I’ve talked about student loan debt before, and I bring it up again because it continues to be one of the greatest financial crises in the country. Many solutions have been discussed—from full loan forgiveness to tuition payment plans to simple tough love—but few steps have been taken to lower the student loan burden that’s crushing the (mostly) millennial generation. However, change may finally be coming. What’s happening now?

Sandy Hook, Parkland, Orlando, Virginia Beach and now the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting evoke painful memories of terrible violence and innocent deaths. Our nation reacts with memorials, discussions of access to firearms, followed by increased funding for safety measures such as armed guards, cameras and bullet proof glass at secure entrances. But far more needs to be addressed than just stopping the bullet. Tragedies grab headlines, but hardly tell the full story.

You're expecting a new baby. Congratulations! Now go buy yourself some life insurance.

Okay so you should enjoy the news, and celebrate with family and friends. After that, one of the things that should be high on your to do list during baby prep time is buying yourself some term life insurance.

Early retirement is a goal of some people and a dream of many. There’s a lot of appeal to the idea of being financially independent and leaving the work force when we’re still young enough to engage in a wide range of activities. Early retirement can mean living wherever you want and doing what you want for a long time.

Some business leaders are hopping aboard the Medicare for All bandwagon. The Business Alliance for a Healthy California, for example, now has 300 businesses calling for universal healthcare.

But any businessman considering getting behind Medicare for All should know the sales pitch is flawed.

The idea behind HSAs was simple and elegant, in its way. Give workers generous tax breaks to put aside money to help pay for their health care. That in turn would make it easier for employers to offer those employees high-deductible health plans. The high-deductible plans put more of the burden on consumers, rather than insurance companies, to pay those first-dollar costs. In theory, the combination of HSAs and high-deductible insurance would encourage patients to reduce their medical spending and eventually lower the nation’s overall health costs.

Ask any entrepreneur and you'll likely find that what has worked for them doesn't mimic the advice their large, big-box competitors may have followed. Keeping this in mind, consider the following tips aimed specifically at small businesses.

Healthcare in the U.S. can be insanely expensive no matter how healthy you are, yet having health insurance doesn’t always help with long-term costs. After all, the lowest tier of health insurance plans — which are referred to as “Bronze” plans — only cover 60% of healthcare expenses, according to Healthcare.gov. Plus, health insurance plans in 2019 come with a maximum out-of-pocket limit of $7,900 for individuals and $15,800 for families.

There is no way to get to anything resembling a secure retirement system without expanding Social Security. We also need to fix the broken employer-based retirement system, but fixing pensions and expanding Social Security are not substitutes. A comprehensive retirement security bill needs both. Let’s start with Social Security. Social Security is a social insurance program. Workers and employers pay premiums to insure against disability and death. What's more, the system is progressive.

Did you get a smaller tax refund this year? If so, you’re not alone . However, the average tax refund this year was still a good $3,000. Whether your refund is more, less, or about what you expected, the key is to make the best use of it. Here are some options to consider in general order of priority: 1) Get caught up on old bills. For many of the people we talk to on our financial coaching line, a tax refund can be a lifeline to get caught up on overdue mortgage payments and other bills.

Health insurers are reporting unprecedented growth in the number of seniors flocking to private Medicare Advantage plans amid talk of a single payer government-run approach that could uproot such coverage.

The same week U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) made news with her support for “Medicare for All,” insurers Anthem and Cigna reported strong growth from Medicare Advantage, private coverage sold via contracts with the federal government.

Paying taxes is rarely something you look forward to. It is perfectly legal to arrange your affairs to pay as little as possible. But if you think that paying taxes can't get any worse, you would be wrong. The least satisfying of all taxes would be paying taxes that are not even yours. That might be how some people view some 'responsible persons' who are stuck paying their employer's taxes. Let's start with the basics. If you have employees, paying employment taxes is inevitable.

This Christmas, Austin Frakt gifted New York Times readers with a superlative precis of the health spending burden that faces elderly Americans [1]. Prof. Frakt--who writes far more succinctly and clearly than one might ever expect from a health economist--points out that half of lifetime health spending occurs after reaching the age of 65. This chart from my book amplifies this point, showing how health costs rise rather persistently through retirement years. Fig.

When tax geeks arose from their slumber on January 1, 2018, we were greeted by a strange and unfamiliar world. Gone were personal exemptions, Section 199, and 50% bonus depreciation. In their place were a doubled standard deduction, Section 199A, and 100% bonus depreciation. These changes, in addition to countless others, were the end result of a whirlwind legislative process that overhauled our beloved Internal Revenue Code in a mere seven weeks, an act of Congressional hubris that tax professionals will rue for years to come.

Medicare updates the U.S. by “joining the rest of the industrialized world, where health care is universal” and will save money and improve health outcomes.

Timing is everything, and that’s especially true when it comes to enrolling in Medicare. Anyone nearing Medicare eligibility should be aware of the enrollment periods and deadlines and be prepared to sign up for the coverage of their choice.