Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The Social Security Fairness Act has restored benefits for more than 3.2 million former public workers whose checks were previously reduced or eliminated, but the lump-sum retroactive payments now landing in bank accounts are creating an unexpected tax problem. Signed into law in early 2025, the legislation repealed two long‑standing provisions that had penalized retirees…
Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has built a reputation for blunt financial advice, and his take on retirement savings is no exception. Cuban argues that a 401(k) alone leaves most Americans dangerously exposed to economic shocks, especially when they lack liquid cash reserves to absorb emergencies. His prescription is simple but runs counter to the default…
Warren Buffett has spent decades distilling his investment philosophy into plain-spoken rules that apply far beyond Wall Street trading desks. For investors over 50 who face shrinking time horizons and rising vulnerability to market downturns, three of those principles carry particular weight: protect your capital, guard your integrity, and refuse to let inflation quietly drain…
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…