Healthcare planning is also income planning.
Full breakdown, including HSAs, IRMAA, Medicare, taxes, and the long-term care gap:
https://t.co/rOKFRZYtRF
$185,500.
That’s Fidelity’s estimated average healthcare cost for a 65-year-old retiring in 2026.
After tax.
And it doesn’t include long-term care.
The bigger question is where the money comes from.
Then there’s the part Medicare mostly stands outside of.
Long-term custodial care generally isn’t covered by Original Medicare.
And the 2025 national median cost for a semi-private nursing home room was well into six figures per year.
We just broke all of this down in our latest piece, including risks that tend to get ignored until it’s too late.
Read it here: https://t.co/hAU5oXH9CL
New year, new retirement rules!
If you’re starting 2026 with good intentions and a vague sense that something changed… you’re not wrong.
We just published a new article breaking down what’s different for retirement planning this year.
The key point: the rules didn’t just change on paper.
They change how much you can save, where those dollars should go, and what flexibility you’ll have when retirement income actually starts.
Early in the year is a natural pause point for your finances, a chance to check whether last year’s strategy still fits this year’s reality. Markets move, tax details shift, and life rarely stays static.
Smart people make bad financial decisions all the time, not because they lack intelligence, but because money pushes emotional buttons most of us don’t notice in the moment. Fear, confidence, and headlines can quietly take the wheel.
Staying disciplined often matters more than reacting quickly. The investors who struggle the most are usually the ones trying to avoid discomfort rather than follow a long-term plan.