Author: Money Mechanics

Key Takeaways The 59,000-person riverfront town of Dubuque, Iowa has a small but involved community of retirees.The median rent and median home value are attractive compared to nationwide medians—you get a lot of bang for your buck here.Local taxes are generally favorable for retirees as well.The town offers plentiful opportunities for outdoor recreation along the Mississippi River and through miles of hiking and biking trails.There is easy access to strong medical facilities and the regional airport. With a population of just under 59,000, Dubuque, Iowa is a large Midwestern town on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. It’s not just…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Homeownership is expensive enough as it is. So many homeowners are always on the lookout for ways to offset the costs and pad their emergency fund. With tax season approaching, one of the best ways to do that is claim tax credits and tax deductions you’re eligible for as a homeowner.While there are many tax breaks for homeowners filing their 2025 taxes – like mortgage interest or property taxes – home insurance is unfortunately not one of them, except in a few circumstances.Still, it’s worth understanding when and how you can deduct home insurance premiums, just in…

Twenty years after Rio Tinto’s disastrous $44bn takeover of Alcan, the miner is pursuing another deal that would set records: a $260bn megamerger with rival Glencore.The revival of talks to create the world’s largest mining group — which is already being dubbed “GlenTinto” — a year after a previous attempt faltered comes despite Rio’s new boss, Simon Trott, signalling that he wanted to make the London-headquartered miner more productive. Behind the scenes, he was rekindling talks with Glencore as majors worldwide race to secure copper assets in a new era of dealmaking where bigger is seen as better. The discussions,…

The Federal Reserve Board on Friday announced the designation of the chairs and deputy chairs of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks for 2026. Each Reserve Bank has a nine-member board of directors, representing a wide range of business and community leaders across each regional district. By law, the Board of Governors in Washington appoints three of these directors to represent the public in the district and each year designates one of its appointees as chair and a second as deputy chair. Following are the names of the chairs and deputy chairs designated by the Board for 2026: Boston Lizanne Kindler,…

In-brief analysis January 9, 2026 In 2025, the wholesale U.S. natural gas spot price at the national benchmark Henry Hub in Louisiana averaged $3.52 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), based on data from LSEG Data. The 2025 average Henry Hub natural gas spot price increased 56% from the 2024 annual average, which—when adjusted for inflation—was the lowest on record. On a daily basis, the Henry Hub natural gas spot price ranged from $2.65/MMBtu to $9.86/MMBtu, reflecting a narrower range of daily prices compared with the previous year. Natural gas prices tend to be higher…

Today we are pleased to reveal the fifth and now final wave of speakers for our upcoming insurance-linked securities conference. With tickets continuing to sell more quickly than prior years for ILS NYC 2026, we urge you to register soon to guarantee your place at the conference as we could sell out.The annual New York conference is our flagship ILS industry event of the year and among the biggest events in the world dedicated to the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities asset class. ILS NYC is well-known for the detailed discussions held on stage by our expert insurance-linked securities (ILS)…

CUSIP 912828N71 continued the trend of strong performance. By David Enna, Tipswatch.com Back on Jan. 21, 2016, we had a “sort-of” exciting moment in the market for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities. The Treasury auctioned a new 10-year TIPS — CUSIP 912828N71 — which generated a real yield to maturity of 0.725%, the highest yield for any 9- to 10-year TIPS auction for nearly five years. That real yield seems mundane today, but it was a big improvement over a stretch of very low and often negative real yields dating back to September 2011. Inflation breakeven rate. Another interesting aspect of this…

U.S. President Donald Trump at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on January 03, 2026, in Palm Beach, Florida.Joe Raedle | GettyPresident Donald Trump in a social media post Thursday evening indirectly revealed data from Friday’s market-moving nonfarm payrolls count, an apparent violation of long-standing federal policy on statistical releases.In a Truth Social post around 9 p.m., the president indicated that private sector payrolls had expanded by 654,000 for the full year of 2025, a total that would have included Friday’s jobs count for December. Office of Management and Budget policy prohibits executive branch officials from commenting on such…

Brands like Hisense, Samsung, and more have introduced truly cinema-sized TVs with new 98-, 115-inch size, and even 130-inch size classes. These gigantic TVs offer movie theater-quality experiences in the comfort of your own home, with object-tracking sound support, enhanced picture quality, and support for thousands of streaming apps. Many 98-inch TVs are also great for console gaming, with high refresh rates and VRR support to prevent screen tearing and stuttering.In our January update, we added testing insights for models that our TV experts were able to go hands-on with in our dedicated lab. Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add…

Key Takeaways The end of enhanced ACA premium tax credits has increased premiums for many people whose incomes fall above the so-called “subsidy cliff.”Earning even $1 above 400% of the federal poverty level can eliminate the credit entirely. If you’re planning to buy or have already bought health insurance off the exchange this year, your premiums may have surged. And if you’re not careful, you could be on the hook for a huge tax bill next year. At the start of the year, enhanced premium tax credits, a type of subsidy for Affordable Care Act (ACA) premiums, expired. These temporary…