Money, Wealth & Power—A Daily Look at the Financial World
The Social Security Board of Trustees released its 2025 annual report on June 18, projecting that, under the trustees’ intermediate assumptions, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust fund would be depleted by 2033 and that, if lawmakers do not act, about 77% of scheduled benefits would be payable after that point. For Generation X, the…
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a wave of changes to Medicare Advantage and Part D drug coverage that will hit retirees starting January 1, 2026, combining higher premiums with a redesigned prescription drug benefit and tighter rules on how insurers handle prior authorization. The standard Part B monthly premium will rise…
The Social Security Administration is imposing two policy shifts in 2026 that stand to cut deeply into monthly benefit checks for millions of Americans. A fivefold increase in the default overpayment withholding rate and tighter earnings-test math for early retirees who keep working will reshape retirement planning for years to come. With a modest 2.8%…
Some Supplemental Security Income recipients will see two federal payments land in their bank accounts during February 2026, a calendar-driven timing shift that catches many off guard. The phenomenon is not a bonus or a system error. It is a direct result of how the U.S. Department of the Treasury handles payment dates that fall…
Crossing the $300,000 mark in a 401(k) is a milestone that arrives quietly, usually on a quarterly statement, but the decisions it triggers can cost or save tens of thousands of dollars over the next decade. For savers weighing a job change, a consolidation into an IRA, or simply a rebalancing of their retirement strategy,…
Financial commentator Dave Ramsey has warned Americans about a growing risk to their Medicare coverage, pointing to plan terminations and pending federal legislation that could force millions of seniors into coverage arrangements they did not choose. The warning comes as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reshapes payment rules for 2026 and a bill…
A new national survey released by the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute finds that a majority of Americans under 30 reject the idea of paying higher taxes to keep Social Security solvent, driven by a deep conviction that the program will either slash their benefits or disappear entirely before they retire. The poll lands as the Social…
Retiring baby boomers who rush to buy a dream home on the same day they leave the workforce risk draining their savings at a pace that few fixed-income budgets can absorb. The average Social Security check for a retired worker will be $2,071 per month in January 2026 after a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment, and for…
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…