An engineer's list. Some Medicare facts are not public yet, some are public but only county by county or state by state, and some exist only in your own file. A good AI assistant cannot know any of them, and the difference between a good one and a dangerous one is whether it says so. Here are the se
Keep the family plan at work, or move yourself to Medicare while your spouse waits a year? I am an engineer, not an advisor, so I did the arithmetic: the family premium, Part B, a supplement, an IRMAA surcharge set by a two-year-old tax return, and the HSA rule that quietly voids contributions.
You retire in the spring. Your income drops by two thirds. And the following January, Medicare bills you as though you are still earning what you earned two years ago. There is a form that fixes this, most people have never heard of it, and it is the last of our seven doors.
Two years after a loss, a letter from Social Security can raise a widow's Medicare premium based on income from a life that no longer exists. There is a one-page form built for exactly this moment, and most people have never heard its name. Part three of The Widow's Penalty: the surcharge with a two
A single big-income year, from an inheritance, a sale, or a large withdrawal, can quietly trigger four different taxes at once and raise your Medicare premiums two years later. Part four of Both Ends of the Table.
Everyone said to finish your Roth conversion before tax rates jumped in 2026. Then the 2025 tax law made those rates permanent. Here is what that changes.