The financial news that actually matters
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…
For the first time in four decades, Americans who finance a new car can deduct the interest on their auto loan from their federal taxes. The provision, tucked into the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in 2025, revives a write-off that vanished after the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and gives qualifying…
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…
When the One Big Beautiful Bill Act became law in May 2025, it carried a provision that most overtime-eligible workers had never lobbied for and many still do not know exists: a federal income tax deduction for qualified overtime pay. The write-off, which took effect retroactively for the entire 2025 tax year, lets workers subtract…
When Congress passed the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, a three-bedroom ranch house in San Jose might have sold for $280,000. Today that same house could fetch $1.5 million or more. A single homeowner who held on for the full ride would owe federal capital-gains tax on roughly $750,000 of profit after applying the $250,000…
Your phone rings. The caller ID says Apple. A recorded voice warns that suspicious activity has been detected on your account and asks you to press 1 to speak with a support advisor. A live person picks up, sounds professional, and tells you the only way to protect your funds is to transfer them to…
A freelance graphic designer who pocketed $12,000 between April and May 2026 but set nothing aside for taxes is about to find out exactly what the IRS charges for that oversight. The second quarterly estimated tax payment for 2026 is due June 15, and for the millions of self-employed workers, rideshare drivers, and gig-economy contractors…
For years, homeowners paying mortgage insurance had to wait and wonder whether Congress would renew a federal tax deduction that kept expiring. That cycle is over. A provision tucked inside the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4, 2025, permanently allows borrowers who itemize their taxes to deduct mortgage insurance premiums…
Hurricane season opens June 1, 2026, and an unknown number of Florida homeowners with properties valued at $400,000 or more will enter it without wind coverage from the state’s insurer of last resort. The reason: they have not purchased a flood insurance policy, which Citizens Property Insurance Corporation now requires as a condition of providing…
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