At 70, he feels fine. Social Security covers the basics, his IRA is growing, and taking a $40,000 annual withdrawal keeps things comfortable. But at 73, the IRS will start requiring minimum distributions from…
A couple, both 66, enters retirement with $1.2 million in savings and a plan that looks clean on paper: withdraw $46,800 per year (a 3.9% rate), collect $64,800 annually in combined Social Security, and…
On a recent Ramsey Show Highlights segment titled I Keep Catching My Husband Lying About Debt, Dave Ramsey reacted to a 60-year-old Pennsylvania caller named Marie who discovered her husband’s fourth instance of hidden…
If you’ve spent thirty years funneling money into a 401(k) and feeling good about the tax deduction, here’s the part nobody put on the enrollment brochure: the IRS has been waiting patiently the whole…
Well, today’s “that’s a new one for me” moment came while I was listening to George Kamel on The Ramsey Show, three seconds after he heard the interest rate: “Did you buy it from…
The share of Americans who describe themselves as financially secure climbed from 44% to 50% in a single year, according to the Northwestern Mutual 2026 Planning & Progress Study. That is a meaningful shift…
A finding from the Northwestern Mutual 2026 P&P Wave I “Financial States of America” report puts a number on a behavior that has been visible for years: 52% of Americans say they place too…
Open enrollment season is forcing a hard rethink for retirees this year. Medicare Advantage now covers 55% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries with roughly 35 million subscribers, but the 2026 plan year looks different from…
Buy Now Pay Later services have moved from a checkout novelty to a core part of how Gen Z pays for things, including items people used to pay for with cash or a debit…
The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances reported that retirement plan participation hit its highest level since 2010. The same survey reported that mean balances for participants in the bottom half of the…
On a recent NerdWallet Smart Money Podcast segment, the host worked through a scenario any retirement-minded homeowner has considered. Take a $1,000 mortgage payment. Throw it at principal and you save interest. Invest that…
On a recent Smart Money Happy Hour episode titled “Ritzy vs. Regular: Reacting to Social Events in Every Class,” co-host George Kamel laid down a one-line rule for bachelorette weekends, destination weddings and family…
On a recent episode of Suze Orman’s Women & Money, Orman broke a rule she has preached for decades. A 66-year-old single caller named Nancy asked whether she should lease or buy her next…
Seniors who get most or all of their retirement income from Social Security tend to rely on the program’s annual cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, in a really big way. Without those COLAs, seniors would…
The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances delivered a headline that sounded like progress for ordinary households: 58% of American families now hold stock either directly or through retirement and mutual fund accounts,…
