Author: Money Mechanics

This holiday shopping season, Home Depot is looking to regain some momentum after a disappointing year. The home improvement retailer’s Black Friday promotions, which end Wednesday, are aimed at driving traffic after a soft third quarter in which rival Lowe’s outperformed on same-store sales. Both companies were cautious with their forward guidance. “I admit that I’m in Home Depot for my Charitable Trust, and I actually wish I were in Lowe’s ,” Jim Cramer said on CNBC last week, shortly after Lowe’s post-earnings stock pop. However, Jim has said that Home Depot is the best play on lower rates in the…

Zooey Liao/ZDNETWhen is Black Friday? Black Friday 2025 is today, Friday, Nov. 28. Cyber Monday follows shortly after on Monday, Dec. 1. When do Black Friday deals start and end?Black Friday deals at many retailers last far beyond the one day of shopping. Most Black Friday sales are already happening, and will last through Cyber Monday, Dec. 1, though some will come and go. Here are the current and upcoming sale dates from major retailers: Amazon Black Friday Sale: Nov. 2 – Dec. 1.Walmart Black Friday Sale: Nov. 25-30. Deals available online only from Nov. 25–27, followed by online and in stores from…

Key Takeaways The average student loan debt in the U.S. is almost $39,000 in 2025. Those between the ages of 50 and 61 have the highest average federal student loan debt at $46,556. About 42% of students who borrow money for college are still paying off their loans 20 years later.  The borrowers carrying the biggest student loan balances aren’t 22-year-olds fresh out of college. They’re in their 50s. Borrowers between 50 and 61 years old owe an average of just under $47,000 in federal student loans, the highest of any age group, as of the fourth quarter 2024. That’s more…

The Payments: $12,000 in a Stablecoin Select New Yorkers are set to receive $12,000 worth of cryptocurrency payments thanks to a new program by GiveDirectly, a nonprofit focused on alleviating poverty by giving cash directly to people. The program is funded by Coinbase—a cryptocurrency exchange. According to a Bloomberg report, this pilot program provides 160 low-income New Yorkers with $12,000 worth of USDC, a type of stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, and will be paid out in one lump-sum of $8,000 and five smaller payments of $800 each. USDC is issued by Circle, a payments technology company. USDC is…

Key Takeaways Tilray Brands shares tumbled Friday ahead of a 1-for-10 reverse stock split set set to take effect after markets close next Monday, Dec. 1. In a reverse stock split, a company cuts the number of its outstanding shares and increases the per-share price proportionally.  Nearly six months ago, Tilray Brands (TLRY) stockholders approved a 1-for-10 reverse stock split. Now the cannabis firm has given a date it will take effect, and shares are tanking. The stock lost over a fifth of its value in Friday’s shortened trading session, bringing its losses in 2025 to nearly 40%. (Read our daily markets coverage…

Rachael Green is a personal finance eCommerce writer specializing in insurance, travel, and credit cards. Before joining Kiplinger in 2025, she wrote blogs and whitepapers for financial advisors and reported on everything from the latest business news and investing trends to the best shopping deals. Her bylines have appeared in Benzinga, CBS News, Travel + Leisure, Bustle, and numerous other publications. A former digital nomad, Rachael lived in Lund, Vienna, and New York before settling down in Atlanta. She’s eager to share her tips for finding the best travel deals and navigating the logistics of managing money while living abroad.…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Stocks were choppy in Friday’s abbreviated session, though the three main indexes extended their daily win streaks to five on Black Friday. Today’s gains came even as futures and options trading were temporarily halted ahead of the open due to a cooling issue at a Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) data center.”‘Better late than never’ may turn out to be the stock market’s story for November,” says Chris Larkin, managing director of Trading and Investing at E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley. “While it might be too soon to say we’ve seen the last of tech volatility, over the past…

How Timing Impacts RMDs, Roth Conversions, and Year-End TaxesgettyA common theme across personal finance literature is that the end of the year brings important financial housekeeping tasks. Budgeting and insurance reviews are important, but can be tackled throughout the year. The true housekeeping that should be done by the end of the year centers around an old saying in personal finance, “It’s not about what you earn, it’s about what you keep.” This saying stems from the idea that saving and tax strategies are key to a successful financial picture and future. Required minimum distributions (RMDs) vary based on age…

Key Takeaways The possibility of adding a new Big Tech customer helped lift an American chipmaker’s stock on Friday, Nov. 28, 2025, while a recently hot pharmaceutical stock cooled. Intel stock pushed higher after an analyst suggested the company could become a foundry supplier for Apple processors.Eli Lilly shares turned lower, giving back some of the gains that recently lifted the stock to a $1 trillion market capitalization. A major U.S. chipmaker got a boost from speculation that it could win a new Big Tech customer, while a high-flying pharmaceutical stock reversed some of its recent gains. Major U.S. equities indexes…

Joe Coughlin is founder and director of the MIT AgeLab, which recently partnered with the John Hancock Life Insurance Company to create the Longevity Preparedness Index.Here, he tells Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine what the research reveals about Americans’ attitudes to longer life, why social connections need just as much attention as retirement funds, and how best to start preparing for your later years.Q: What does the index measure, and what are you hoping to learn from it? The index asks Americans: Are you aware of what you need to do to be prepared for a longer life, have you assessed…