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.
A retiree does not have to be careless to lose a Social Security payment to fraud. The vulnerability that criminals exploit most often is an empty seat: an account that the beneficiary never claimed, which a thief can then open in that person’s name using stolen personal data. Once inside, an impostor can change where…
A marriage that ended years ago can still put money in a retiree’s pocket. Social Security allows a divorced person to claim a benefit based on a former spouse’s earnings record, and doing so takes nothing away from that ex-spouse. The rule is one of the least understood corners of the program, and every year…
Collecting a Social Security check and a paycheck at the same time sounds like a straightforward way to boost income before fully retiring. Before full retirement age, though, a rule known as the retirement earnings test can claw back part of those benefits, withholding $1 for every $2 earned above an annual limit. For a…
The size of a Social Security check is not fixed at retirement age; it depends heavily on the single decision of when to start collecting. For a retiree whose full retirement age is 67, holding off until age 70 raises the monthly benefit by roughly 24 percent, a permanent increase that lasts for the rest…
A federal program that wipes out most of the cost of prescription drugs for lower-income Medicare enrollees is sitting unused by a large share of the very people it was built for. The benefit, known as Extra Help, carries an estimated value of about $5,900 a year, yet the Social Security Administration reports that millions…
Some Medicare mistakes can be fixed the following year. Missing the Part B enrollment window is not one of them. The penalty for signing up late is not a one-time fee; it is a surcharge that attaches to the monthly premium and, for most people, never comes off. How the Part B late-enrollment penalty is…
Each fall, some Medicare Advantage members open a letter telling them their plan will not be offered the following year. It reads like bad news, and the scramble to find replacement coverage can be stressful. Buried in that disruption, though, is a valuable and time-limited right that many enrollees never learn they have. The guaranteed-issue…
Many families assume the home is the one asset that always passes untouched to the next generation. When long-term care was paid for by Medicaid, that assumption can be wrong. Federal law directs states to seek repayment from the estate of a deceased beneficiary, and for many households the estate’s largest piece is the house….
For the first time in the history of Medicare’s prescription program, there is now a hard ceiling on what a beneficiary can spend out of pocket on covered medications in a single year. In 2026 that ceiling is $2,100. Once a person’s own spending on covered Part D drugs reaches that amount, the plan pays…
Millions of retirees are surprised to learn that the Social Security benefits they earned over a lifetime of work can be taxed a second time in retirement. The rule that decides how much depends on a pair of dollar figures that have not moved in more than four decades. Because those figures were never adjusted…
Retirement Shield
Free retirement updates
Social Security and Medicare change every year, and nobody sends you a memo. The free Retirement Shield newsletter breaks down what changed and what to do.