The financial news that actually matters
Covers retirement planning, Social Security benefits, pension systems, and long-term financial security. It helps readers understand how to prepare financially for retirement.
Choosing among Medicare’s many options can overwhelm even a careful planner, and the advice that arrives by mail or phone often comes from someone with a product to sell. There is a free alternative that most enrollees never use: a nationwide network of counselors, funded by the federal government, whose only job is to help…
Two of the biggest retirement decisions, when to start Medicare and when to claim Social Security, are often assumed to be a single choice. They are not. A person can enroll in Medicare at 65 while leaving Social Security untouched to grow, and for many retirees keeping the decisions separate is exactly the right strategy….
A paper benefit check sitting in a mailbox is an easy target, and mail theft has surged in recent years. Moving Social Security payments to electronic delivery removes the physical check from the equation entirely, which closes off one of the simplest ways a thief can intercept a retiree’s income. For most beneficiaries, electronic payment…
Retirement abroad appeals to a growing number of Americans, drawn by lower costs or family ties overseas. A common worry is whether leaving the country means giving up Social Security. For most retirees, it does not. Benefits generally continue in most of the world, with a short list of exceptions and a few reporting rules…
Retirees who claim Social Security early and keep working often worry that every dollar they earn or receive will chip away at their benefit. The rules are narrower than that fear suggests. Only certain kinds of income count against the limit that can temporarily reduce a benefit, and a great deal of a retiree’s money…
One of the simplest and most overlooked defenses against benefit theft is a free step most retirees have not taken. Claiming a personal online account with the Social Security Administration, before anyone else can, closes off a common avenue that identity thieves use to intercept payments. The protection comes not from anything the account does…
Many retirees keep the bulk of their savings at a brokerage firm and assume it is protected the same way a bank account is. It is protected, but by a different program with different limits, and the coverage is often misunderstood. Knowing exactly what that protection does and does not include matters most for households…
Social Security is usually pictured as income for the worker who earned it, and perhaps for a spouse. But a retiree who still has young or dependent children can trigger a second set of monthly checks, payments made to the children themselves and drawn on the same earnings record. It is an easily overlooked benefit…
Two of the most common ways older Americans pass money to the next generation are a life-insurance policy and a traditional IRA. On a statement the two can look almost interchangeable: a balance with a named beneficiary attached. Once federal taxes are applied, though, the amount an heir actually keeps can differ sharply between them….
Most people who reach 65 will need some form of long-term care before they die, whether that means help at home with bathing and dressing or a longer stay in an assisted-living or nursing facility. It ranks among the largest and least-covered expenses in retirement, because ordinary health insurance and Medicare pay for very little…