The financial news that actually matters
Covers Social Security benefits, eligibility rules, payment calculations, and policy changes. It explains how benefits are determined and how they impact retirement income.
Many workers picture Social Security as the foundation of retirement, and for good reason, but the program was never designed to carry the whole load. For an average earner, the benefit is built to replace only about 40% of the wages earned before retirement. That leaves a gap of roughly 60% that has to come…
A wave of counterfeit Social Security “verification” notices is landing in inboxes across the country this year, and the messages are built to look like official government mail. They warn that a benefit is about to be suspended, that an account must be “re-verified,” or that a payment cannot be released until personal details are…
Early projections point to a Social Security cost-of-living raise of roughly 3.8% for 2027, which would add about $74 to the average monthly check. That would be a welcome bump for retirees who watched inflation chew through recent budgets. The catch is that a chunk of the increase never reaches the bank, because a higher…
A proposal moving through the House would do something Social Security has not done in more than half a century: raise every beneficiary’s monthly check across the board, on top of the usual inflation adjustment. The bill would lift benefits by 2% for current and future recipients, the first such increase in 52 years, and…
Eight senators from both parties introduced legislation on July 14 to force Congress into action on Social Security before the retirement trust fund runs dry. The bill, S. 4979, arrives roughly six years before the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance fund is projected to be depleted in the fourth quarter of 2032, at which point only…
Retired teachers, police officers, and firefighters across the country are receiving larger Social Security checks after Congress eliminated two penalties that had reduced or wiped out benefits for public-sector retirees with non-covered pensions. The Social Security Administration (SSA) reported that it has completed over 3.1 million payments totaling $17 billion under the new law, finishing…
About 71.255 million Americans received Social Security payments in June 2026, and the average monthly check across all beneficiary types came to $1,937.53. That figure, roughly $1,940, masks sharp differences between retired workers, disabled workers, and survivors, differences that a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment applied in January has done little to erase. For tens of…
Roughly 73 million Americans who receive Social Security checks could see their monthly payments rise by about $74 next year, based on early consumer price readings that put the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment on track near 3.8 percent. That would represent a meaningful jump from the 2.8 percent raise that took effect with December 2025 payments,…
Workers approaching retirement age stand to gain as much as 32% in higher monthly Social Security benefits by waiting until 70 to claim, a decision that hinges on a simple but powerful formula: for people born in 1943 or later, each year of delay past full retirement age adds 8% to the monthly check. The…
Tens of millions of American retirees and near-retirees face an automatic benefit reduction of roughly $10,600 a year per two-earner couple if Congress fails to act before the Social Security retirement trust fund runs out of reserves in the fourth quarter of 2032. The depletion date, confirmed by the program’s own trustees, would not end…