Author: Money Mechanics

With upcoming Medicare Open Enrollment, learn key factors about your important choices. gettyDeciding how to enroll in Medicare is one of your most important retirement decisions because it will impact your health, longevity, and wallet for the rest of your life. If you’re new to Medicare or considering making a change during Medicare’s upcoming Annual Enrollment Period (October 15 to December 7 this year), you’ll want to make sure you understand the fundamentals about Medicare coverage before signing up or electing a change. There are two ways you can enroll in Medicare: You can sign up for Original Medicare (aka…

Editor’s note: This is part two of a two-part series about forced Section 721 UPREIT conversions. Part one raised concerns related to some new Delaware statutory trust offerings that force investors into 721 UPREIT conversions at the end of the hold period. In part one of this series, I discussed the risks associated with forced Delaware statutory trust 721 UPREIT conversions.These types of conversions make investors exchange their DST interest for REIT operating partnership units, erasing the investor’s option to choose whether or when to cash out or continue deferring taxes. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Be…

More and more, couples are splitting up after or near retirement. However, when a couple divorces, it isn’t as simple as, “You go your way, and I’ll go mine.” This is especially true when a decades-long union ends.The divorce rate among adults 65 and older is rising, even as the national rate of divorce had declined slightly. These later-in-life divorces are often called “gray divorce.”Adults 65 and older represent the only age group with an increasing divorce rate. Later in life, couples may realize they have grown apart and have differing views of what retirement looks like that may lead…

In the midst of the hoopla surrounding a rate cut, it doesn’t diminish the fact that some savings options are still excellent choices to consider. APYs on all savings products will likely dip slightly following the Fed’s decision to cut the federal funds rate, but it doesn’t mean you can’t earn a good return.If you’re sitting on $40,000 and want a risk-free way to grow your money, CDs and high-yield savings accounts are smart options to consider. Both offer you guaranteed returns thanks to FDIC protection up to $250,000.With these things in mind, here’s how much you can earn by…

Key Takeaways Apple shares have declined 5% since the start of the year, making it the only Magnificent Seven stock in the red for the year.The iPhone maker has struggled to roll out artificial intelligence features, leading Wall Street to debate whether the company should make an uncharacteristically large acquisition to close the gap with big tech peers that have gone all in on AI.Low expectations heading into this year’s iPhone upgrade cycle could boost the stock in the near term, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring. The Magnificent Seven is living up to its name this year, with…

Question: I’m 51 and my portfolio is up. I’m planning to retire in nine years, at the age of 60, so I want to start moving out of stocks to lower my portfolio risk. Is that smart?Answer: In the years leading up to retirement, it’s common to start rethinking your investment strategy. And part of that could mean shifting into assets that are less volatile.But how soon is too soon? From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best…

Key Takeaways Meta Platforms is expected to showcase its latest AI-powered glasses at a developer conference this week.HSBC analysts said the move could help position Meta as an early leader in a new category of devices with the potential to drive growth.More smart glasses are expected from Apple, Amazon and other competitors in the coming years. Meta Platforms is looking to AI-powered glasses to drive growth, which some Wall Street analysts said could help position the tech giant as an early leader in a new category of devices. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is widely expected to showcase Meta’s (META) latest AI…

(Removes extraneous “as” in headline, no other change to text) By Chibuike Oguh and Sara Rossi NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – An index of world equity markets edged higher in choppy trading after hitting a record high on Tuesday ahead of the widely expected start of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cutting cycle, while U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar fell. MSCI’s all-country index was a shade higher by 0.04% after rising as far as 978.74, a record high. Wall Street stocks erased earlier session gains and finished lower, with utilities and real estate making the most losses while energy and…

Martin Shkreli, also popularly known as ‘Pharma Bro,’ announced late Tuesday that he has taken a short position against iBuying real estate company Opendoor Technologies Inc. OPEN.Check out OPEN’s stock price here. Pharma Bro To Launch Public Due Diligence Against OPENIn a post on the social media platform X, Shkreli revealed he shorted the stock at $9.36, marking his first trade in the company. He also declared his intention to launch a public due diligence campaign into the firm.“This is the first trade I’ve made in the stock,” Shkreli wrote, before detailing his unconventional next steps. “I will be doing…

Municipal bonds often get painted with a broad brush stroke a lot of the time. Investors typically bundle these bonds together in a single package and think of them as a one-off allocation. A package that simply offers tax-free income. However, the municipal market is quite complex, with a variety of different securities, sub-asset classes, and features that investors can leverage at different times to boost returns. One of them is callability. A large subset of municipal bonds features a provision that allows states and other municipal entities to repay the bonds before their final maturity. And while that may…