Author: Money Mechanics

Key Takeaways President Donald Trump has pledged to roll out housing policies that will lower housing costs.Some of the proposals are aimed at increasing demand for housing, which may not help much with affordability.Proposals that help increase supply are more likely to help spur lower costs in the housing market, experts said. Seeking to lower borrowing costs, create more housing supply and make it easier for homebuyers to enter the market, President Donald Trump is expected to soon announce a series of housing reforms. It’s not clear that his plans will bring affordability back to the housing market. Economists and…

Key Takeaways Event contracts are viewed as information, but also assets, making it all the more difficult to figure out which rules do and don’t apply to them.Prediction markets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, whose “Eddie Murphy rule” is aimed at preventing misappropriation of confidential information for unfair gain. But a busy run of regulatory debate seems likely. Someone profited handsomely after winning an unlikely short-term bet on Nicolás Maduro’s fate. The win kicked off a round of intense scrutiny of prediction markets. How, the questions went, could they have known what would happen in Venezuela with…

Key Takeaways Big tech stocks led a broad market sell-off Tuesday amid rising geopolitical concerns. President Donald Trump over the weekend threatened new tariffs on a number of European countries unless the U.S. is allowed to acquire Greenland. The Magnificent Seven aren’t looking so magnificent to start the week. All seven of the tech giants—Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT), and Tesla (TSLA)—saw their stocks slide to start the holiday-shortened trading week as rising geopolitical concerns fueled a broad market sell-off, with the shares down 1% to 2% each. Stocks fell in early…

(Image credit: Getty Images)An adviser I know well had built what most would consider a dream practice. Twenty years of hard work had produced $200 million in AUM, a steady stream of referrals and a six-figure income.But something was wrong.He found himself arriving at the office before dawn to catch up on paperwork, staying late to return client calls and spending weekends reviewing portfolios. A family vacation meant checking emails poolside and taking “quick” client calls from the hotel room. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus…

Key Takeaways The distribution of Social Security payments follows a similar schedule each year.Payment dates are generally based on the beneficiary’s birth date.More than 74 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries have had their payments increased by 2.8% in 2026. The Social Security Administration follows a general schedule for mailing out checks to its more than 74 million beneficiaries. Most beneficiaries are paid according to their birth date and typically receive their payments on the second, third, or fourth Wednesday of each month. Those who began receiving retirement, spousal, or survivor benefits before May 1997 will typically receive…

Key Takeaways You’d need a portfolio worth about $300,000, yielding 4%, to earn $1,000 in monthly income.Building a diversified collection of 20 to 30 dividend stocks across different sectors helps protect your income. Want to earn $1,000 in monthly income from dividend stocks? Many investors have successfully built dividend portfolios that generate substantial monthly income through patience, smart stock selection, and consistent investing. Below, we show you how it’s done. What Are Dividends? When successful companies make a profit, they often distribute some of the money to their investors through dividends, this is typically done every three months. Not every…

(Image credit: Getty Images)College enrollment has been declining for more than a decade, especially after 2010. That story is well known by now. What’s less understood is what has happened underneath that trend.Even with fewer students going to college overall, completion rates have improved. According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC), six-year completion rates have risen across most sectors since 2010 — most notably at community colleges.And even though total enrollment is lower, the number of younger adults earning bachelor’s and graduate degrees has steadily increased. Fewer people are entering college, but more of those who…

January 20, 2026 08:50 AM EST Fastenal Stock Drops After Q4 Sales, Operating Income Margin Slightly Miss Estimates FROM 15 minutes ago Shares of Fastenal (FAST) sank 6.5% in premarket trading after the industrial distributor reported fiscal 2025 fourth-quarter net sales and operating income margin that narrowly missed analysts’ estimates. The Winona, Minn.-based firm, which bills itself as “a leader in the wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies,” posted net sales that rose 11% year-over-year to just below $2.03 billion and operating margin of 19.0%. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha had expected just above $2.03 billion and 19.4%, respectively. Fastenal’s…

(Image credit: Getty Images)If you’re looking to retain an attorney, you might have heard: “Check their state bar’s website profile, because it will reveal anything negative.”That is bad advice.While it’s useful to look at a lawyer’s profile to confirm that they’re licensed to practice law, if there are complaints filed by dozens of clients over several years, you might never see them. Besides that, the absence of bad stuff on their profile is no assurance that you are dealing with an ethical attorney. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just…

Mar Vista Investment Partners, LLC, an investment management company, released its “Mar Vista U.S. Quality Premier Strategy” fourth-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US equities experienced strong momentum in 2025 and marked their third consecutive year of double-digit gains. The market witnessed one of the fastest recoveries following its dip into bear territory in April. Market leadership continued to narrow as mega-cap stocks and AI-driven companies dominated the landscape. Against this backdrop, The Mar Vista U.S. Quality Premier Strategy returned +1.80% net-of-fees gains in Q4 2025 vs. the Russell 1000® Index’s +2.41% return…