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.
Roughly 70 million Americans who depend on Social Security retirement checks face a 22 percent benefit cut starting in late 2032 unless Congress acts first. The program’s Board of Trustees released its 2026 annual report on June 9, confirming that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund will be depleted by the fourth quarter of…
A record share of 401(k) participants withdrew emergency cash from their retirement accounts last year, driven in part by new penalty-free distribution rules Congress created through the SECURE 2.0 Act. The surge raises pointed questions about whether easier access to retirement savings is helping workers through genuine crises or quietly draining the accounts they will…
Americans age 50 and older will be able to stash an extra $8,000 in their 401(k) plans in 2026, a jump in the catch-up contribution ceiling that the IRS confirmed through its annual cost-of-living adjustment notice. Combined with a new standard elective deferral limit of $24,500, the change means an eligible worker could shelter up…
Retirement savers in the United States ended 2024 with account balances at all-time highs, driven by strong equity markets, even as a growing share of participants tapped their 401(k) plans early through hardship withdrawals. The tension between rising balances and rising leakage sits at the center of a policy experiment that began with the Bipartisan…
Americans who turned 73 this year face a hard deadline: withdraw the required minimum distribution from their retirement accounts by December 31 or owe the IRS an excise tax equal to 25% of the shortfall. That penalty, set by the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, replaced the older 50% rate but still represents a steep…
Scharmaine Lawson Baker, a Louisiana nurse practitioner, will spend more than seven years in federal prison after a jury found she submitted over $12.1 million in false Medicare claims tied to medically unnecessary cancer genetic tests and kickback payments. The 87-month sentence, paired with $1,508,868.25 in restitution and three years of supervised release, closes one…
A Florida jury convicted Brett Blackman, owner of the health care software company HealthSplash, of conspiracy to defraud Medicare through a scheme that generated more than $1 billion in false claims for durable medical equipment patients never needed. The conviction follows a trial in the Southern District of Florida and adds to a string of…
Taxpayers who contribute to a Roth IRA hold a flexibility that most other retirement accounts do not offer: the money they put in can come back out at any time without triggering income tax or an early-withdrawal penalty. That right rests on a specific set of federal ordering rules, codified in regulation and tracked through…
Workers saving for retirement through a 401(k) or IRA will have more room to stash pre-tax dollars starting in 2026, with the elective deferral ceiling climbing to $24,500 and the IRA cap rising to $7,500. Those higher limits, announced by the IRS, let savers build bigger balances faster. But larger balances carry a less obvious…
A growing number of American workers are tapping their retirement savings early, pulling hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans at a time when the average account balance has slipped to roughly $141,000. The trend signals that short-term financial pressure is overriding long-term retirement planning for a widening share of the workforce, raising hard questions about whether…