Author: Money Mechanics

(Image credit: Getty Images)America is in the middle of its biggest-ever retirement wave. And for real estate investors who spent decades building wealth, one property at a time, the exit strategy may be the hardest deal they’ve ever had to make.I had lunch recently with a couple I’ll call Brenda and Eddie, who are in their mid-60s, and both exhausted. They spent 30 years assembling a tidy portfolio of rental properties in the “Tony Houston” suburbs, consisting of: five houses, a small strip center and a 12-unit apartment building.On paper, they were millionaires several times over. In practice, Eddie told…

(Image credit: Getty Images)I was meeting with a client (let’s call him Arthur) for a late lunch last week. We were tucked into a leather booth near the fireplace, the kind where the noise of the city just disappears.Arthur is the picture of the self-made American success story: He has $2.2 million in a traditional IRA, a paid-off condo in the Gold Coast and a retirement spreadsheet so detailed it would make an aerospace engineer smile.He leaned back, exhaled and said, “Ray, thank God for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. I thought my tax rate was going to 25%…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Summer vacation season is approaching, and because I’m a big believer in investing in experiences over things, I’m here to tell you to take that dream vacation — or all the dream vacations.I see many clients struggle to enjoy their trips and be in the moment. The guilt is real, and so are the worries about paying for a beach rental, a couples’ cruise or a family excursion abroad.You don’t have to feel uneasy. Here are nine tips for a guilt-free vacation. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe…

Question: I’m 55 and married with a $1.5 million 401(k) balance. I earn about $150,000 a year and expect to remain in my job until I retire. I’m planning a major home improvement project, but I lack the immediate cash to cover it.Since the interest rate on most credit cards is astronomically high, I’m considering a 401(k) loan instead. Is this a sound strategy for someone of my age, or will it harm my future retirement?Answer: When it comes to borrowing against your traditional 401(k) or Roth 401(k), the conventional wisdom is to avoid it at all costs. After all,…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Before the 2008 housing crisis, some lenders offered homeowners 80/20 “piggyback” loans to help cover a down payment while avoiding private mortgage insurance (PMI). Borrowers took out a second mortgage or HELOC for 20% of the home’s value, leaving the primary mortgage at 80% and eliminating the need for PMI.When home prices crashed, many of those second mortgages lost value and quietly went dormant. But now, loans long assumed to be settled are resurfacing.Known as zombie mortgages, they’re catching homeowners off guard — leaving some suddenly on the hook for far more than expected and, in some…

The S&P 500’s 7% year-to-date pullback has been largely led by artificial intelligence (AI) stocks suddenly being seen as liabilities rather than assets. Microsoft is 26% below where it ended last year, while Palantir Technologies is off by nearly 20%. IBM is down 20% since the end of 2025, and Oracle shares are 28% lower. This swell of disinterest is understandable, though. Many of these tickers were already struggling with steep valuations stemming from a little too much hype about AI’s potential upside. When Microsoft, Alphabet, Oracle, and Amazon all recently announced they’d be making massive investments in artificial intelligence…

California lawmakers are weighing bills that would reduce regulatory barriers to revive condominium construction, which has dropped significantly from its peak in the years before the Great Recession. Assembly Bill 1406 would raise the state’s liquidated-damages limit on new condominium sales from 3% of the purchase price to 6%. Backers frame the bill as “condo deposit reform” to modernize a rule that is among the strictest in the country. The other bill, AB 1903 filed in February, proposes changing condo construction defect liability rules to create a true “right-to-repair” process for condo defect claims so developers can fix problems without…

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 Gen 11 Aura Edition Kyle Kucharski/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.Have you ever noticed how your PC’s storage never quite seems to add up? Part of that is because Windows reserves a small portion of your storage for system files. A feature called Reserved Storage quietly sets aside 5GB to 10GB on your SSD for update files, cache, and temporary files. It’s not as nefarious as it sounds — there’s a rationale behind allocating space to streamline updates — but you may want to get that space back, especially if you have a smaller SSD…

(By Oil & Gas 360) – While crude oil grabs the headlines, the real pressure point in the U.S., Iran conflict is showing up downstream, in the fuels that actually power economies. Gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel markets are tightening faster and more unevenly than crude, revealing a different kind of energy shock that is driven by logistics, refining constraints, and product-specific supply gaps. The starting point is physical disruption. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global energy flows, has been partially constrained, disrupting not only crude exports but also the movement of refined products and feedstocks through…

The US and Israel’s war on Iran is expected to help China’s exporters gain global market share from rivals in countries hit harder by high energy prices and supply chain shocks, according to economists.Chinese factories should be able to maintain steady production thanks to the country’s large oil reserves and domestic energy supplies, they said, while the war’s disruption to oil and gas markets could spur a longer term shift to green energy that would benefit Chinese industry.“One could certainly see China take more market share globally as a result of the energy shock,” said Fred Neumann, chief Asia economist…