Secure Your Future: the library

Income tax, credit scores, buying a home or a car, Social Security, Medicare, retirement income, life events and teaching kids about money.

In this section (17)

1. 🧾 How US income tax worksIn 30 seconds: Federal income tax is charged in layers. Your top bracket only applies to the last dollars you earn, so a raise never shrinks your take-home…
2. 📊 Credit scores and credit reports, explainedIn 30 seconds: Your credit score is a summary of your credit report. FICO weighs five things, and two of them (paying on time and how much of your limits you…
3. 🏡 Buying a home without stretching too farIn 30 seconds: Buying usually makes sense when you expect to stay several years and the full monthly cost (not just principal and interest) fits your income.…
4. 🚗 Buying a car: total cost, financing and the dealerIn 30 seconds: The sticker price is only the start. Decide what the car will cost you per month in total, arrange financing before you visit the dealer…
5. 🏛️ Social Security: earning it, claiming it, taxes on itIn 30 seconds: You qualify for a retirement benefit after 40 work credits (about 10 years of work). For anyone born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is…
6. 🩺 Medicare: the parts, the deadlines, the penaltiesIn 30 seconds: Medicare starts at 65 and has firm sign-up windows. Miss them without other qualifying coverage and the penalties can last as long as you have…
7. 💵 Turning savings into a retirement paycheckIn 30 seconds: In retirement the question flips from how much to save to how much you can safely spend. Start with guaranteed income (Social Security…
8. 🧭 Money checklists for big life eventsIn 30 seconds: Big life events come with short deadlines that are easy to miss when you are busy or grieving: 30 or 60 days to change health coverage, 60…
9. 🧒 Teaching kids about money, age by ageIn 30 seconds: Children learn money by handling it, making small mistakes while the stakes are low, and watching what you do. Start with waiting and…
10. 🦽 Disability insurance: protecting the paycheck that pays for everythingIn 30 seconds: Your ability to earn is probably worth more than everything you own. Disability insurance replaces part of your pay if illness or injury stops…
11. 🕊️ Life insurance in depth: how much, which kind, and what to skipIn 30 seconds: Life insurance is for the people who would struggle without your income or your unpaid work. Add up what they would need, subtract what you…
12. 🏥 Choosing health insurance: job plans, the Marketplace for 2027, HDHPs and COBRAIn 30 seconds: Compare plans on what a year really costs you (premiums plus what you pay for care), not the premium alone. If your job offers coverage, that…
13. 🛏️ Long-term care: what it costs, what Medicare skips, and how people payIn 30 seconds: Help with bathing, dressing and getting around is called long-term care, and Medicare does not pay for it. Most people turning 65 will need…
14. 💍 Marriage, partners and money: accounts, taxes, beneficiaries and prenupsIn 30 seconds: Couples who do well with money talk about it early and set up a system they both understand. Pick how you will hold accounts and split bills…
15. 💔 Divorce and money: the house, retirement accounts, debts and taxesIn 30 seconds: In a divorce, a dollar is not always a dollar: $100,000 in a 401(k) is worth less after tax than $100,000 of cash. Get a full list of what you…
16. 🗝️ When you inherit money or an IRA: the first 90 days and the 10-year ruleIn 30 seconds: Most inheritances are not taxed as income, but what you inherit decides the tax later. Stocks and houses usually get a fresh cost basis, so…
17. 🤝 Helping aging parents with money: the talk, the paperwork, the bills and the cost of careIn 30 seconds: The best time to help a parent with money is before they need it. Have the conversation while they are well, find out where everything is, get…