The financial news that actually matters
Picture a 16-year-old lifeguard who earns $3,500 between Memorial Day and Labor Day. After buying a pair of sneakers and setting aside gas money, she still has enough to do something most adults wish they had done at her age: open a Roth IRA. If she puts $2,000 into that account and never adds another…
A retired worker collecting the average Social Security check today would see roughly $81 more per month starting next January if early cost-of-living adjustment estimates hold. And for the first time, the average spousal benefit would cross $1,000 a month, a threshold that has been inching closer for years but never quite arrived. As of…
For 15 straight years, Medicare Advantage grew without interruption. More enrollees signed up, more insurers entered the market, and more plans advertised $0 monthly premiums bundled with dental, vision, and hearing benefits that traditional Medicare does not cover. That unbroken streak is now over. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that the average…
When an orthopedic surgeon in one of six pilot states submits a request to perform knee surgery on a 72-year-old Medicare patient, the claim no longer goes straight to CMS for payment. Instead, it lands with a private technology vendor, which uses algorithms and clinical reviewers to decide whether the procedure should happen at all….
A 50-year-old teacher in Virginia has $180,000 sitting in her 403(b). She knows she should own long-term-care insurance. She has even been quoted a premium: $2,200 a year for a standalone policy. But between her mortgage, two kids in daycare, and a car payment, writing that check has never quite made the cut. As of…
When Alyssa Bridgeman left her warehouse logistics job in 2021, she didn’t think much about the $2,800 sitting in her 401(k). She started a new position, enrolled in a new plan, and moved on. Two years later, she learned her old balance had been pushed into a default IRA invested in a money-market fund earning…
Somewhere in the retirement system, there is probably an account with your name on it that you have completely forgotten about. Maybe it is from a job you left five years ago, or ten, or fifteen. Maybe the plan changed administrators and the statements stopped coming. Maybe the balance felt too small to deal with…
Until recently, a trip to the pharmacy for a shingles vaccine could cost a Medicare enrollee more than a week’s worth of groceries. Shingrix, the two-dose vaccine recommended for adults 50 and older, lists at roughly $200 per shot. Before 2023, most Part D plans required enrollees to cover a copay, coinsurance, or deductible on…
Consider two workers who both earned at or above Social Security’s taxable ceiling for most of their careers. One files for benefits at 62. The other waits until 70. In 2026, the early filer collects $2,969 a month. The late filer collects $5,251. Same earnings history, same decades of maximum payroll contributions, yet the monthly…
Right now, a Medicare enrollee with heart disease and obesity who fills a monthly prescription for Wegovy pays roughly $1,349 at list price. Zepbound, the other blockbuster GLP-1 drug, lists at about $1,060. For seniors on fixed incomes, those numbers have made clinically proven medications functionally unavailable. That changes on July 1. A new CMS…