Author: Money Mechanics

Homebuyers who have dreamed of owning a wine country retreat could well get the chance to snap one up at a bargain price when a luxurious 700-acre estate that was once home to legendary “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek is put up for auction—with no reserve. The extraordinary ranch property known as Windfall Farms, which is located in Paso Robles, CA, was owned by Trebek for 37 years, until he and several other investors sold it to its current owners for $1.6 million in 2001.In the years since, those owners—Barry and Donna Goldfarb—have transformed it from a working winery into a…

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), speaking at the ECB Forum in Sintra, Portugal on July 1st, 2026.CNBCSeveral consecutive days of strikes exchanged between the U.S. and Iran have once again thrown oil prices into the spotlight — and cast uncertainty on the European Central Bank’s interest rate decision next week. Investors on Wednesday were repricing for the ECB’s July 22 monetary policy meeting as soaring oil prices have put expectations for a hold in doubt. “The renewed outbreak of military conflict in the Middle East and the fresh rise in oil prices underscore that the situation…

Artie Beaty/ZDNETFollow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.ZDNET’s key takeawaysThere are several ways to install Android Auto in an older car.You can purchase an external display or use an old device.Using an old device is the most affordable option.Android Auto and infotainment screens have become standard equipment in almost any car from the past 15 years, but if you have a vehicle from the time before that, you might feel like you’re missing out. If you haven’t considered it before, you might think that you’re fine just using your car’s Bluetooth or aux connection, but Android Auto gives you an…

Aerial view of the village of Miravet at the Ebro river in Tarragona at sunset. Catalonia, SpaingettyBeth had been living outside of New York City when she and her husband began divorce proceedings, just before pandemic lockdowns swept across the world.During those peak pandemic years, she was trying to figure out what her next steps were going to be. “At the beginning of the pandemic I was looking where to relocate within the United States. As it went on, I decided to broaden my horizons. I started thinking I should take a chance and move overseas,” Beth tells me.“It was…

Imagine two houses on the same street—same size, same age, same everything. But one homeowner will pay $1,200 a year to insure theirs, while another will pay $2,100. It might sound like a pricing error, but it isn’t. A recent Urban Institute analysis of mortgage and insurance data found this kind of gap is common nationally—and that it hits lower-income buyers hardest, even when comparing homes of similar value. Insurance professionals who work with buyers every day say the same thing: The gap usually doesn’t have to do with the home itself.”Most people think insurance pricing is about the house. It’s not.…

With many Big Tech names lining up to report quarterly results this week and next, investors, traders and speculators would prefer to focus on AI, earnings and guidance rather than uncertainty about the Middle East, inflation and interest rates. The main equity indexes reflected this balancing act on Monday.At the closing bell, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was down 0.05% at 25,508, the S&P 500 had slipped 0.2% to 7,443, and the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.6% at 51,841.The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contract added 0.9% to $82.49 per barrel, and the 2-year Treasury yield…

Travel insurance is easy to push to the bottom of your vacation to-do list.  But waiting too long can limit your travel insurance options. Some of the most useful benefits are only available if you buy a policy shortly after your first trip payment. Here’s what to know about when to buy travel insurance, including important deadlines and what your options look like if you wait until the last minute. Learn more: 7 best travel insurance companies of 2026 What is travel insurance, and why do you need it? Travel insurance helps protect you from certain financial losses associated with…

In-brief analysis July 20, 2026 On July 3, 2026, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) imported 52 gigawatthours (GWh) of electricity from Canada, the most traded between the two areas since January 2025. Some of the imported electricity flowed along the new Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) transmission line between Québec, Canada, and New York City, which officially reached commercial operations in May after three years of construction. A strong heat wave drove electricity demand in NYISO up during the first week of July with a maximum hourly load (peak load) of 31,097 megawatts…

Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, have welcomed a newborn baby boy named Alec Neel Vance, announcing the exciting arrival in a joint post shared on social media—while allowing President Donald Trump the honor of sharing the first image of their son. The Vances, who revealed in January that they were expecting their fourth child together, announced on July 19 that they had welcomed a son, while sharing their delight at having expanded their family. They added that their older three children, sons Ewan, 8, and Vivek, 6, and daughter, Mirabel, 4, were “overjoyed” to have met their new…

Adobe is adding new AI-powered features to its experimental iOS camera app called Project Indigo, launched last year. The app previously offered pro controls, multi-frame super-resolution, and different capture modes, and is now adding features that will use LLMs (large language models) to critique photos and provide editing suggestions. It’s also adding other AI features, like advanced object removal, depth of field generation, and the ability to add different styles to photos. Marc Levoy, the person heading Adobe’s project, had previously developed Pixel’s camera chops. He said that most generative AI tools provide prompt-based editing and, often, finding the perfect…