Medicare, Social Security retirement benefits, and individual retirement accounts all change in small but important ways in 2014, and people too young for Medicare will have new health insurance options. Here is what is changing:

First, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, people retiring before age 65 can now purchase health insurance on the new state health insurance exchanges. People can no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition and subsidies may be available for low and middle income earners.

For people on Medicare, the Part D prescription coverage gap has lessened in effect. Once a Medicare beneficiary has spent $2,850 on medication, then there is a gap until catastrophic coverage kicks in after $4,550 in costs for medication. In that gap, beneficiaries were required to pay 79 percent of drug costs but that decreases to 72 percent in 2014.

Social Security benefits go up by 1.5 percent in 2014, due to the annual cost-of-living increase. The average increase will be $19 per month for individuals and $31 per month for couples who are both receiving benefits...Click here to read more.