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.
At midnight on June 1, 2026, the public comment window closes on a Labor Department proposal that would let employers place private equity and cryptocurrency funds inside the default investment lineups of 401(k) plans. These are the portfolios workers land in when they never make an active choice, and they hold the bulk of retirement…
Heirs who inherit a Roth IRA face the same 10-year withdrawal deadline that applies to inherited traditional accounts, but they keep every dollar they pull out. That split between a fixed timeline and zero federal income tax creates a planning window unlike anything else in the retirement system. For families sitting on large inherited Roth…
A cancer patient waiting on chemotherapy approval. A diabetic whose insulin switch sits in a queue. A psychiatrist watching a patient destabilize while paperwork bounces between a clinic and an insurer’s review desk. These are not hypotheticals. According to the American Medical Association’s 2024 Prior Authorization Physician Survey, 94% of physicians say prior authorization delays…
Linda, a 63-year-old administrative coordinator in Ohio earning $60,000 a year, opened her bank statement last January and found three months of Social Security checks missing. She had claimed benefits at 62, expecting $1,600 a month to supplement her paycheck. Instead, the Social Security Administration withheld $18,300 over the course of the year. She was…
A Medicare beneficiary filling a specialty cancer prescription that costs $15,000 a year will, at some point in 2026, walk up to the pharmacy counter and owe nothing. Not a reduced copay. Not a percentage of the list price. Zero. That moment arrives when their qualifying out-of-pocket spending on covered Part D drugs crosses $2,100…
A married couple in suburban Ohio, both 62, with $600,000 sitting in traditional IRAs and a comfortable but not extravagant retirement income, faces a question that will quietly shape their finances for the next three decades: should they pay tax on those IRA dollars now, at a rate they know, or wait and hope that…
A retired teacher in suburban Ohio who reported $108,900 of modified adjusted gross income on her 2024 tax return will pay $202.90 a month for Medicare Part B in 2026. Her former colleague down the street, who reported $109,100 after a modest Roth IRA conversion, will pay $284.10. That $200 gap in annual income triggers…
A physician in Los Angeles rolls a $2.4 million 401(k) into a traditional IRA after leaving a hospital system. Two years later, a malpractice plaintiff wins a judgment and moves to garnish the account. Under California law, a court can order part of that IRA turned over if it decides the balance exceeds what the…
Out of the roughly 67 million Americans collecting Social Security, only a sliver of a sliver will ever see a monthly deposit anywhere close to $5,455. Yet that is the projected maximum monthly benefit for a worker turning 70 in 2027, up about 4 percent from the current ceiling of $5,181 at age 70 in…
Most workers in a 401(k) plan never choose where their money goes. They get auto-enrolled, and a plan fiduciary picks the default fund on their behalf. According to Vanguard’s 2024 survey of its recordkeeping clients, roughly 60% of every dollar flowing into 401(k) plans lands in one of those default options. Now the Department of…