Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
Social Security will send larger checks to roughly 75 million Americans starting in January 2026, but how much any household actually depends on that money varies dramatically from state to state. A 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment takes effect this month, and the latest federal data on where beneficiaries live reveals a widening gap between states…
Retirees who reach age 73 must begin pulling required minimum distributions from traditional IRAs and most workplace retirement plans, whether or not they need the money for living expenses. Skipping those withdrawals triggers an excise tax, while taking them can quietly inflate tax bills, push more Social Security benefits into taxable territory, and raise Medicare…
About 11,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day in the United States, a demographic surge that researchers have labeled the “peak 65” phenomenon. That wave is colliding with thin retirement savings, strained federal trust funds, and a labor market where millions of older Americans already work reduced hours to stay afloat. The question facing this…
Nearly half of Americans between the ages of 62 and 70 who collect Social Security retirement checks also earn wages from a job. That overlap between benefits and paychecks challenges the long-held assumption that claiming Social Security means leaving the workforce for good. The trend reflects a mix of financial pressure, shifting career expectations, and…
Social Security benefits will rise by 2.8% in 2026, a bump that adds roughly $50 a month to the average retired worker’s check. But that extra income will not go equally far everywhere. In states where housing, groceries, and utilities cost well below the national average, retirees on fixed incomes can expect their dollars to…
Federal data now shows that 38.2 million Americans provided unpaid eldercare in the 2023-2024 period, with the heaviest burden falling on workers aged 55 to 64 who are simultaneously approaching retirement. Lawmakers in Congress have responded with proposed legislation that would grant Social Security credits to caregivers, but the measures have not become law, leaving…
A new survey of 8,750 U.S. adults finds that four in ten Americans are not confident they will have enough savings to retire or believe they will never be able to retire at all. That finding, released by the Pew Research Center, lands at a moment when federal projections show Social Security’s combined trust funds…
Nearly three million Medicare Advantage enrollees could have their current plan discontinued or materially changed for the 2026 contract year, based on estimates that pair CMS plan crosswalk files with CMS enrollment data. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized payment updates for the coming contract year, and insurers are also updating…
The Social Security Administration released its 2025 Annual Trustees Report on June 18, projecting that the retirement and survivors trust fund will be exhausted by 2033 and the combined Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance reserves will run out by 2034. Under the report’s most pessimistic economic assumptions, that combined depletion date accelerates to…
The Social Security Administration announced plans to restore a 100% default withholding rate on overpayments, a policy shift that could erase an entire monthly benefit check for some retirees. For a beneficiary receiving $2,000 a month, even the agency’s more moderate 50% recovery rate would cut that payment to $1,000, while a lesser withholding percentage…
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