The financial news that actually matters
Every spring, tax preparers across the country field the same panicked call: a retiree who pulled a lump sum from a traditional IRA or 401(k) expecting a refund, only to discover the IRS wants thousands of dollars instead. The surprise is not a glitch. It is baked into the way retirement-account withdrawals are taxed and…
North Carolina restored Medicaid provider payments in December 2025 after courts blocked steep rate cuts, but the $319 million budget shortfall that triggered those reductions has not been resolved. As of spring 2026, the state’s roughly 3 million Medicaid enrollees and the rural hospitals that serve them face the same funding cliff, with no public…
Your parent spent decades building a $500,000 IRA. You inherited it, and now the IRS wants a quarter of it back, possibly more, unless you handle the withdrawals correctly. That is the reality facing non-spouse beneficiaries under rules the IRS began enforcing in January 2025. As of May 2026, according to tax practitioners and financial…
For a retiree collecting the average Social Security benefit of about $1,976 a month, according to SSA data, a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment would add roughly $55 to each check ($1,976 x 0.028 = $55.33, rounded). That is the early 2027 COLA projection from The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a nonpartisan advocacy group that tracks benefit…
When Linda Ramirez retired after 30 years teaching in the Texas public school system, she assumed she would receive a survivor benefit from her late husband’s Social Security record. He had worked in the private sector for decades and paid into the system his entire career. But when she applied, the Social Security Administration told…
For decades, retired teachers, firefighters, and other public employees watched their Social Security checks shrink because of two federal provisions that penalized workers who also earned government pensions. That changed when the Social Security Fairness Act became law in January 2025. But even as millions of retirees finally see bigger payments, a separate policy shift…
The federal watchdog responsible for overseeing the Social Security Administration is sounding an alarm that goes well beyond routine bureaucratic concern: the agency is hemorrhaging experienced employees so rapidly that its ability to pay benefits on time, answer phones, and keep field offices open for roughly 73 million Americans is now in serious jeopardy. In…
A 55-year-old software engineer earning $185,000 has been maxing out her 401(k) for years, including the $7,500 catch-up contribution that goes straight into a pre-tax account. That option no longer exists for her. Starting with the 2026 plan year, every dollar of her catch-up contribution must flow into a Roth account, taxed now instead of…
For the first time in Medicare’s six-decade history, the standard Part B premium will top $200 a month. Beginning in January 2026, most of the more than 60 million Americans enrolled in Part B will pay $202.90 per month, a $17.90 jump from the current $185.00. The annual deductible climbs to $283, up $26 from…
Social Security deposits are hitting bank accounts across the country this week as the April 2026 payment cycle gets underway. The largest possible monthly check, $5,181, goes to retirees who delayed claiming until age 70 and earned at or above the taxable maximum for at least 35 years. That number reflects the 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment…