Category: Your Money

Two savers can keep the same $20,000 in cash at two federally insured banks and end the year hundreds of dollars apart, purely because of where the account is held. A large national bank often pays almost nothing on savings, while an online high-yield account at an equally insured institution can pay many times more….

The figure most savers remember is $250,000, the amount of deposit insurance the government guarantees at a failed bank. What far fewer people realize is that the limit applies separately to each legal category in which money is held, so a single household can carry well over a quarter-million dollars at one institution and still…

One of the most consequential decisions a pensioner makes happens on a single form, often signed years before it matters. When a traditional pension begins, the retiree usually must choose how the monthly benefit will be paid, and the central question is whether payments should stop at the retiree’s death or continue to a surviving…

A great deal of estate planning happens at a bank counter without anyone calling it that. Adding a simple payable-on-death designation to a checking, savings, or certificate account tells the bank exactly who should receive the money when the owner dies, and it lets that money bypass the slow, public court process known as probate….

A trip to the emergency room is stressful enough without a five-figure bill arriving weeks later because the treating hospital or one of its doctors turned out to be outside the patient’s insurance network. For years, that scenario, known as a surprise medical bill, drained savings from people who had no way to shop around…

For workers who reached their 50s with a thinner retirement balance than they had hoped, the tax code offers a deliberate second wind. Beginning in the year a saver turns 50, the government allows extra contributions to workplace plans and individual retirement accounts on top of the normal annual limits. These “catch-up” contributions are designed…

Parents of a child with a disability often face a painful tradeoff when they think about an inheritance. Leaving money directly to a son or daughter who relies on Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid can accidentally push that person over strict asset limits and cut off the very benefits that pay for housing, health care,…

Leaving a job before age 65 opens a coverage gap that catches many workers off guard: the employer health plan usually ends, but Medicare has not started. A federal law known as COBRA lets a departing worker keep that same job-based plan for a stretch of time, which can be a lifeline for someone with…

A life insurance policy is often the largest single sum a family receives after a death, and how that money is treated by the tax code and the courts can matter as much as the amount itself. For most beneficiaries, the payout arrives with two quiet advantages: the federal government generally does not tax it…

Many older Americans skip the food-assistance program entirely, convinced their Social Security check puts them over the line. What they miss is that the benefit is not based on gross income alone. The federal SNAP program lets certain expenses be subtracted before the monthly benefit is set, and two of those deductions, one for high…