Main Street Dollars

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Homeowners in high-tax states have spent years bumping up against a $10,000 ceiling on what they could deduct for state and local taxes. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act lifted that ceiling to $40,000 beginning in tax year 2025, a fourfold increase that reshapes the math for a specific slice of taxpayers. The change is…

Layoffs have hit more than 200,000 U.S. workers in 2026 — check your severance and final-pay rights

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in Workplace Rights

Layoffs have become a steady drumbeat in 2026. Tracking data counts more than 205,000 U.S. workers affected across 320-plus separate layoff events this year, which works out to roughly 865 job losses a day, with a large share of announcements citing artificial intelligence and automation as a factor. That aggregate is not one company’s story;…

Nearly 20 states raise the minimum wage in 2026, lifting pay for about 8.3 million workers

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in Jobs & Wages

A pay raise arrived for millions of workers this year without a single boss signing off on it. Nearly 20 states set higher minimum wages in 2026, most of them on the first day of January, and the increases reach far more people than the workers earning exactly the old floor. When a state lifts…

Workers without a plan at work could get up to $1,000 a year from a coming federal match

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in 401(k) & IRA

A first-of-its-kind federal match for retirement savers is set to begin in 2027, and it is aimed squarely at the workers who have long been left out of employer retirement perks. Called the Saver’s Match, it puts government money directly into the retirement accounts of lower- and middle-income savers, including people whose jobs offer no…

Delaying Social Security past full retirement age grows the check about 8% a year

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Few financial decisions carry as much weight as when to start Social Security, and one of its most powerful features rewards patience. For each month a worker holds off claiming past full retirement age, the eventual monthly check grows. Over a few years the increase is large, permanent, and adjusted for inflation, which makes waiting…

Losing a Medicare Advantage plan can open a guaranteed right to buy Medigap coverage

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in Medicare

Losing a Medicare Advantage plan is unsettling, but it can also unlock a protection that is otherwise hard to get. Federal rules give people whose Advantage coverage ends through no fault of their own a limited window to buy a Medigap policy without a health screening. That window is time-sensitive, and enrollees who do not…

A divorced spouse married at least 10 years can claim up to half an ex’s Social Security

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A long marriage that ended in divorce can still count toward retirement income. Social Security lets a divorced person collect a benefit built on an ex-spouse’s earnings record, and for many people who spent years out of the paid workforce or earned far less than a former husband or wife, that check can be larger…

Tipped workers can now deduct up to $25,000 in tips through 2028

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in Credits & Deductions

Servers, bartenders, hairstylists, and other tipped workers have a new line on their federal tax return that did not exist a couple of years ago. Under the tax law enacted last year, eligible workers can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips each year, temporarily removing that income from their federal income-tax calculation. It is…

Taking six months of Social Security back pay as a lump sum permanently shrinks your monthly check

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There is a feature of Social Security that sounds like a windfall and quietly acts like a trade. A retiree who claims after full retirement age can ask for up to six months of back benefits paid at once, as a lump sum. The catch is that Social Security does not treat that money as…

A new Senate bill would stop the government from garnishing Social Security checks over old student loans

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