A coal miner just got a black lung diagnosis before feeling a single symptom, and what he does in the next 20 days could shape the Social Security check he collects for the rest of his life.
By Gerelyn Terzo
· 10:30am ET Retiree standby travel can save thousands of dollars a year, which raises a loaded question for anyone already collecting Social Security before full retirement age: does sliding into an otherwise empty seat…
Gerelyn Terzo A six-figure buyout landed in his account the same year he claimed Social Security, and the two numbers looked like a collision course. Whether the agency sees a payment as earnings from…
Gerelyn Terzo A bad harvest already cost him money, but filing the wrong way on Schedule SE could cost him something harder to recover: a year of Social Security coverage that retirement math later…
Gerelyn Terzo Donating a vacant lot worth six figures sounds like a tax home run, yet something on a retiree's return refuses to budge no matter how generous the gift gets.
Most retirees assume the path to Social Security's top monthly payout is simply a matter of earning well and waiting long enough, but the actual requirements eliminate nearly everyone before they even start.
Selling inherited farmland felt like a clean break, a one-time conversion of property into retirement cash. Two years later, a letter arrived from Social Security, and the math behind it traced all the way…
A routine IRA rollover sounds like housekeeping, but for retirees holding decades of appreciated company stock, signing that form at the wrong moment can quietly surrender a tax break that no accountant can ever…
When a firefighter traded his gear for a wrench and opened a fire-truck repair shop, the IRS and Social Security each saw a completely different version of his income, and understanding why could change…
A quiet federal program has been holding down your Medicare drug plan premium for two years, and it vanishes December 31. What that means for your 2027 bill depends on something most retirees won't…
A retiree grabbed a wrench and fixed a leaky valve on his rental property, saving $180 on a plumber. That single act may have handed the IRS grounds to vaporize a $600,000 retirement account…
Two $40,000 checks arrived from the same Appalachian woods, written by two different buyers, and Social Security treated them as if they came from entirely different universes. The distinction hiding inside those logging contracts…
