Author: Money Mechanics

Each week, in our Ask the Editor series, Joy Taylor, The Kiplinger Tax Letter editor, answers questions on topics submitted by readers. This week she’s looking at five questions on reporting income and loss from residential rental property. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Tax Letter or subscribe.)1. Can I deduct interest paid on a HELOC?Question: I own a rental home that I lease to a tenant. Every year, I attach Schedule E to my Form 1040 to report the income or loss from the property. I have a mortgage on the property and deduct the interest I pay…

KEY TAKEAWAYS The “One Big, Beautiful Bill” introduced several changes to student loans that will take effect in 2026, including the creation of a new income-driven repayment plan and a reduction in the amount that some students and their families can borrow.Loan forgiveness next year will be taxable again, and some public-loan workers could be blocked from forgiveness by the Trump administration. From a new income-driven repayment plan to adjusted borrowing limits, changes are coming to your student loans in 2026. The “One Big, Beautiful Bill” makes several significant changes to student loans and repayment plans. Many of these changes…

Today, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released new quarterly statistics on gross domestic product and personal income for all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the third quarter of 2025 (July, August, and September).Gross domestic product (GDP) highlightsReal GDP increased in all 50 states and District of Columbia in the third quarter of 2025. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 4.4 percent nationally and ranged from 6.5 percent in Kansas to 0.4 percent in North Dakota.In the third quarter of 2025, real GDP increased in 19 of the 23 industry groups for which BEA prepares…

SmartAsset and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. Converting a 401(k) to a Roth IRA can potentially provide valuable long-term benefits, but it also triggers a tax bill that you’ll need to plan for. While the taxes on a Roth conversion can’t be avoided, savers can reduce the burden through several strategies like gradual conversions and timing adjustments. Those nearing retirement can weigh whether they have enough time left to offset conversion taxes through decades of future tax-free growth. Do you need help with a Roth conversion or other retirement planning questions?…

prices are entering a different kind  of winter regime. The market is no longer being driven by storage comfort and weather persistence rather than scarcity fear. It is being driven by the slow disappearance of urgency. In classic winter seasons, the gas complex tends to behave like a headline instrument. Cold weather forecasts lift prices rapidly, then storage comfort wipes the premium out just as fast. Winter 2026 is not following that script. The premium has not exploded. It has steadily bled out. That shift matters because it changes positioning and price quality. When a market transitions from panic pricing…

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – JANUARY 20: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting held in Davos, Switzerland on January 20, 2026.Anadolu | Getty ImagesU.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the invitation to Canada to join his “Board of Peace,” days after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s address in Davos warning against economic coersion by the world’s superpowers. “Dear Prime Minister Carney: Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday night stateside. Carney…

ZDNET’s key takeaways Haylou’s S40 headphones are available on Amazon for just over $50.With outstanding battery life and comfort, they’re a great pair of budget headphones.Their sound isn’t likely to impress discerning audiophiles. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.Ten years ago, if you told me I could buy a pair of headphones for around $50 that sounded good, I would have laughed you out of the recording studio. Back then, I’d have had to pay over twice that much to get something that even remotely lived up to my standards.Granted, I have high standards when it comes to…

Key Takeaways Libya has the highest official retirement age at 70 years old.Other countries with high retirement ages include Australia, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States.Countries with low official retirement ages often have high effective retirement ages, meaning people tend to work until their mid-60s regardless of where they live.While the United States will avoid a rise in the retirement age in 2025, from 67 years old, the Republican Party has continually proposed this during budget talks. Denmark will soon be tied with Libya to have the highest official retirement age—meaning the age when a…

(Oil Price) – U.S. President Donald Trump supervises the release of funds from sales of Venezuela’s oil, an official at the U.S. Administration told Semafor on Thursday. Following the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro early this month, President Trump moved to create a fund to hold revenues from sales of Venezuela’s oil. The money is being held in U.S. accounts and released at the discretion of President Trump, Semafor reports. Revenues from sales of Venezuela’s oil “will first settle in US controlled accounts at globally recognized banks,” the Trump Administration official told the publication. President Trump’s top advisers are “constantly engaged in positive discussions…

Stock futures pointed to a lower open ahead of the final day of a volatile week of trading, while safe-haven gold futures set their latest record.  Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.4%, 0.3%, and 0.3%, respectively. Yesterday, major indexes closed sharply higher for a second straight session after President Donald Trump reduced tensions with European allies by backing off his threat of imposing new tariffs over Greenland. Despite the two-day rally, the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq entered Friday lower for the week, as indexes suffered their worst session since Oct. 10 on Tuesday. The…