Author: Money Mechanics

If you’re a book lover, we have a few book-inspired trips that can help jumpstart your next vacation. Grab a few friends or take your family on an educational journey that ties together authors and books with real locations and landmarks.Adding a personal element to a trip like this can help make it more memorable and might even give you a good excuse to visit certain destinations.So, here are five trips for book lovers to take across America. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE Sign up for Kiplinger’s…

Key Takeaways The average 401(k) balance for people in their 60s was $568,040 in June 2025. The median amount saved was much lower, at $188,792. How much you need to have saved for retirement will depend on your lifestyle and annual spending expectations. One rule of thumb is to save eight times your annual preretirement income by age 60. You can boost your savings by downsizing now instead of in retirement, taking advantage of higher catch-up contributions in your 60s, and reallocating assets to prioritize growth. When you hit your 60s and retirement is right around the corner, you might…

Key Takeaways Baby boomers are set to pass on approximately $84 trillion in wealth to heirs by 2045, greatly impacting personal finances and the economy.Wills, trusts, and annual gift strategies can help families minimize taxes and preserve the most wealth.Understanding rules like the step-up in basis and having open family conversations will help the process run better and smarter. The United States is on the precipice of the largest wealth transfer in history; approximately $84 trillion will pass from one generation to the next by 2045. It’s expected to have a massive impact on inheritors, older loved ones who need…

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Oil & Gas industry myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The world’s biggest energy companies are returning to Libya as they hunt for new oil and gas reserves, nearly 15 years after the overthrow of Muammer Gaddafi pitched the country into political chaos that continues to this day. A delegation from the Tripoli-based Libyan government has been visiting Washington this week to drum up interest in the country’s first auction of oil exploration licences for 18 years.Oil majors Shell, Chevron, TotalEnergies, Eni and Repsol are all pre-qualified to bid in the…

Over the last year the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has benefited from strong execution in the catastrophe bond market to lower both its reinsurance attachment point and costs associated with risk transfer.With now three catastrophe bonds sponsored so far in 2025, the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has steadily increased the capital markets share of its overall reinsurance tower arrangements. While price execution in the cat bond market, thanks to what are now dramatically reduced spreads over its cat bonds issued through the last year, have assisted. Notably, it is also cat bonds that have helped the earthquake insurer shave $400…

The Trump administration has been targeting state-level AI regulation, with the president declaring in a social media post this week that the industry needs “one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes.” This comes after a 10-year ban on state AI regulation was initially included in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” before ultimately getting removed by the Senate in a 99-1 vote.  The idea then apparently took on a new form, with the administration reportedly drafting an executive order that would establish an AI Litigation Task Force with a mission to challenge state AI laws through lawsuits.…

This trading week is—Thankfully—shorter than usual. But there’s still work to do. Stock and bond markets are closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. But the week will still bring several economic releases, along with earnings reports from companies including John Deere, Alibaba, Applied Digital and Dell Technologies. The September report on U.S. retail sales, delayed by the government shutdown, will be released just ahead of Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Weekly jobless claims, pending home sales, durable-goods orders and the latest consumer confidence survey are also on time. Some data originally scheduled for this week…

Elon Musk has built companies that reshaped entire industries — from Tesla’s (TSLA) electric vehicle (EV) systems to SpaceX’s reusable rockets and now xAI’s ambitious supercomputer development. But his latest prediction about the future of work is one of his most disruptive yet. In a high-profile conversation with U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Musk argued that artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing so quickly that many traditional jobs — including highly technical roles like coding — may not exist in the future. “There will come a point where no job is needed,” he said. “You can have a job if you…

Mid-tier and junior miners’ just-reported epic record third-quarter results are the best this industry has ever achieved! These smaller gold miners in this sector’s sweet spot for upside potential shattered all records, trouncing the larger majors’ performances. Mid-tiers’ long-soaring and colossal earnings which are still blasting higher support much-higher stock prices. These miners’ fundamentals are utterly phenomenal. The leading mid-tier-gold-stock benchmark is the J VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF. With $8.3b in net assets mid-week, it remains the second-largest gold-stock ETF after its big-brother GDX. That is dominated by far-larger major gold miners, though there is much overlap between these…

Cleveland Federal Reserve President Beth Hammack on Thursday gave indications that she thinks the central bank could be nearing the end of what could be a brief rate-cutting cycle.The policymaker told CNBC that she thinks the current level of interest rates is “barely restrictive, if at all” when it comes to the economic impact. Restrictiveness is a key metric for Fed officials, who are divided ideologically over whether labor market weakness or inflation is a bigger threat. Hammack has been more in the hawkish camp when it comes to inflation, preferring higher rates and more restrictive policy as a bulwark…