Author: Money Mechanics

Insurance companies care about fault. And I mean fault in almost every way conceivable.Let me highlight five ways in which fault matters and what you can do (in some of the cases) to help ensure that you don’t get canceled by your insurance company.1. Premium paymentsWhether you pay your insurance bills online or by mail or you walk through the door of your insurer’s office and hand over cash (yes, some clients do this), paying your premium is your responsibility. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. CLICK FOR FREE ISSUE Sign up…

A financial plan should be just that: a step-by-step guide to what you need to do to reach your goals with your money.The irony is that financial plans go stale almost immediately. Goals shift. Assumptions change. Life is constantly moving. Two years ago, I would have told you my family of four was complete. Today, we are a family of five.Sometimes, financial planning on an ongoing basis is more important than the plan itself. It allows you to iterate, shift resources and stay on track. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Be a smarter, better informed investor. CLICK…

As 2025 nears its end, it’s a good time to evaluate which money moves we should make before the taxable year comes to a close.Clients often ask whether they should convert funds in tax-deferred retirement accounts into Roth accounts.Roth conversions are a crucial part of your retirement picture, and there’s typically little downside to protecting your wealth from the government in retirement. 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 Free Newsletters Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal…

When you enroll in a 2026 health insurance plan this fall, don’t be surprised if you see a significant increase in your premium, whether you get coverage from your employer or on the Affordable Care Act marketplace.Large employers expect health care costs for employee coverage to rise by a median 9% in 2026, according to the Business Group on Health. “This is the highest single-year forecast in more than a decade,” says Ellen Kelsay, BGH president and CEO.Employers plan to pass along more of the increase to employees than they have in the past few years, and some are offering…

Each week, in our Ask the Editor series, Joy Taylor, The Kiplinger Tax Letter Editor, answers questions on topics submitted by readers. This week, she’s looking at five questions on the 20% tax deduction for qualified business income or QBI. (Get a free issue of The Kiplinger Tax Letter or subscribe.)1. Did the OBBB extend the QBI deduction?Question: I know the qualified business income (QBI) deduction was going to expire at the end of 2025. Did the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) extend this federal income tax break?Joy Taylor: Yes. The OBBB not only extended this popular tax break that…

Median rent by apartment size  Bedrooms  Median Rent 0-1  $1,650 2 $1,920 3+ $2,199 Source: Redfin, data as of August 2025. Regional Variation  In general, rents remain highest in larger cities and lower in smaller metropolitan areas and rural counties. In August 2025, New York City posted a median monthly asking rent of $3,397. When you expand the search to the larger metro area, metro New York also commands one of the highest median asking rents. More affordable metros include Louisville ($1,297 median) and St. Louis ($1,413 median). Smaller Midwestern/Southern markets show a high share of $1,000-and-under listings. For example,…

The White House recently announced a landmark deal with pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and Nordisk that will impact Medicare beneficiaries and others in the coming months. The agreement cuts prices for GLP-1 receptor agonists, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, while expanding Medicare coverage for these weight-loss medications. The news is a turnaround from a Trump administration announcement earlier this year blocking Medicare from covering obesity drugs.With the new deal, Medicare will no longer only cover these drugs for diabetes or heart issues, but for obesity itself, potentially saving beneficiaries hundreds of dollars each month.Why it matters: In the U.S., over…

By Timour Azhari and Christoph Steitz RIYADH/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -U.S. firm GE Vernova and Germany’s Siemens Energy are in talks to supply gas turbines to a $7 billion project aiming to rebuild ​Syria’s war-damaged power sector, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Syria signed a deal with a ‌subsidiary of Qatar’s Power International Holding in May to build four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants with a total capacity of 4,000 megawatts. The ‌agreement also includes a 1,000-MW solar component. Siemens Energy and GE Vernova could both be awarded contracts for the project, one of the people said, adding, however,…

Bitcoin has slipped below the key level of 100,000 as selling pressure has increased over the past few days. It has also broken below the 0.50 Fibonacci correction level at 99,600, which traders have watched for months. This zone acted as an important balance area and a decision point for the uptrend that ran from April to October. The drop toward 97,500 after the break shows that sellers still guide the market. Rising volume on the daily chart supports this view and signals that the move has a more institutional character rather than random selling. Short-term moving averages show a…

Beazley has returned to the catastrophe bond market seeking $100 million of natural catastrophe reinsurance, once again using the Lloyd’s owned ILS structure to issue this London Bridge 2 PCC Limited (Fuchsia 3 – 2025-1) deal.The London headquartered specialty insurance and reinsurance underwriter is also in the market with its latest cyber catastrophe bond at the same time, the fourth under PoleStar Re, as we reported earlier this week. This will be Beazley’s seventh 144A catastrophe bond issuance, as the company continues to demonstrate its appetite to leverage the capital markets to source efficient reinsurance for its peak exposures, both…