The financial news that actually matters
A general consumer finance category covering everyday money decisions, budgeting, saving, debt management, credit behavior, and personal financial improvement strategies.
Many people assume that if they never get around to writing a will, their belongings will simply pass to the loved ones they had in mind. The law does not work that way. When someone dies without a valid will, that person is said to have died intestate, and a set of state statutes, not…
Savings held at a large national bank often earn almost nothing, a fact many account holders never notice because the interest lines on a statement are so small. Yet the same balance parked in a high-yield savings account can earn a strikingly larger return, and the money is just as safe. Understanding why the gap…
Two tax-advantaged accounts help people cover medical costs with pretax dollars, and they are often confused because their names sound alike. A flexible spending account and a health savings account both lower the cost of care, but they behave very differently when the calendar turns over. The gap between them can cost a household hundreds…
Property taxes do not shrink when a homeowner retires and their income drops, which is how a longtime resident can end up with a tax bill that consumes an outsized share of a fixed income. To address exactly that squeeze, many states run relief programs known as property-tax circuit breakers. Like an electrical circuit breaker…
When a wartime veteran dies, the surviving spouse is sometimes left with a sharply reduced income and no awareness that the Department of Veterans Affairs offers a monthly benefit built for exactly that situation. The Survivors Pension is a tax-free payment for eligible low-income surviving spouses and dependent children of deceased wartime veterans. It is…
Many older adults assume their Social Security income puts them just over the line for food assistance, so they never apply, or they apply and accept a token benefit without realizing the amount can be larger. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program calculates benefits after subtracting certain living costs, and two of those subtractions, for shelter…
Life insurance sold to people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies frequently comes in the form of whole-life or other permanent policies, which carry a savings component and premiums to match. For many older buyers whose real need is a defined amount of protection for a defined stretch of time, a term policy covering the…
One of the most persistent pitches aimed at retirement savers is the idea of buying an annuity and holding it inside a traditional or Roth IRA. On the surface it sounds like a way to layer two tax advantages on top of each other. In practice, the second layer does nothing, because the money is…
For many older Americans the family home is the largest asset they own and the one they most want to pass to their children. Long-term nursing-home care, which can cost several thousand dollars a month, threatens that plan. Because Medicaid is the main payer for extended nursing-home stays and is means-tested, families sometimes use an…
Leaving money to a family member with a disability can backfire in a way most people never anticipate. Government benefits that cover housing, health care, and daily living for people with disabilities are usually means-tested, so an outright inheritance can push the recipient over the asset limit and cut off the very support they depend…