Money Crashers: Three unrelated articles

Money Crashers has popped up three of my articles in the past week, all on quite different topics.

Article #1 is the first in a series of pieces I'm doing on Medicare. Originally, my editor asked me for just one article providing an overview of this government program and the process of signing up, and as I got into it, I discovered just how ludicrously complicated it is. I mean, doing your taxes is hard, but at least there's software for that; for Medicare, all the government provides is a grotesque kludge of a website that has the information you need to navigate the system scattered across dozens of different pages with no coherent path through it.

So I ended up writing not one, but four articles that try to provide the kind of clear, comprehensive explanation the government so noticeably fails to provide. This is the first of the four: an outline of the ins and outs of the Medicare system. It explains who is eligible for Medicare, how the program is funded, what all the different parts of Medicare (Part A, Part B, Part D, Medicare Advantage, and Medigap) are for, and how to choose the coverage you need. In future articles, I'll tackle the topics of what Medicare costs, ways to reduce the cost, and how to enroll — a process that's far more complicated than you might expect.

What Is Medicare – How It Works & What It Covers

The second piece deals with a lighter topic: streaming video services. I originally wrote this piece years ago, but like many of my articles, it sat unpublished until this spring, when my editors discovered that it had suddenly become highly topical. So they told me to quickly bring the old piece up to date so they could get it up onto the site — and then, apparently, they forgot about it until this month, when I suddenly got notice that it had been published and I should check to make sure all the info in it was still correct. It wasn't, but I did yet another quick edit to bring it up to date once more, and the revised piece now offers a comparison of the top streaming services: what content and features they offer, what they cost, and what kind of viewer would get the most out of them.

Best Video Streaming Services of 2020 (On-Demand & Live)

Lastly, we have a piece on another topic that's become highly relevant during the pandemic: restaurant delivery. These days, ordering is the new dining out, but surprisingly, it's often more expensive than the old dining out — partly because of delivery and service fees, and partly because the takeout menu itself is sometimes priced higher than the dine-in one. In this piece, I outline ways to keep your takeout food budget under control, which fall into three main categories: placing a cheaper order, controlling delivery fees, and taking advantage of discounts wherever possible.

18 Ways to Save Money on Restaurant Food Delivery & Takeout