The Worry That Shows Up on the SSA Screen A 66-year-old logs into the Social Security website to file. The final working year paid roughly half the usual salary, plus dividends and interest from…
Picture a household where one spouse, age 69, is still earning roughly $80,000 a year and plans to work another year or two before claiming Social Security. The other spouse, age 67, already started…
The Invisible Stretch Between Retirement and Benefits A 66-year-old retiree stops working, has a sizable traditional IRA, and delays Social Security for a few more years. Her checking account looks thinner than during her…
In fiscal year 2026, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the federal budget deficit will total $1.9 trillion, which is 5.8% of the GDP. By 2036, the deficit is expected to grow to $3.1…
The sale that looked harmless Picture a 68-year-old single retiree living mostly on Social Security with a modest taxable brokerage account on the side. The furnace dies, or the car finally gives up. She…
Ask 10 retirees whether Social Security gets taxed and you get 10 different answers. Some swear it is never taxed. Others assume it is always taxed. A growing group thinks the new $6,000 senior…
Fidelity’s 2026 retirement study draws a clear line between generations based on where they expect their retirement income to come from. The data begins with the finding that 76% of Boomers list Social Security…
Four decades of marriage, both retired, and the monthly Social Security deposits look wildly mismatched. His check lands at about $3,200. Hers lands at about $1,000. She spent years out of the paid workforce…
A woman in her sixties has not spoken to her ex-husband in 20 or 30 years. He remarried, moved away, and contact was lost. Then she learns he may have passed away. She wonders…
Social Security is facing some serious problems in the coming years. And policymakers can no longer afford to sit on their hands. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that Social Security’s Old-Age and Survivors Insurance…
A 65-year-old widow lost her husband in 2014. Health problems pushed her to claim a reduced survivor benefit at 60, the earliest age the rules allow. She now collects rental income, some passive cash…
If Social Security is a big source of retirement income for you, you may be hoping for a larger cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, in 2027 than what came through this year. January’s 2.8%…
Why a Routine Withdrawal Casts a Long Shadow Tom is 73, single, on Medicare, and lives in the kind of sweet retirement most people dream about. Social Security brings in about $36,000 a year.…
Mary did everything the retirement books told her to do. At 68, already on Medicare and watching her traditional IRA balloon toward future required minimum distributions (RMDs), she pulled the trigger in 2024 on…
A 67-year-old retiree closes on the house she bought in 1998, deposits a life-changing check, and feels like she finally has breathing room. Two years later, an envelope from the Social Security Administration (SSA)…
