Author: Money Mechanics

Planning your retirement finances often means navigating complex rules, especially if you intend to keep working while collecting benefits early. The Social Security Retirement Earnings Test (RET) is a crucial rule that can temporarily reduce your benefits if you are under your Full Retirement Age (FRA) and earn over a certain limit.This quick, 10-question quiz covers the essential basics of the earnings test, including who the test applies to, how benefits are affected by different income levels, and the all-important fact that any reduced benefits are not lost forever. Test your knowledge to ensure you understand this key component of…

The Social Security Administration (SSA) just announced two key updates for 2026: the new cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and the updated Social Security tax wage base.You’ve probably heard a lot about the COLA, but fewer people realize there’s a cap on how much of your earnings are subject to the Social Security payroll tax. This “wage base” (also known as the Social Security tax limit or wage cap) sets the maximum amount of income that can be taxed to help fund the program each year.That’s important since payroll taxes help fund Social Security, which more than 68 million Americans rely on…

If you are in a line of work that requires a written contract — such as painting and wall coverings, flooring or remodeling — today’s story will help keep you out of hot water.Let’s talk about contracts. On any reality television courtroom show, such as Judge Judy, we’ve all heard, “No matter what you thought, expected or were promised, if it’s not in the contract, it’s not there.”The reason is that courts have to rely on what’s written and cannot consider oral evidence that varies from its terms, with few exceptions. From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance Be…

Stocks are trading at record levels and valuations are stretched. While that by no means suggests the bull market has to end anytime soon, it does make it harder to find names that industry analysts rate as bang-the-table buys.True, the S&P 500 is pricey by a slew of metrics – but that’s partly due to its market-cap-weighted construction. The Magnificent 7 stocks driving much of the bull run have a collective weighting of more than 30% in the benchmark index.However, take a look at the equal-weight version of the index, in which every component accounts for 2%, and you’ll see…

Key Takeaways Gold’s retreat from its recent record high accelerated on Tuesday, with profit-taking weighing on the precious metal after strong gains in recent months.The commodity’s retracement coincides with the relative strength index recently dropping below its neutral threshold, signaling waning bullish momentum and raising the possibility of a deeper short-term pullback.Investors should watch critical support levels on gold’s chart around $3,850, $3,720 and $3,450, while also monitoring a key overhead region near $4,380. Gold’s (XAUUSD) retreat from its recent record high accelerated on Tuesday, with profit-taking weighing on the precious metal after strong gains in recent months. The spot…

The stock market is booming, outperforming your projections for the year, so go crazy and spend the extra returns in your retirement account.The markets are doing worse than you planned for this year. Whoa, rein in that spending.And so goes the idea behind the “guardrails rule” of retirement spending. Unlike the 4% rule, where you spend a fixed amount each year, adjusted for inflation, this approach is more dynamic. 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…

Stock futures pointed slightly higher Tuesday, a day after major indexes set fresh intraday and closing records for a second straight session, as a highly anticipated Federal Reserve meeting was set to begin.  Futures associated with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average and tech-heavy Nasdaq were up 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively, while those of the benchmark S&P 500 were fractionally higher. Yesterday, the Nasdaq soared 1.9%, the S&P 500 added 1.2%, and the Dow rose 0.7% on optimism that the U.S. and China would strike a trade deal, with President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping set to meet in South Korea…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This article is an on-site version of our Unhedged newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every weekday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersGood morning. Gold fell 3 per cent yesterday, and various news outlets (not the FT, I’m proud to say) put this down to hopes for a US-China trade truce, which would (in theory!) reduce gold’s geopolitical risk premium. But the argument that the gold rally is explained by…

In-brief analysis October 24, 2025 Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy OutlookNote: This data set shows demand in the electric power industry only. ERCOT=Electric Reliability Council of Texas Since 2021, electricity demand within the Texas electricity grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has steadily increased. In the first nine months of 2025, electricity demand in ERCOT, which manages about 90% of the state’s load, reached a record high compared with the same period in previous years. Over those same months, ERCOT had the fastest electricity demand growth…

The Federal Reserve is expected to lower borrowing costs again on Wednesday. Another quarter-point reduction, on the heels of September’s cut, would bring the federal funds rate to a range between 3.75%-4.00%.The federal funds rate, which is set by the Federal Open Market Committee, is the interest rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. Although that’s not the rate consumers pay, the Fed’s moves do have a trickle-down effect on many types of consumer loans.The FOMC has also set expectations for another reduction in December, but after that, the path is unclear. President Donald Trump — who has…