Author: Money Mechanics

Key Takeaways Disney and OpenAI on Thursday announced a three-year licensing agreement to bring Disney, Star Wars, and Marvel characters to OpenAI’s image and video generation tools.Disney will also invest $1 billion in OpenAI as part of the deal. Darth Vader, Captain America, and Mickey Mouse are coming to ChatGPT. The Walt Disney Company (DIS) and OpenAI announced a three-year licensing deal Thursday to make Disney characters available through the ChatGPT maker’s image and video generation tools, with Disney also investing $1 billion in OpenAI. Starting early next year, users of the ChatGPT image generator and OpenAI’s Sora short-form video…

Key Takeaways Not everyone understands crypto (or wants to learn). It’s crucial to know your recipient.Giving Bitcoin is relatively easy through exchanges, apps, and hardware wallets.Bitcoin is highly volatile, swinging between a low in the mid-$70,000s and a high in the mid-$120,000s this year. Giving Bitcoin for Christmas might sound like a great idea. For one thing, it’s far more memorable than a gift card or a sweater. However, Bitcoin is not a typical present. Its value moves up and down significantly. Plus, not everyone wants to manage a digital asset. So before sending someone perhaps their first investment in…

Greece took the top spot on International Living’s 2026 list of the best countries to live, thanks to destinations like Santorini (pictured here), which blends beauty, culture and everyday value.gettyLooking for the best countries to live in? You’re not alone. According to a new International Living survey, 66% of Americans say current conditions in the U.S. have made them more likely to move abroad sooner rather than later.“The main motivators are rising living costs, political fatigue and a desire for a simpler, healthier, more connected daily life,” Jennifer Stevens, executive editor at International Living, told me in an interview. “Many…

To help you understand what is going on in the global economy and what we expect to happen in the future, our highly experienced Kiplinger Letter team will keep you abreast of the latest developments and forecasts (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Letter or subscribe). You’ll get all the latest news first by subscribing, but we will publish many (but not all) of the forecasts a few days afterward online. Here’s the latest…After a year of tariffs and policy shocks, 2026 will be pivotal for the global economy. Can the post-pandemic economy grow sustainably if the geopolitical environment…

For most of us, the only time we want to see an envelope from the IRS is if it contains a tax refund check. So when we see an envelope from the federal tax agency that doesn’t contain money, we get nervous.Wondering what we did wrong, we tear open the envelope. We pull out a short, cryptic letter that says the IRS had discovered a math error on our return. The letter states that the IRS has corrected the mistake, increasing our tax liability.That might be a relief if the amount of money involved is nominal, but what if we…

Key Takeaways Oracle led tech stocks lower Thursday after the cloud computing provider’s quarterly sales missed analysts’ estimates.New commitments from AI heavyweights Nvidia and Meta failed to offset the revenue miss, and resolve concerns about Oracle’s reliance on a few big clients. Oracle’s (ORCL) stock tumbled Thursday, dragging other tech stocks down along with it, a day after the cloud computing giant posted sales that missed analysts’ estimates. Oracle said new agreements with AI heavyweights Meta Platforms (META) and Nvidia (NVDA) helped grow its backlog to a record $523 billion, though that failed to sway investors from selling off Thursday…

Anyone who’s a fan of holiday movies is no doubt familiar with Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”The story is about how Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly old man who swims through hoards of gold coins in some retellings, is transformed into a generous soul after he receives a visit from four spirits on Christmas Eve.While most of us probably hope we’re not as frugal as Scrooge, we still enjoy a good deal when we see one. That’s why his dramatic change of heart holds a critical tax lesson: The most powerful way to lower your tax bill this season may be…

Key Takeaways Bill Gates on Wednesday warned the AI industry will be “hyper-competitive,” and that “a reasonable percentage” of today’s pricey tech stocks will lose a lot of their value. Big tech’s huge data center investments fueled concerns about an AI bubble and weighed on tech stocks in November. One of America’s legendary tech founders has a warning for AI investors: They can’t all be winners. “Not all of these valuations will end up going up. Some of them will go down,” Bill Gates, co-founder of tech giant Microsoft (MSFT), said of AI stocks in an interview with CNBC on…

Key Takeaways A padded cash cushion can reduce significant stress during a career gap.It’s okay to temporarily reduce 401(k) contributions, extra mortgage payments, and splurges.Model a longer pay gap than expected to allow for uncertainty and breathing room.Consider all liquidity options, including home equity access, before leaving employment.Utilize the low tax year for key tax planning strategies. Career gaps are becoming more common among Americans. In fact, according to MyPerfectResume’s 2025 Career Gaps Report, nearly half (47%) of U.S. workers have experienced a break in their careers.  When planning a career gap, whether it’s a parental leave, sabbatical, or a…

If you provide financial help to family, friends, or others — whether paying tuition, covering medical bills, or sending money through an app — you might be wondering about possible IRS or tax implications.But here’s some good news: most people will never come close to exceeding the lifetime estate and gift tax exemption, which, due to the new 2025 Trump/GOP tax law, will remain extraordinarily high for the average household.And even before you’d ever get anywhere near that limit, the IRS has several categories of financial gifts that don’t count toward annual gift tax limits, as long as they meet…