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Latest Money Tips
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Term Life Insurance Is Almost Always the Right Choice Over Whole Life
Term life insurance provides a death benefit for a fixed period, typically 10, 20, or 30 years, at a fraction of the cost of whole life. Whole life combines insurance with an investment component, but the returns are poor and the fees are high. Buy term, invest the difference, and you’ll almost always come out ahead.
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Invest Money · Stocks · Taxes
Tax-Loss Harvesting Can Offset Your Capital Gains Tax
Sell an investment at a loss and you can use that loss to offset capital gains from your winners. Up to $3,000 in excess losses can also offset ordinary income each year, and the rest carries forward. Just don’t rebuy the same investment within 30 days, or the wash sale rule voids the loss.
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Delaying Social Security to 70 Can Raise Your Check More Than 75%
You can claim Social Security as early as 62, but your benefit grows every year you wait, including 8% per year between full retirement age and 70. Waiting from 62 to 70 can raise your monthly check by more than 75%. Delay if you’re healthy and have other income to draw from.
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Required Minimum Distributions Can Push You Into a Higher Tax Bracket
Once you turn 73, the IRS requires you to withdraw a minimum amount from traditional IRAs and 401ks each year, and those withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Large RMDs can push you into a higher bracket and trigger Medicare surcharges. Convert some traditional IRA funds to Roth before RMDs begin to shrink the future tax hit.
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An HSA Is the Only Triple-Tax-Advantaged Account Available
A Health Savings Account, available with a high-deductible health plan, lets you contribute pre-tax, grow tax-free, and withdraw tax-free for qualified medical expenses. After 65, withdrawals for any reason are taxed like a traditional IRA’s. Most people spend their HSA every year. Invest it instead and it becomes a stealth retirement account.
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A Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA Are Taxed at Opposite Ends
A traditional IRA gives you a tax deduction now and taxes your withdrawals in retirement, while a Roth IRA gives you no deduction now but lets your money grow and come out tax-free. Pick Roth if you expect a higher tax bracket in retirement than today. Most younger earners come out ahead with Roth.
WHY WE DO IT
Money Crashers’ mission
Money should work for you, not the other way around. We keep you on the right side of that deal with tips you can act on the day you read them.
We only write what’s useful.
Every piece starts with the same question: how useful is this to our readers? When the honest answer is “not very,” we don’t publish it.
We do the homework so you don’t have to.
We run the numbers, read the fine print, and weigh the alternatives. You get the conclusion, not the pile of research.
Trust is our No. 1 priority.
No clickbait headlines. Affiliate partners don’t buy our opinions. When a product isn’t worth it, we say so.