How much of your retirement income can creditors take?

MoneyWatch: Managing Your Money How much of your retirement income can creditors take? We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-moneywatch.jpg'); } By Angelica Leicht Angelica Leicht Senior Editor, Managing Your Money Angelica Leicht is the senior editor for the Managing Your Money section for CBSNews.com, where she writes and edits articles on a range of personal finance topics. Angelica previously held editing roles at The Simple Dollar, Interest, HousingWire and other financial publications. Read Full Bio Angelica Leicht May 20, 2026 / 1:16 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Retirement income isn't automatically beyond a creditor's reach, but it's also far from being fully exposed.  Jamie Grill/Getty Images While many people enter into retirement and expect their expenses to stabilize, the reality is that today's higher healthcare costs, rising insurance premiums and growing costs of everyday essentials have made that harder to achieve. Older Americans are also entering retirement with more debt compared to previous generations, meaning that their credit card balances, personal loan payments and even lingering medical debts are following them long after they've transitioned from earning a paycheck to a fixed-income budget.That growing financial pressure is, in turn, causing major issues for millions of older borrowers, particularly for those who are relying heavily on Social Security, pension checks or retirement account withdrawals to cover their everyday expenses. After all, when you're carrying high-rate debt on a fixed retirement income, there typically isn't much margin for error in the budget, and if you fall behind on what you owe, those late payments can result in everything from simple collection calls to wage garnishments, the latter of which allows creditors to directly access...