The financial news that actually matters
Somewhere in the stack of proposals Congress is weighing to keep Social Security solvent, one idea keeps surfacing in budget discussions on Capitol Hill: put a hard ceiling on benefits so that no retiree collects more than $50,000 a year, no matter how much they paid into the system over a career. The cap would…
When Social Security’s last May deposit hits bank accounts on May 27, 2026, retirees born after the 20th of the month will collect a check that looked like a raise back in January but has since been overtaken by rising prices. The 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment added roughly $56 a month to the average retirement…
A 61-year-old engineer in Dallas maxing out her 401(k) in 2025 could have socked away $3,250 more than her 58-year-old colleague down the hall, and most people in her position never touched the extra room. That gap exists because of a provision buried in the SECURE 2.0 Act that created a higher catch-up contribution limit…
Some widows, widowers and surviving divorced spouses have been opening their bank statements in recent months to find Social Security deposits several hundred dollars larger than expected. They did not file a new application. They did not call anyone. The Social Security Administration simply bumped them up. Under rules that have been on the books…
A retired school aide in Ohio. A former truck driver in Florida. A grandmother in Texas who co-signed a loan for a grandchild who never finished college. Across the country, millions of Americans over 55 are heading toward retirement with almost nothing saved, and a federal debt-collection mechanism that was dormant for years is now…
Fill up your tank this summer and you are, in a roundabout way, helping to set the size of next year’s Social Security raise. Federal inflation data through April 2026 points to a 3.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment for January 2027, which would add roughly $81 a month to the average retired-worker benefit and mark the…
For the first time in decades, the federal tax code includes a standalone deduction built specifically for Americans 65 and older, and it is worth up to $6,000 per qualifying filer. A married couple filing jointly where both spouses meet the age requirement can claim $12,000. The benefit was created by Section 70103 of the…
Millions of Social Security recipients woke up to their May deposits this morning, May 20, 2026, only to find that the raise Congress promised them in January is already underwater. If your birthday falls between the 11th and 20th of any month, today’s payment includes the 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment the Social Security Administration announced…
Somewhere between $81 and $87 a month. That’s the gap separating two early forecasts for the 2027 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment. Based on the current average retired-worker benefit of about $2,081 per month, 3.9 percent yields roughly $81 per month and 4.2 percent yields roughly $87 per month. The variable driving the disagreement is one…
A rival plan to save Social Security would tax every dollar earned above $250,000 – closing most of the shortfall without cutting a single check Social Security’s clock is ticking. The program’s combined trust funds are on track to run dry by 2035, according to the 2024 Trustees Report, the most recent available projection as…