Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
As Affordable Care Act coverage gets more expensive, the Trump administration is promoting a cheaper alternative built around short-term insurance and expanded tax-favored accounts. The pitch is simple: lower monthly premiums and more flexibility at a moment when many families are staring down painful rate hikes. The catch is that the new setup shifts far…
Every year, retirees who did everything right during their working lives are tripping over a little-known IRS rule and paying dearly for it. Missed required withdrawals from retirement accounts are triggering an estimated $1.7 billion in penalties annually, a leak in household finances that is entirely avoidable. The problem is not that the rule is…
Social Security is sliding toward a funding crunch, and one of the Republican Party’s most prominent fiscal hawks is now arguing that higher taxes on the wealthy have to be part of the fix. Mitt Romney, long associated with calls for spending restraint, is urging his party to accept new revenue as Social Security nears…
The United States has never had more 401(k) millionaires, yet the milestone says as much about who is being left behind as it does about who is getting ahead. A small slice of workers is watching their retirement balances swell into seven figures, while tens of millions of others struggle to build even a modest…
Hospitals and health systems across the country are starting the new year by cutting ties with Medicare Advantage, leaving many older adults to discover that their trusted doctors and hospitals are suddenly out of network. The shift is not limited to a single region or insurer, and it reflects deeper tension over how these private…
Medicare Advantage has gone from a niche option to a political and financial flashpoint, and the debate is no longer confined to policy circles. When “Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver and personal finance star Suze Orman both urge older Americans to rethink these private plans, it signals that the stakes for retirees are high…
The House has cleared a major Social Security package that touches everything from benefit fairness to how clearly the government explains claiming ages, but the real test now sits across the Capitol. With the Senate yet to act, tens of millions of retirees and workers are stuck in limbo over changes that could shape their…
Social Security is about to deliver a meaningful raise in 2026, and the size of that increase will look different depending on whether you claim at 62, wait until your full retirement age, or hold out until 70 and beyond. To make sense of what that means for real monthly checks, I am looking at…
Retirees in a handful of Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states are on track for some of the largest Social Security pay bumps in 2026, with lifetime residents potentially seeing gains that add up to roughly $2,000 over the course of the year. The increases are tied to a nationwide adjustment, but higher average benefits in certain…
President Donald Trump has spent years promising to wipe out federal taxes on Social Security benefits, casting himself as the champion of retirees squeezed by the IRS. What seniors actually received instead was a narrower income tax break that leaves the basic structure of Social Security taxation intact and, according to specialists, risks weakening the…