Most people give the way they always have: a check to the church, a gift to a cause they believe in, and a hope that it helps at tax time. For a lot of retirees, it no longer does. The most tax-friendly dollar you give may be one that never touches your hands. 

Most people picture Medicare as roughly the same deal for everyone. You turn 65, you sign up, and the premiums come out of your Social Security check. For a lot of retirees that is exactly how it works. But above a certain income, Medicare quietly adds a surcharge on top of your Part B and Part D premiums.

Washington has no income tax for now and that single fact gives a lot of people the wrong idea about what happens to their money when they die. 

Spokane is in the early stages of one of the most significant economic shifts our region has seen in a generation. Tens of thousands of baby boomer business owners across the country are approaching retirement, and many have not yet reckoned with what that means for the businesses they spent decades building. Here in Spokane, that wave is already arriving.