Capstone Investments – March 11, 2026

By Bryce Pease CFP® Accredited Investment Fiduciary® Casey Morris CFP® Capstone Pacific Investment Strategies, Inc. California, Colorado, Nebraska

I mentioned that saving means both setting money aside and ensuring you spend less than you have to.  One way to save may be Medicare.

Medicare – a federal health insurance program specifically for those age 65 and older – is probably the single most important way to save money on healthcare in retirement.  But Medicare itself can cost money, especially for those who are high earners.  Besides monthly premiums for Part B – which covers outpatient care – high earners must also typically pay IRMAA surcharges.  

IRMAA stands for “income-related monthly adjustment amount.”  “These surcharges are applied if your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) from two years prior exceeds a certain threshold. (For 2026, the average monthly surcharge is estimated to be $82.60 per month, but can rise to a maximum of $495.60 for the highest earners.)

Fortunately, there are ways to potentially decrease or even avoid these surcharges.  Here are just a few:

1.  File for an IRMAA reduction due to a life-changing event.  There are eight qualifying life-changing events that enable you to request reduction in your surcharge if the event resulted in a reduction to your earnings.  Those events include:

• Marriage or Divorce
• Death of a spouse
• Work stoppage (e.g. retirement or termination)
• Loss of property that provides income (e.g. a rental property, if the loss was outside of your control, like due to a natural disaster)
• Loss of pension income or employer settlement payment

2.  Make qualified charitable distributions (QCDs).  Certain types of charitable contributions can lower your modified adjusted gross income.  For example, let’s say you own a traditional IRA.  When you begin making withdrawals from that IRA – known as required minimum distributions – those withdrawals count as income.  But with a QCD, you make a donation to a registered charity directly from your IRA.  This does not count as taxable income and can reduce your overall MAGI, thereby reducing or even eliminating your IRMAA surcharge.

3.  Delay collecting Social Security benefits.  As you probably know, you can begin collecting Social Security benefits starting at age 62.  You can enroll in Medicare beginning three months before the month you turn 65.  There may be penalties for not enrolling by age 65.  

Because Social Security benefits may count as taxable income, they can increase your MAGI.  By delaying when you take your benefits, you can – at least temporarily – lower your income and avoid or reduce your IRMAA surcharges.

However, note that delaying Social Security benefits means you will receive a larger benefit later on.  That’s a good thing!  But it also could mean paying a larger surcharge later on as well.  For this reason, it’s important to determine whether this strategy really makes sense for you in both the short term and the long.

There are other potential ways to reduce your Medicare expenses, but the point is, when it comes to saving, it pays – literally – to leave no stone unturned in your search for ways to cut costs.  For complete info go to ssa.gov.

Casey and Bryce                                                                                                              info@capstonepacificinc.com      402-207-5383    capstonepacificinc.com