More than 2.3 million people in North Carolina have Medicare, and a wave of official mail goes out to nearly every one of them in September. Insurance companies flood the same mailboxes with plan brochures that same month. The notices that matter blend right in. That’s the trap. These are the pieces of Medicare mail…
There’s something strange about walking past a building you remember as one store and seeing a completely different name on the front. That’s what happened with several beloved Tennessee retailers. Some went under in bankruptcy, while others were bought out and renamed even though the stores themselves survived. Here are some of the stores Tennesseans…
What happens if you miss Medicare open enrollment depends on exactly which window slipped by. The Initial Enrollment Period carries the harshest consequence: Without employer coverage, Medicare adds a permanent 10% surcharge to the Part B premium for every full year someone waited. The fall Annual Enrollment Period works differently: No penalty at all, just…
Once upon a time, Floridians could do their grocery shopping and banking without leaving Publix. Barnett Bank installed teller windows inside Florida Publix stores in the mid-1990s. That window is gone now. Publix has let several things like that slip away over the years, and Floridians still notice every one of them. 1. Dressed Cashiers…
Getting power of attorney for an aging parent in Ohio means signing two separate documents, not one: A financial power of attorney (POA) and a health care POA. Skip either one, and Ohio’s fallback is a guardianship case that can run $1,500 to $3,500 in attorney fees alone, on top of court costs. Ohio’s financial…
Nearly one in five South Carolina residents is 65 or older. Many of them didn’t get there without a garage full of stuff to deal with first. The following things people regret keeping past 60 usually aren’t sentimental. They’re just heavy, expensive, or both. Note: This is general information, not financial or tax advice. Tax…
Sand Mountain in northeast Alabama is one of the last places in the country where a handful of churches still sing straight from the Sacred Harp during a regular Sunday service. Homecoming season used to fill Alabama’s country churches with the same handful of rituals, year after year. These are the church homecoming traditions Alabamians…
Many Florida retirees spent years lining up the math before they left the office for good, planning out property tax bills, Medicare premiums, and their 401(k) withdrawal plan. But many of them didn’t plan for the Tuesday morning with nothing on the calendar. Roughly a third of American retirees say they struggle to find a…
Texas had around 388 drive-in movie theaters when the outdoor movie craze peaked in the 1950s and ’60s. Fewer than 20 are left running today. That’s a brutal survival rate. These are the Texas drive-in theaters still selling tickets today. 1. Graham Drive-In Graham Drive-In has run movies on the same lot since 1948, longer…
A Pittsburgh retiree calls her gas company in January, braced to negotiate a shutoff notice, and hangs up enrolled in a program that’ll forgive her old balance a payment at a time. She didn’t know that program existed until she asked. Pennsylvania’s utilities run assistance that chips away at old debt month by month once…
