The financial news that actually matters
If the Social Security Administration flags you for an overpayment today, the agency will take your entire monthly check until the debt is paid off. Not 10 percent. Not a negotiated portion. Every dollar. That has been the reality since March 27, 2025, when SSA restored 100 percent withholding as the default recovery method for…
A software engineer in San Francisco earning $170,000 cannot contribute directly to a Roth IRA in 2026. Neither can a dual-income couple in Dallas pulling in $260,000 combined. The IRS has drawn the lines: the Roth IRA income phase-out begins at $153,000 of modified adjusted gross income for single filers and $242,000 for married couples…
A retired teacher in suburban Phoenix sells the house she bought in 1987, pockets a six-figure gain, and moves into a smaller condo. Two years later, her Medicare Part B premium jumps by nearly $1,000 for the year. She has not gone back to work. Her pension has not changed. The only thing different on…
Americans with high-deductible health plans will be able to stash a little more money in their health savings accounts next year. Beginning January 1, 2026, the annual HSA contribution limit rises to $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage, according to Revenue Procedure 2025-19, published by the IRS in May 2025. That is…
Most Americans never choose what their 401(k) money is invested in. They get auto-enrolled, a target-date fund is selected for them, and their paycheck contributions flow into a mix of stocks and bonds they may never examine. That passive arrangement now sits at the center of a high-stakes federal rulemaking: the Labor Department has proposed…
Turn 65, and your health savings account quietly transforms. Federal law drops the 20 percent penalty that normally applies when you pull HSA money for nonmedical spending. After that birthday, a withdrawal for groceries, a vacation, or a new roof is taxed exactly the same way as a traditional IRA distribution: ordinary income tax, nothing…
Say you borrow $20,000 from your 401(k) to cover a roof replacement. The paperwork takes a day, nobody pulls your credit, and the interest you pay goes right back into your own account. Eighteen months later, you get a better job offer and give notice. The plan administrator sends a letter: repay the remaining $14,000…
That caller telling seniors they’re owed a “Part D refund” from Medicare’s new $2,100 drug cap is a scam — real Medicare never calls uninvited or collects bank routing numbers The phone rings mid-morning. The caller ID shows an 800 number. A calm, professional voice tells a retired schoolteacher in Florida that Medicare owes her…
A 57-year-old engineer converts $80,000 from a traditional IRA into a Roth in January 2024, planning to let it grow tax-free through retirement. Three years later, at 60, she pulls $30,000 to cover a roof replacement. She is past 59½, so she assumes the withdrawal is penalty-free. Then her tax preparer delivers the bad news:…
A cashier earning $28,000 a year puts $2,000 into an IRA. She files her taxes, qualifies for the Saver’s Credit, and receives nothing. Her federal income tax liability was already wiped out by the standard deduction and the Earned Income Tax Credit, so a nonrefundable credit has no remaining value to deliver. That outcome is…