Insights

You don’t have to stop working when you start collecting Social Security. But depending on your age and earnings, continuing to work can affect your benefits, taxes, and Medicare costs. Here’s what retirees need to know.

Should federal employees invest outside the TSP? Learn when an IRA makes sense, compare Roth and Traditional options, and maximize retirement savings.

Most people assume Medicare will cover their healthcare costs when they retire. If you retire before 65, you are responsible for finding and funding your own health insurance until Medicare begins. For many people, that coverage comes through the Health Insurance Marketplace, and those costs can be significant enough to affect the shape of an entire retirement income plan.

Most people spend years planning for retirement income. They model withdrawal rates, stress-test portfolios, and carefully sequence which accounts to draw from first. What very few of them plan for is the possibility that earning one dollar too much could cost them thousands. That is exactly what IRMAA does.

For most Americans, the answer is no. Social Security is facing long-term funding challenges, but that does not mean the program is expected to disappear. Even if Congress took no action, payroll taxes would continue to fund a significant portion of scheduled benefits.

If you have spent your career working for the federal government, you already know that your health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits program is one of the most valuable parts of your compensation.

Most people have heard both terms; fewer can explain the difference. Medicare and Medicaid sound similar, they both deal with healthcare, and they both involve the government, but they are entirely separate programs built for different purposes, funded differently, and created to serve different groups of people.

If you have access to a health savings account and you are treating it like a medical expense fund, you are leaving one of the most powerful tools in retirement planning almost entirely on the table.