Author: Money Mechanics

Today’s couples often build deeply intertwined lives long before, after or without marriage. They share homes, combine expenses, raise children, support aging parents and make long-term financial decisions together.What often lags behind is the planning structure to support that life. Day-to-day systems can work smoothly for years, obscuring the fact that many legal and financial defaults still hinge on marital status, formal ownership and written authority.LGBTQ+ couples have long navigated this gap firsthand, offering a clear example of why intentional financial planning matters. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just…

The Social Security trust fund for retirement benefits will run out of money in 2032, according to the latest estimate from the program’s trustees. Last year, the trustees projected that the trust fund would be depleted in 2033. This year’s projection is a little more precise, estimating that the trust fund will last until the fourth quarter of 2032.The estimates that make the headlines probably are optimistic. Deep in the trustees’ report are disclosures of the assumptions used to determine the deficit, and they look a bit hopeful to me. They probably understate inflation, among other arguable assumptions. Also, the…

Exchange-traded funds have been around for more than three decades, but if new fund launches are any clue, growth in the category is still strong. A record 1,490 exchange-traded products opened from the start of 2025 through April 2026 — bumping up the total of listed ETFs in the U.S. today to more than 5,100.And investors are piling in. More than 15 of the newly minted ETFs each have more than $1 billion in assets already. “For a new fund to get even close to $1 billion in assets in its first year is rare,” says Todd Rosenbluth, head of…

Most Americans say they want to live within an easy walk of shops, parks, and other neighborhood amenities, yet some real estate agents fear that discussing an area’s “walkability” may run afoul of the law.Their concern, in short, is that not everyone can walk. Touting a neighborhood as “walkable” may unintentionally violate fair housing laws by excluding people who use mobility aids such as wheelchairs, some advocates warn.This poses a dilemma for agents: Almost 8 in 10 Americans say walkability is “very” or “somewhat” important when choosing a neighborhood, and nearly as many report a willingness to pay more for…

Two in five adults experienced some kind of financial fraud or scam during the past year, a 34% increase over the same period a year earlier, a new Bankrate survey found. What’s driving this increase?Financial scams are becoming more common because of the many different touch points you can have with scammers and the rapid proliferation of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence.Scammers are targeting people in advanced ways using AI, so it takes a lot of awareness to avoid making a mistake. Kiplinger caught up with Sarah Foster, a U.S. economic analyst at Bankrate to dive into how fraudsters could…

For most investors, sits in a box labelled “commodity” or perhaps “inflation hedge”. That has always felt far too narrow. One of the reasons I return to In Gold We Trust every year is that Ronald-Peter Stöferle and Mark Valek use gold not as an asset class, but as a vantage point. Through that single lens, the report explores interest rates, debt accumulation, fiscal policy, geopolitics, and the long arc of monetary history. Gold becomes less the subject and more the organising principle. The result is one of the few pieces of financial research that attempts to map the entire…

Mortgage rates saw a welcome pullback this week, with the average rate on 30-year fixed home loans falling to 6.47% for the week ending June 18, according to Freddie Mac. This 5 basis-point drop from last week’s 6.52% offers a brief breather for buyers navigating a highly competitive summer market. Current rates continue to trend below the levels seen during the same period in 2025, when rates averaged 6.81%.So what does this mean for homebuyers? Using the Realtor.com® mortgage calculator, we can take a look at how the math plays out for an average-priced home in the country.All examples assume…

Oil and gas investing has always been tied to geology, engineering and price cycles. But today, investors also need to understand something else: Geopolitics.A well in Texas, Oklahoma or North Dakota may be drilled on American soil, but its value is still shaped by decisions made in Riyadh, Moscow, Tehran, Beijing, Brussels and Washington. The oil market is global.A barrel taken off the water in the Middle East can change the economics of a barrel produced in the Permian BasinA sanction written in Washington can redirect tankers halfway around the worldA refinery bottleneck, shipping disruption or political conflict can move…

What is the best way to save money for children?I get this question quite a bit from new and existing clients alike. It usually gets brought up by parents, but sometimes it comes from aunts, uncles, grandparents and other guardians.The answer, as it is to so many financial questions, is: It depends on the financial goals and wishes of the saver. 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 Newsletters Profit and prosper…

The Nasdaq Stock Market might be America’s second-largest stock exchange, behind only the 234-year-old New York Stock Exchange. But it’s increasingly becoming the exchange of choice for Wall Street’s best stocks.Just take a quick glance at the S&P 500. The eight largest holdings are listed on the Nasdaq. Among them are Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT), a murderer’s row of multitrillion-dollar firms and some of the market’s top-rated equities.In fact, if you homed in on the best Nasdaq stocks at any given moment, you’d be looking at companies in some pretty rarified air. And you’d probably also be…