Author: Money Mechanics

(Image credit: Getty Images)Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series that looks at the best ways to ensure an inheritance creates financial freedom, not a financial burden. Farm life is hard. When my clients, a farm family, began their estate planning, they faced a dilemma many such families experience: How to preserve their legacy without forcing an unwanted burden on their children.Their concerns were well-founded. They’d watched neighboring farms disappear, sold off to developers piece by piece or absorbed by corporate agriculture. The thought of their hundreds of acres of prime farmland meeting the same fate kept…

Key Takeaways Many Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions were set to expire at the end of 2025, but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made several of them permanent, preserving much of the existing tax framework. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act also introduced new tax provisions, including some that may affect 2025 returns, such as an increased cap on the SALT deduction. Given the new legislation and annual inflation adjustments, it’s especially important to assess your tax position as a high earner. Even after the tax year has ended, it may still be possible to reduce your 2025…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Stocks sold off Friday, with the main indexes ending the day and week in the red. Weighing on sentiment today was a hot inflation reading, which arrived just weeks ahead of the next Federal Reserve meeting. Slumping financial stocks also created headwinds, with AI worries ramping up after Block’s (XYZ) massive layoff announcement.Ahead of the open, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the Producer Price Index (PPI), which measures what businesses are paying suppliers for goods, rose 0.5% month over month in January – faster than what was seen in November and December. Year over year, headline…

Key Takeaways Berkshire Hathaway is set to release its fourth-quarter earnings and annual report Saturday.With the report, Greg Abel is expected to deliver his first annual shareholder letter as CEO, after Warren Buffett stepped down from the role at the end of December. Berkshire Hathaway’s legion of loyal investors have something new to look forward to on Saturday.  The company’s annual shareholder letter, which will accompany the fourth-quarter earnings and annual report, won’t be delivered by Warren Buffett for the first time in over 60 years, after the legendary investor stepped down from the CEO role at the end of…

Key Takeaways Fixed-income portfolios focus on reliable income rather than maximum growth.Diversifying across issuers and maturities helps manage risk.Bond ladders and duration management can smooth cash flow.Yield should be balanced with safety and liquidity. Investors seeking greater stability and dependable cash flow might opt for fixed-income strategies. Unlike equities, which can exhibit extreme volatility during periods of market uncertainty, fixed-income tools aim for reliable income rather than maximum growth potential. Not all fixed-income products are the same. Investors focusing exclusively on yield may not be setting themselves up for success. Portfolio structure is essential to a stable and resilient fixed-income…

Key Takeaways Homeownership rates rise sharply with income—upper-income households are far more likely to own homes than lower-income households.Other factors influencing ownership include inheritance, age, location, and relationship status. Owning a home isn’t just about having a place to live. For many Americans, it represents stability, financial security, and long-term wealth building, with home equity often serving as a household’s most valuable asset. But homeownership isn’t equally accessible to all. Which income bracket your household falls into may be associated with whether you’ve purchased your own home. In this article, we take a look at the numbers. Homeownership Rates Climb…

Gold still looks unstoppable, a mighty juggernaut. After essentially tripling in about a couple years, gold inexorably continues grinding higher. Remarkably this great strength is defying gold’s own half-century-plus precedent of serious drawdowns following extreme gains and overboughtness. Interestingly gold’s latest monster record bull also had episodes of gold refusing to sell off substantially out of overbought extremes. As I marvel at gold’s staying power, that word juggernaut keeps coming to mind. It is based on the name of an Indian god Jagannath. One way he is celebrated is during a festival for which enormous temple cars or chariots are…

Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. Ltd., the Japanese primary insurance group, is back in the catastrophe bond market to sponsor an initially $100 million Kizuna Re III Pte. Ltd. (Series 2026-1) transaction, that is designed to provide collateralized earthquake reinsurance protection and is being issued out of Singapore, Artemis has learned.This will become the tenth catastrophe bond we have included in our extensive Deal Directory that will provide reinsurance to part of the Tokio Marine Holdings group of companies and now the seventh in the Kizuna Re series of cat bond deals. Tokio Marine has been sponsoring catastrophe…

Just months after loanDepot co-founder Alex Madonna was named to a new role to focus on emerging technology, artificial intelligence and modern sales structures, it was announced that he’s departing the company. Madonna, who was most recently loanDepot’s executive vice president of direct lending and spent 16 years at the company, confirmed the news in a LinkedIn post on Friday afternoon. “After 16 remarkable years under Anthony Hsieh‘s mentorship and leadership, as many of you know, we mutually agreed it was time for me to move on from the organization,” Madonna wrote. In the same post, Madonna announced that he…

OpenAI has fired an employee over the employee’s activity on prediction markets, including Polymarket, the company confirmed to Wired. The employee used confidential OpenAI information in connection with the trades made, the company alleges. OpenAI didn’t release the name of the employee. However, a spokesperson said that such actions violated a company policy that bans workers from using inside information for personal gain, including on prediction markets. Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi allow people to make wagers on the outcomes of real-world events. For instance, on Polymarket, there are wagers being made around the kind of products OpenAI will…