Daniel Kim

One 10-second AI video clip costs $3.00 on one platform, $3.52 on another, and about $9.12 on a third. Same model, same length, same resolution. The model is Seedance 2.5, ByteDance's video generator, and the price gap is not a rounding error. It is three different platforms selling Seedance credits at three different rates. And every take you throw away costs that amount again. A clip you generate four times before you like it is not a $3.52 clip. It is a $14.08 clip. The way to stop paying for your own mistakes is to check everything before a single credit is spent. This post shows the exact prices, checked November 9, 2026, and the check-first workflow from a published AI drama production guide: a free review of the still image and the prompt before any paid generation runs, cheap tests before the final take, and payment only for the keeper. TLDR: Seedance 2.5 makes up to 30 seconds of video in one generation. The same 10-second 720p clip costs $3.00 through Runway...

Your $56 Raise Lost $215 a Year to Medicare Part B Premiums Your $56 Raise Lost $215 a Year to Medicare Part B Premiums Your Social Security check went up in January 2026. If you are the average retired worker, it went up by $56 a month. That is the good news, and it is real money: $672 over the full year. Here is the part nobody put in the headline. Your Medicare Part B premium went up in the same month, by $17.90 a month. Over the year, that is $214.80. Nearly a third of your raise never reaches your bank account. It goes straight from Social Security to Medicare before you ever see it, because for most people the Part B premium is deducted from the benefit check itself. This is not a mistake, and it is not a scam. It is how the two programs interact every year. But 2026 is a particularly sharp example, because the premium rose 9.7% while the cost-of-living adjustment was 2.8%. This article shows the exact math for a typical retiree and for a couple, explains why the pr...

TLDR The 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment lifts the average retired worker's Social Security benefit from $2,015 to $2,071 a month starting in January 2026 — about $56 more. But the standard Medicare Part B premium rises $17.90 at the same time, from $185.00 to $202.90, so the average retiree who pays the standard premium keeps $38.10 of that $56. Your exact amount is in your COLA notice — check it in your my Social Security account. Social Security checks went up in January 2026. If yours looked bigger, it was — and if it did not look $56 bigger, there is a reason, and it is printed on the same notice as the raise. The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced a 2.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2026 , and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) set the standard Medicare Part B premium at $202.90 a month for the same year. The two numbers arrive together, in the same check, and the second one takes a bite out of the first. This post works thr...

TLDR — Save this Congress added four new tax deductions for 2025 through 2028: up to $25,000 for tips, up to $12,500 for overtime ($25,000 for joint filers), up to $10,000 for car loan interest, and $6,000 for seniors 65 and older ($12,000 for a qualifying couple). All four are claimed on one new form, Schedule 1-A, and they work whether you take the standard deduction or itemize. A household that qualified for all four could deduct up to $72,000. If you already filed your 2025 return without Schedule 1-A, you can generally still fix it with an amended return. Your 2026 return is due April 15, 2027. The tax law signed on July 4, 2025 — the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, Public Law 119-21 — added four deductions most taxpayers have never claimed, because the form to claim them did not exist until the IRS created Schedule 1-A in March 2026. The IRS issued the final rules for the tips deduction on April 10, 2026, five days before the filing deadline for 2025 returns. That timing is the op...

Your FSA Money Expires December 31 — the $680 Rule That Decides What You Keep By Daniel Kim If you put money into a health flexible spending account this year, part of it may already be scheduled to disappear. A health FSA is use-it-or-lose-it by design: money you do not spend on eligible medical expenses by the end of your plan year generally goes back to your employer. For most people on a calendar-year plan, that date is December 31, 2026. Two IRS rules soften the blow — a carryover of up to $680, or a grace period of up to two and a half months — but your plan offers at most one of them, and neither is automatic. December is crowded with benefit deadlines: Medicare Open Enrollment ends December 7, and if you have not checked your 2027 drug coverage, that deadline matters more than this one . This post works through the 2026 numbers, three worked examples, and the checklist to run before December 31. TL;DR For calendar-year plans, unspent 2026 health FSA money is fo...