We Read the Source Documents So You Don't Have To

Who we are

The Retirement Desk is an independent publisher. Our work is written by our research team, and our subject is narrow on purpose: the rules that decide how much of your retirement money you actually keep.

We are readers before we are writers. The rules that matter most to retirees are not hidden, exactly. They are just buried in places almost nobody goes: the Code of Federal Regulations, the annual Trustees Reports, CMS premium fact sheets, IRS publications and FBI fraud reports. We go there, read the actual text, and write down what it means for a person with a monthly deposit and a fixed income.

How we work

Every figure traces to a primary source. When we say your check is cut 30% for life if you claim at 62 with a full retirement age of 67, that comes from the Social Security regulations. When we quote a Medicare premium, it comes from CMS. When we quote the tax thresholds on benefits, it comes from the IRS. When we cite scam losses, it comes from the FBI or the FTC. We name the source and the year so you can check us.

We date everything. Retirement numbers change every January. A figure without a year attached is not useful, so we attach the year.

We round the careful way. If a figure needs rounding, we round in the direction that does not flatter us.

We correct mistakes. If we get something wrong, we fix it and say what changed. We would rather be corrected than be quoted wrongly for years.

We write at kitchen-table level. Short sentences. Real numbers. Any piece of jargon gets a one-line definition the first time it appears, or it does not appear.

What we are not

We are not the government. The Retirement Desk is not the Social Security Administration, Medicare, CMS or the IRS, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency. We name these agencies as sources, nothing more. SSA provides free benefit estimates and account access at ssa.gov. We will never ask you for your Social Security number, and we will never ask for your ssa.gov login.

We are not a financial advisor. We are a publisher. We explain rules and show math. We do not manage money, sell insurance or annuities, recommend investments, or give you personal financial advice about your own situation. For that, see a professional you have vetted.

We do not use invented people. No made-up experts, no invented reader stories, no borrowed credentials. When we use an example, we label it as an example and compute it with the real formulas.

How to reach us

Questions about an order, a correction to something we published, or a subject you want covered: write to us through our contact page. A real person reads it.

Contact The Retirement Desk