that check would be cut by roughly $11,000, capped at $50,000 annually, with no change for the vast…
In less than two months, the federal government will begin depositing $1,000 into investment accounts for millions of American children. The program, officially called Trump accounts, covers every U.S.-citizen baby born since January 1, 2025, and allows parents to contribute up to $5,000 more each year, invested in S&P 500 and other broad stock index…
Gas prices have climbed past $4.50 a gallon in much of the country, and for the 66 million Americans who depend on Social Security, that pain at the pump is now showing up somewhere unexpected: next year’s raise. The latest projections from The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan advocacy group that tracks the cost-of-living adjustment…
A retired teacher in Texas who spent 30 years in a classroom and a decade in private-sector jobs before that might have seen her Social Security check cut by hundreds of dollars a month. A former firefighter in Ohio collecting a state pension could have watched his spousal benefit disappear entirely. For decades, two federal…
A gallon of gas and a barrel of oil are doing what Congress hasn’t: pushing Social Security checks higher. The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan advocacy group that closely tracks inflation data, now projects the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) at roughly 3.2%, a meaningful jump from the group’s 2.8% estimate just one month earlier. For…
The raise looked decent on paper. When the Social Security Administration locked in a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment for 2026, the average retired worker stood to gain roughly $57 a month. Then Medicare took its cut. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services raised the standard Part B premium by $17.90 per month for 2026,…
Turn 67 in 2025, file for Social Security with a perfect earnings record, and the government will send you $4,018 a month. That is the absolute ceiling for a worker who earned at or above the taxable maximum for 35 straight years and claimed right at full retirement age. After a 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment,…
Somewhere in the United States, a 70-year-old retiree who spent 35 years earning near the top of the pay scale and strategically delayed claiming Social Security is collecting roughly $5,200 a month. Under a proposal to cap individual benefits at $50,000 per year, that check would shrink by more than $12,000 annually. The idea comes…
The first round of Social Security deposits for May 2026 landed in bank accounts on Wednesday, May 14, and for millions of retirees the numbers on screen tell a story they have seen before: a cost-of-living raise that looked decent on paper but shrank considerably after Medicare took its cut. The 2.8 percent COLA that…
Right now, a Medicare enrollee who fills a Wegovy prescription without supplemental coverage faces a list price north of $1,300 a month. Starting July 1, 2026, a new federal program will cap that cost at $50. The program is called the Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will operate…