The financial news that actually matters
For most of the past several years, a tax cut that touched nearly every household was living on borrowed time. The larger standard deduction enacted in 2017 was scheduled to expire at the end of 2025, which would have shrunk the flat amount filers subtract from their income and pushed millions back toward the older…
Health savings accounts are among the most powerful tools a worker can carry into their sixties: money goes in untaxed, grows untaxed, and comes out untaxed when it pays for care. But the account collides with Medicare in a way that surprises many people who keep working past 65. The moment Medicare coverage begins, the…
Long-term-care insurance is one of the few products built specifically for the risk that frightens retirees most: the years-long nursing-home or in-home aide bill that no ordinary budget can absorb. The premiums are steep, and they climb as a policyholder gets older. What many buyers do not realize is that the tax code treats a…
Medical care is one of the largest and least predictable expenses of later life, from dental work and hearing aids to home nursing and long stretches of prescription drugs. The tax code offers a partial offset in the form of a deduction for medical and dental expenses, yet many older filers never claim it. Two…
Overtime pay has long been fully taxable like any other wages, but a provision of the tax law known as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill has changed that for the next several years. The measure, commonly called “no tax on overtime,” lets eligible workers deduct part of their overtime earnings from taxable income, up to…
A provision of the tax law known as the One, Big, Beautiful Bill has created a federal deduction that lets many tipped workers subtract a large share of their gratuities from taxable income. The break, often shorthanded as “no tax on tips,” applies to tax years 2025 through 2028 and can reach as much as…
Signing up for a Medicare Advantage plan is not a life sentence. Federal rules give members two separate chances each year to change course, including the option to walk away from a private plan entirely and return to Original Medicare. Yet a striking number of enrollees stay put in plans that no longer fit, unaware…
A single six-month window early in a person’s Medicare life quietly decides how much supplemental coverage will cost for the rest of that retirement. It is called the Medigap Open Enrollment Period, and during it an insurance company cannot reject an applicant or raise the price because of diabetes, heart disease, cancer history, or any…
For many older Americans, the largest financial threat in retirement is not a market crash or a phone scam. It is a long stay in a nursing home or a steady need for help at home that Medicare was never built to pay for. The kind of care most people picture when they imagine growing…
Medicare comes with a deadline that carries one of the most unforgiving consequences in the federal benefits system. Miss the window to sign up for Part B without a valid reason, and the government can tack a permanent surcharge onto the monthly premium — one that does not disappear after a year or two but…