Author: Money Mechanics

Many retirement savers hold a meaningful portion of their wealth in annuities.Americans hold $2.6 trillion in non-qualified annuities alone. These accounts grow tax-deferred over the years, which means that, without a strategic plan, the increased value can turn into a painful tax bill.Unless you leave that annuity to charity, you or your heirs will have to pay ordinary income tax on the gains over time. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free…

Gray divorce refers to couples splitting after age 50, and it’s more common than people think.Pew Research Center found that the divorce rate for Americans 50 and older has roughly doubled since 1990. And it’s even higher for those 65 and up.The stakes are different when you divorce later in life. There’s less time to rebuild savings and more healthcare costs to plan for. Doing your homework before you file for a gray divorce can mean the difference between a secure retirement and scrambling to make ends meet. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better…

In 1889, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck introduced the world’s first state pension system and set the retirement age at 70. Life expectancy in Germany at the time was about 45 years. The math was no coincidence.Bismarck was not building a reward for a life well lived. He was building a political instrument to neutralize the rising socialist movement, calibrated so that most workers would die before collecting a single mark.The pension was designed to be a promise rarely kept. From its very first institutional expression, retirement was a financial mechanism dressed as a social good. From just $107.88 $24.99…

Do you have a plan for how you’ll spend your money in retirement? If not, join the club. Many retirees wing it when it comes to withdrawing their hard-earned savings.But that’s a big mistake, says Jean Chatzky, best-selling author of “The Forever Paycheck” and founder of HerMoney. In fact, it’s the biggest mistake retirees can make.”The lack of a concrete plan actually prevents them from living their best retirement,” Chatzky tells Kiplinger. “They are not living as well as they could.” If you overspend without a plan, you could face a retirement shortfall. If you underspend, you won’t get to…

Oil prices have sold off aggressively following the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding. While we believe the move is overdone, we look at some of the reasons behind the strong pullback in pricesThe Oil Market Prices in a Quick Recovery of Persian Gulf SuppliesThe Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran has led to a significant sell-off in the oil market – far more aggressive than most analysts were expecting, including us. The sell-off has been driven firstly by the premature expectation of a normalisation in oil supply from the Persian Gulf, and secondly, clear weakness in the physical…

Guy Carpenter, the global reinsurance broking firm, has reported that a combination of abundant capacity and a growing appetite from reinsurers has kept the competitive pricing environment intact at the mid-year renewals, while also highlighting that current market conditions are encouraging buyers to explore alternative options such as parametric solutions and sidecars to complement traditional catastrophe programmes.In its July 2026 reinsurance renewals report, the broker states that within property lines, attractive terms and coverage options are spurring exploration of supplemental solutions to augment traditional catastrophe programs. Dean Klisura, President & CEO, Guy Carpenter, commented: “In the current market conditions, cedents…

(Investing) – U.S. solar developers have secured federal subsidies for a wave of projects large enough to nearly double current capacity, rushing to beat a July 4 deadline that could send renewable power costs sharply higher. The projections reflect the loss of valuable renewable energy tax credits worth at least 30% of project costs, a change that threatens to raise U.S. energy prices amid surging demand driven by artificial intelligence. The phaseout of the 20-year-old subsidies, accelerated under President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax law, could drive contract prices for wind and solar energy up by 40% to 50%, with early data…

The Cape Cod house has become synonymous with coastal luxury and aspirational waterfront living. But long before it was uplifted as the darling of seaside living, the home design fulfilled a much grittier purpose: serving as a survival shelter to 17th-century colonialists. While the elegant and oh-so symmetrical design of Cape Cod properties is now regularly splashed across Pinterest pages and highlighted in Nancy Meyers movies, its origins are a world away from the picture-perfect reputation it now holds. ​Named after the Massachusetts seaside peninsula where the design originated, this quintessential family home has evolved from a survival shelter for…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Climate change myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.Messages from the archive of Rutherford Hall, critical communications strategistWhatsApp to Stephen: Do you think we need a Manchester office? WhatsApp to Stephen: No, I know that we don’t, obviously. But Andy Burnham is setting up a Northern No 10 in Manchester — it’s probably just so he can work from home on Mondays — but it might look good to show we are with the programme. Anyway, I’ve got to speak to the London Climate Action Week guys you got me helping…

For retirees who booked a large capital gain in 2024, the Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount is now adding thousands of dollars to their Part B and Part D Medicare premiums.  The surcharge stems from Medicare’s two-year lookback rule, which pulls modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) from a prior tax return to calculate current-year costs. A married couple filing jointly with a $210,000 taxable gain layered on top of roughly $130,000 in other retirement income could face combined surcharges exceeding $5,600 for the year, 24/7 Wall St. reported.  The surcharge applies even though the gain was a one-time event, because Medicare…