Insights

Most people think of Medicare and Social Security as two separate programs that happen to arrive at roughly the same stage of life. In practice, they are quite connected. The decisions you make about one will directly affect how you experience the other. Here is what that relationship actually looks like and why understanding it before you retire is worth your time.

Wall Street ended the week with broad gains, record-setting index performances, and a notable shift toward broader market participation beyond tech and AI shares.

What's Inside: Why Many Paper Millionaires Don't Feel Rich; The Race for AI Could Be Driving Up Your Power Bill; Voluntourism: Getting Away and Giving Back; The Voice of Experience: Advice on Aging from Older Americans; and What Can You Learn from Your Tax Return?

Most people understand, at least in theory, that they should have an estate plan. They know they probably need a will and they may have heard the word "trust" mentioned in a financial article or across a dinner table. And yet the majority of American adults have never actually sat down and done the work.

U.S. stocks opened last week with notable momentum, pushing the Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 to record highs by mid-week. Investors apparently ignored lingering inflation and a politically charged Federal Reserve.

If you earn a strong income, you may already know the sting of the Roth IRA income limit. You sit down to make your annual contribution and discover that the IRS has effectively locked the door due to your income being too high to contribute directly to a Roth IRA.

Two hotter-than-expected inflation reports and a lack of progress in negotiations to end the war in Iran created havoc in some corners of the financial markets last week.

You spent decades building a federal retirement package that most workers would envy (a pension, a TSP, Social Security, and a FEHB health plan that follows you into retirement). What a lot of federal employees don't fully reckon with, though, is that the IRS is going to take a meaningful piece of that income.