Personal finance

Panama is one of the most affordable places to retire abroad. Helovi | E+ | Getty Images Today’s investors face one looming question: Will I have enough money when I retire? Surveys show prospective retirees may have big lump sums in mind. To get a more accurate, personal gauge, it helps to start with your

Phynart Studio | E+ | Getty Images If you’re ready to rebalance investments or harvest profits, you could shield more earnings from capital gains taxes in 2025. The IRS on Tuesday announced dozens of inflation adjustments for 2025, including long-term capital gains brackets, which apply to assets owned for more than one year. Starting in

Al Seib | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images Although more students are eligible for federal financial aid, fewer high schoolers are pursuing a four-year degree. Increasingly, college is becoming a path for only those with the means to pay for it, many studies show.  Although undergraduate enrollment is up overall, the number of new first-year

Twenty/20 Saving for a home down payment can feel challenging, given current real estate prices. Using the right assets can help give your balance a lift. When you actually need the money is the “biggest driving factor,” said Ryan Dennehy, principal and financial advisor at California Financial Advisors in San Ramon, California. The firm ranked No.

Erik Von Weber The U.S. Federal Reserve cut interest rates in September, the first in a string of cuts expected at least into 2025. Earnings on cash are expected to decline as a result — likely leading investors to ask what they should do in response. From a financial planning perspective, cash generally refers to

Christopher Grigat | Moment | Getty Images Investors can generally reduce their tax losses in a portfolio by using exchange-traded funds over mutual funds, experts said. “ETFs come with tax magic that’s unrivaled by mutual funds,” Bryan Armour, Morningstar’s director of passive strategies research for North America and editor of its ETFInvestor newsletter, wrote earlier

Momo Productions | Digitalvision | Getty Images New changes from the Internal Revenue Service may affect federal tax liabilities for families in 2025. For example, in its announcement Tuesday, the agency said it raised the maximum amount of the earned income tax credit, or EITC, and increased the income thresholds to qualify. It left the

Momo Productions | Digitalvision | Getty Images The Internal Revenue Service has announced a higher estate and gift tax exemption for 2025. The “basic exclusion amount” rises to $13.99 million per person in 2025, up from $13.61 million in 2024, the agency said Tuesday. The exemptions apply to tax-free transfers during life and at death.

Customers visit the Macy’s Herald Square store in New York City on Dec. 17, 2023. Kena Betancur | Corbis News | Getty Images For some shoppers, the upcoming holiday season may lead to significant credit card debt. Meanwhile, some people are still paying off debt from last year’s gift buying. In fact, 28% of shoppers who

Leopatrizi | E+ | Getty Images If you need a tax preparer for the 2025 filing season, now is the time to start looking, experts say. Finding a preparer could take longer amid the industry’s staffing shortage, particularly for areas of specialty expertise, such as cryptocurrency or international taxes. “I would absolutely 100% recommend starting

The author paid a company, Renewable Recycling, to pick up and recycle his queen-size mattress in New York City. Greg Iacurci I paid $95 to recycle a mattress. It may sound odd, silly even, to pay so much to dispose of a run-of-the-mill household item. But the economics of mattress recycling illustrate why it can

Ivy League architecture at Princeton University. Loop Images | Getty Images At the nation’s top schools, including many in the Ivy League, acceptance rates hover near all-time lows. “College admissions only ever gets more competitive and there’s a lot of stress from families about the stakes and how to get in,” said Thomas Howell, the founder

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are shown on screen during a debate watch party at the Cameo Art House Theatre in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Sept. 10, 2024. Allison Joyce | Bloomberg | Getty Images With the Social Security Administration facing a looming funding crisis over the next decade, it’s clear that the

Izusek | E+ | Getty Images Exchange-traded funds are generally known for passive strategies. But there has been a surge in actively managed ETFs as investors seek lower costs and more precision, experts say. Active ETFs represented just more than 2% of the U.S. ETF market at the beginning of 2019. But these funds have

Voters work on their ballot at a polling station at the Elena Bozeman Government Center in Arlington, Virginia, on September 20, 2024. – | Afp | Getty Images Many investors worry about how the outcome of the presidential election will impact their investments. But there’s another risk financial advisors are focused on — public debt,

Asiavision | E+ | Getty Images Between higher prices and high interest rates, some Americans have had a hard time keeping up. As a result, many are using more of their available credit and now, nearly 2 in 5 credit cardholders — 37% — have maxed out or come close to maxing out a credit

Jacob Wackerhausen | Istock | Getty Images Starting in 2025, certain heirs with inherited individual retirement accounts must take yearly required withdrawals or face a penalty. But some non-spousal beneficiaries should consider taking distributions sooner, depending on their situation, even if annual withdrawals aren’t required, financial experts explain.  “This is about multi-year tax planning” to

Twenty47studio | Moment | Getty Images Millions of Social Security beneficiaries will benefit from the 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for 2025, set to take effect in January. With that increase, the maximum Social Security benefit for a worker retiring at full retirement age will jump to $4,018 per month, up from $3,822 per month this year,

About 165 million Americans get their health insurance through work, and yet most don’t spend much time considering what their employer is offering in the way of benefits and what it will cost. In fact, employees only spent about 45 minutes a year, on average, deciding which benefit options suit them best, a report from Aon found. Open

Americans often splurge on gifts during the holidays. This year, holiday spending from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31 is expected to increase to a record total of $979.5 billion to $989 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Even as credit card debt tops $1.14 trillion, holiday shoppers expect to spend, on average, $1,778, up 8% compared to