Author: Money Mechanics

(Image credit: Getty Images)Question: We lived below our means our entire careers. We’re now 67 with $5.8 million and about to take Social Security, which will provide $5,000 a month. I want to spend $300k on home renovations for our cramped and outdated house. I also want a new car. My wife is opposed. How do I get her to loosen up?Answer: Many people who retire with large sums of money get there via hard work, frugal living, and diligent saving. If you’ve reached the age of 67 with $5.8 million saved, you’re most likely looking at a comfortable retirement,…

(Image credit: Getty Images)The term “millionaire” has long been shorthand for financial success — and today, more Americans are reaching that milestone than ever before.According to a Bloomberg analysis, there are now more than 24 million millionaire households in the United States, accounting for nearly one in five households.What’s driving that growth is just as notable. Roughly a third of those households have crossed the million-dollar mark since 2017, fueled in part by rising home values and a strong stock market. And in many cases, that wealth isn’t sitting in cash. Instead, it’s built through assets like home equity and…

Now that Tax Day has passed and many people are taking a closer look at how much they owed the IRS or may have received as a refund, one question comes up again and again: Would I pay less tax somewhere else?For most people, the answer isn’t straightforward.That’s partly because state taxes vary widely across the country, from places with no income tax at all to states with some of the highest top rates in the nation. But as with the overall cost of living, your true tax burden depends on more than just one number. From just $107.88 $24.99…

The author and her father at a cooking class in Kathmandu.(Image credit: Alexandra Svokos)In his toast at my older sister’s wedding, my dad shared that his father-in-law had told him to wait to retire until all his daughters were married. So you can imagine my surprise when, two years after my own wedding, my father was still making his long commute to work.It’s understandable why he would be slow to retire. My dad has been working since he was a teenager at a Brooklyn diner. His corporate career began when he was waiting tables after college: A regular gave him…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Wealth advisers at banks and independent brokerages generated billions of dollars in fees by steering individual investors into private market funds, which many retail investors are now trying to flee.Sixteen funds, including those managed by Blackstone, Blue Owl, Apollo and KKR, have generated more than $2bn in servicing fees for wealth advisers since 2017 even before lucrative upfront commissions, according to a FT analysis of regulatory filings.The data shows how big banks such as Morgan Stanley, UBS and Bank of America Merrill…

The median sale price in the Bay Area metro rose 14% year over year in March, compared with a 1% gain nationwide. That helped San Francisco reclaim its title as the most expensive major metro to buy a home. Nationally, the housing market remained sluggish as high costs and economic uncertainty gave buyers and sellers pause. Active listings of U.S. homes for sale fell 1% from a month earlier and pending sales barely budged. Homes that did sell moved at the slowest March pace in a decade. The median home sale price in the San Francisco metropolitan area jumped 14.4%…

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Positioning panels is key to the best output, as is keeping them clean.Test and care for your gear to ensure reliable solar power.Off-grid solar teaches balance: collect wisely, and consume carefully.Fixed solar panels on buildings are, well, fixed. They are installed and, more often than not, receive little to no attention until something goes wrong. Portable panels — or temporary panels, as I tend to think of them — are an entirely different matter. They thrust you into a space that blends science with ingenuity. The sun…

(World Oil) – A new oil and gas company backed by Talos Energy founder Tim Duncan has entered the U.S. Gulf through the acquisition of Renaissance Offshore, marking its first move into U.S. offshore production. The company, 1947 Oil & Gas Plc, was co-founded by Duncan alongside former Goldman Sachs commodities strategist Jeff Currie and investor Ivan Murphy. The deal gives the new venture an initial producing footprint in shallow-water Gulf assets, with current output of about 3,000 boed. The acquisition reflects continued interest in Gulf of Mexico/Gulf of America assets, where established infrastructure and stable production profiles offer opportunities for smaller operators to scale output…

The longer the market stays noisy, the more attractive businesses look. That is especially true when those businesses have raised their dividends for more than 50 consecutive years, a rare consistency in any market. Rarer still are those that also deliver strong payouts, healthy revenue growth, and standout long-term gains. Those are the names I wanted to focus on here today: three standout dividend kings. Using Barchart’s Stock Screener, I selected the following filters to get my list: Annual Dividend Yield % (FWD): Left blank so I can sort it later from highest to lowest. 5-Year Percent Change: Greater than 50%.…

Twelve Securis, the specialist catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, has extended its long-standing collaboration with Bank J. Safra Sarasin to now include distribution across Italy and Spain.Twelve Securis has been collaborating with Bank J. Safra Sarasin, a private bank and asset management specialist group, since 2011, with a focus on insurance-related investment funds and opportunities. That collaboration resulted in the launch of specific ILS fund strategies with co-branding, including the JSS Twelve Sustainable Insurance Bond Fund that was launched in 2014, as well as the more recent launch of the JSS Twelve Securis Private ILS Fund in…