Author: Money Mechanics

(Image credit: Getty Images)As the Great Wealth Transfer moves trillions into new hands, women’s longer life expectancy, growing financial decision-making power and dual inheritances as spouses and daughters position them to direct a significant share of philanthropic capital.Let’s explore five key trends shaping the landscape and how women can lead with clarity and confidence.Trend No. 1: Wealth is flowing toward womenMany researchers have cited the Great Wealth Transfer that’s underway from Baby Boomers to successive generations. But what isn’t often noted is that women will have more time to spend as inheritors than men, as they generally have five years…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Lay-offs are replacing PowerPoint presentations as the heraldic emblem of the management consultant. McKinsey & Co is the latest to swing the axe, pruning its workforce by a reported few thousand over the next two years. The blue-blooded management consultancy was preceded in its payroll trimming by Accenture in the US and some of the UK’s Big 4.Sure, the spectacle of management consultants swallowing the advice they routinely mete out to clients will afford observers more than a little schadenfreude. It shows…

(Image credit: Getty Images)Caring for both your aging parents and young children is tough.It can be an overwhelming drain on your time and your finances, and attending to their needs often means putting yourself last.One in four Americans (25%) are part of the sandwich generation with a child under 18 and a living parent, according to the 2025 Annual Retirement Study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement*, part of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get…

(Image credit: Getty Images)When you think of natural disasters, you probably think along the lines of hurricanes on the East and Gulf Coasts, earthquakes and wildfires out West and tornadoes in the South and Midwest.But that mental map is about as current as knowing all of your neighbors by name. (And don’t pretend you do.)The last couple of years have been a master class in geography-free chaos: near-historic tornado seasons in the central U.S., catastrophic hurricane-driven flooding pushing far inland, repeated flash floods in places that used to call such flooding a once-in-a-generation event and a West Coast fire season…

Dec 17 (Reuters) – OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) has held preliminary talks with some investors about raising funds at a ​valuation of around $750 billion, the Information reported ‌on Wednesday. The ChatGPT maker could raise as much as $100 billion, the ‌report said, citing people with knowledge of the discussions. Reuters could not immediately verify the report and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If finalized, ⁠the talks would represent ‌a roughly 50% jump from OpenAI’s reported $500 billion valuation in October, following a deal ‍in which current and former employees sold about $6.6 billion worth of shares.…

By David Enna, Tipswatch.com The Treasury’s offering of $24 billion in a reopened 5-year TIPS — CUSIP 91282CPH8 — generated a real yield to maturity of 1.433% to strong demand from investors. The mild October/November inflation report, issued this morning, could have had some influence on this auction. This TIPS trades on the secondary market and earlier in the day it was trading with a real yield of 1.41%. The auction’s 1.433% resulted from its inflation-breakeven rate slipping lower. In addition, the November inflation index will trigger a 0.46% decline in January inflation accruals, so a higher real yield was…

Takeaway: Core CPI inflation came in at 2.6% year over year, much lower than consensus expectations of 3.0%. That’s the largest difference between expectations and reported CPI in recent memory. Rates will fall ever so slightly, but not nearly as much as they normally would given the seismic miss because the data are heavily distorted by assumptions the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) made to smooth over the missing October data. Up to a third of the goods and services that factor into core CPI may have distorted prices due to missing data collection and assumptions necessitated by the government…

The “Magnificent Seven” refers to a group of technology companies that significantly influence the performance of the U.S. stock market—largely due to their extraordinary size. As of October 2025, they had a combined market capitalization exceeding $22 trillion. This guide breaks down what you should understand about these companies before investing in them. We’ll cover who they are, why they matter, and how to balance the opportunities they present with the risks they carry. Who Are the Magnificent 7? The Magnificent Seven is a group of seven mega-cap companies that are among the most influential forces in financial markets, collectively…

Key Takeaways Some deductible expenses only count if paid by December 31.Maximize retirement contributions to reduce your taxable income.Investment losses can offset gains, but watch out for the 30-day wash-sale window.Correct any withholding errors before the final paycheck of the year.Business purchases made by year-end may be deductible. The end of the year is your last window to make smart tax moves that could fatten your tax refund (or shrink your bill) come filing season. Many credits and deductions come with a December 31 deadline, so timing matters.  Don’t worry, you don’t need to make a financial overhaul. And we’re…

(Oil Price)– Venezuela may be forced to start shutting in oil production as it runs out of storage space amid the U.S. tanker blockade, Bloomberg has reported, citing unnamed sources. According to the sources, the biggest oil storage hub and tankers at Venezuelan ports could fill up within 10 days, prompting production curbs. Earlier this week, Reuters reported that some 11 million barrels of Venezuelan crude were stuck at sea amid the U.S. escalation, prompting deeper discounts and demands from buyers for changes in the spot contracts, under which the oil was being sold. Meanwhile, Venezuela’s production of crude oil is already…