Author: Money Mechanics

Homebuilder sentiment perked up in May as the market for new single-family homes improved and a bill aimed at boosting housing supply gained traction in Congress.Confidence in sales conditions, expectations for the next three months, and buyer traffic all increased in May, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.The index improved three points to 37 for the month. But the gauge, which rates builder confidence from a scale of 0 to 100, still remains firmly in bearish territory.Builders have been largely cautious this year. The index fell to 38 points in March, then 34 points in…

(Image credit: Getty Images)For years, scoring concert tickets felt like the hard part. Fans battled online queues, paid premium prices and built entire vacations around seeing their favorite artist live. Now, a growing number of tours are facing a different problem: empty seats.Industry insiders have started calling it “Blue Dot Fever”, a term tied to the unsold seats lingering on ticket maps for some major tours and residencies. As ticket demand softens and household budgets tighten, more artists are scaling back shows, postponing dates or canceling tours altogether.For fans, the financial risk can stretch far beyond the ticket itself. A…

Imagine you’re riding a motorcycle at 160 kilometers per hour when an arrow appears, floating on the road ahead, telling you exactly where to turn. No phone, no dashboard. Just your helmet, and a lens the size of a thumbnail. This is not a concept video. It’s heading to European roads as early as this year. And it’s one early glimpse of where smart glasses are heading. Over the past few years, Big Tech has been quietly (and not so quietly) placing its bets. Meta has been selling AI-enabled Ray-Ban glasses since 2023, Google is building Android XR, and Apple…

(Image credit: Getty Images)We spend a lot of time talking about how much money you need to retire. Savings targets, withdrawal rates, investment strategies. All important.But there’s another factor that doesn’t get nearly as much attention, and in many cases, it plays just as big a role in retirement outcomes.It’s financial guidance. 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 up to 4 Special Issues CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes,…

(Image credit: Getty Images)A client sold a property for $2.5 million that they had owned for more than 30 years. Their basis was low enough that the estimated tax bill was just over $800,000. Before we talked about anything else, they asked the question most people ask: “Should I do a 1031 exchange?”It sounds like a tax question. It isn’t. It’s a portfolio decision.The fork in the roadAt a high level, they had two paths: 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 up to 4 Special…

(Image credit: Getty Images)After 45 years in the financial services industry, through booms, busts, bubbles and breakthroughs, I’ve learned that the most reliable compass in personal finance is surprisingly simple.I focus on two aspects of financial planning that are in my complete control:My awareness of how I spend my moneyThe asset allocation I choose for my portfolioEven though it has taken me a few bear markets to figure it out, it is a compass that now guides me through market cycles, and it’s one I return to even more often today, in a world that feels increasingly uncertain — economically,…

Workers are getting paid to train artificial intelligence (1) systems to think more like humans and in some cases, they’re teaching machines how to do the very jobs they once feared AI would replace. That’s what happened to Hollywood writer and showrunner Ruth Fowler. In 2023, entertainment workers (2) went on strike in part over fears that studios could use AI to replace writers and actors. But after the strike ended, the work didn’t fully return. When another producer defaulted on a six-figure payment she was owed, Fowler found herself searching for a way to stay afloat. Must Read “I…

The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) has now successfully priced its new Alamo Re Ltd. (Series 2026-1) catastrophe bond sponsorship, securing the upper-end target for $750 million of capital markets backed reinsurance limit from this issuance, Artemis can report.At the same time, all three tranches of notes on offer saw their risk interest spreads pricing at the low-ends of reduced guidance, indicating strong execution for the cat bond sponsor. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), the residual market property insurer for the State of Texas, returned to the cat bond market in April with an initial target to secure $450…

Inflation is a general increase in the price of goods and services over time. In plain English, it means your money does not buy as much as it used to. That can sound like an economics textbook problem, but it is really a personal finance problem. Inflation affects your savings, investments, debt, retirement income, property costs, and everyday household budget. I have been writing about financial and investment-related topics for more than two decades, and inflation is one of those subjects that always comes back into focus when people start feeling squeezed. You may not follow every monthly CPI report,…

Oil Price – The Abu Dhabi national oil company ADNOC plans to have a new pipeline operational in 2027 that would double its oil export capacity through Fujairah, which sits outside the Strait of Hormuz. ADNOC plans to build a new project, the West-East 1 Pipeline, which is expected to become operational next year and double the UAE’s energy giant’s export capacity through the Emirate of Fujairah to meet global demand for energy supplies, the Abu Dhabi Media Office said on Friday. Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, chaired a meeting of the Executive Committee…