Author: Money Mechanics

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This article is an on-site version of our Unhedged newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. The staggering rally in computer memory stocks (which we wrote about here) has hit some rough water. Micron and SanDisk, for example, are both down about 30 per cent in less than two weeks. A specific culprit: a Google research paper suggesting that AI models might…

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.We’re heading into the last day of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, but many of the top deals we’ve been watching are still live. This includes devices from all price points, from Apple’s latest MacBook Pro M5 to the high-performing ThinkPad E16 at a whopping $770 off, and the jack-of-all-trades Dell Inspiron 15 for $599.Also: Amazon Spring Sale live blog 2026: Real-time updates on the best deals (while they last)We’ve personally tested (almost) every one of these laptops, and if we haven’t, we’ve tested previous versions, only highlighting models we’d buy ourselves. From Lenovo’s reliable ThinkPads…

Every year, whether it’s March Madness, the Super Bowl or election season, prediction markets and sports betting apps light up with the same promise: Place a smart bet, make a quick return and feel like you’re investing. The events change, but the pitch stays the same — and so does the confusion about what’s entertainment and what’s actual investing.As prediction markets and sports gambling explode in popularity — with Americans expected to wager $3.3 billion on the NCAA Division I Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournaments this year, according to the American Gaming Association, and 17% of American adults already in…

(Image credit: Getty Images)”Mr. Beaver, unlike a lot of older Americans, my parents do not fear retirement, because they realize the physical demands on their bodies from running the family farm are now too much for them,” wrote “Roy” in his email.”Over the past several months, I’ve given them several so-called ‘bestsellers’ on retirement advice. Books that proclaim, ‘This is the only book you’ll ever need,’ and that overflow with charts, formulas and enough gobbledygook to replace sleeping pills! Mom and Dad didn’t read any of them.”Do you know of something that is different, that they will enjoy reading and…

(Image credit: Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage via Getty Images)”What is the cost of financial advice?”It’s one of the most common questions investors ask. But it’s not the most important. As Warren Buffett famously said:”Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” That distinction matters — especially when it comes to financial advice.Article continues below 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 with the best of expert advice on…

(Image credit: Getty Images)No one hands you a guide when your marriage ends. Or when a spouse dies. Or when you suddenly receive a significant inheritance and realize you have no idea what to do next.There is no orientation packet for the moment you sell the business you spent 20 years building, or when the last child leaves home, and you find yourself looking at a life that has quietly reorganized itself around you.These are inflection points. They reshape not just your circumstances, but your entire financial reality. And they often arrive at the exact moment you feel least emotionally…

(Image credit: Getty Images)If you want to understand where oil prices are headed, you have to start with the basics: Supply and demand still rule this business.For all the headlines, all the politics and all the short-term noise, the energy market eventually comes back to one thing: How much oil the world needs vs how much oil the world can bring to market.Right now, that balance is a lot tighter than many people want to admit. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) March 2026 outlook still shows U.S. crude production averaging 13.6 million barrels per day this year and 13.8…

You may get a pleasant surprise from Uncle Sam this spring: A bigger-than-usual tax refund. Experts are projecting that this year may set records for refunds, both in the number issued and in the average amount returned. That’s because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed last summer, included several retroactive tax changes for the 2025 tax year, such as a higher standard deduction, a higher cap on property-tax deductions and an extra deduction for most taxpayers 65 and older.But the IRS never updated the withholding tables used to determine how much tax to take out of your paycheck…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Question: We’re retiring at 63 with $5.7 million. My wife wants to buy long-term care insurance, but it’s very expensive. I think we can just self-insure. Who’s right?Answer: If you’re retiring with a large sum of money, you may be aware that there’s one expense that could eat away at your nest egg over time — health care. Even if you’re relatively healthy at the start of retirement, there’s no guarantee you won’t end up with medical issues later on.Furthermore, as you age, you might eventually need more than just medical care. You might also need custodial…

Coinbase’s collaboration with Fannie Mae on crypto-backed mortgages ushers in a new era for cryptocurrency, according to industry insiders. The play is less about immediate changes and more about setting a structural precedent, said David Duong, Coinbase’s global head of investment research. “Allowing borrowers to use Bitcoin or USDC as pledged collateral — rather than selling it — incrementally reinforces the narrative of crypto as productive collateral and deepens the link between onchain wealth and the real economy, particularly US housing,” he said. Duong’s comments come as the industry has suffered from a $2 trillion drawdown, with Bitcoin down 47%…