Imagine stepping into an elevator and realizing that you're about to spend the 30-second ride with someone who could make your retirement dreams come true — if only you could explain them before the doors open again. How would you summarize your financial situation, outlook, aspirations, and plans if you had 30 seconds to make [...]
As measured by the Consumer Price Index for food at home, grocery prices increased 3.4% in 2020, a faster rate than the 20-year historical average of 2.4%.1More recently, food inflation accelerated by 6.5%during the 12 months ending in December 2021, while prices for the category that includes meat, poultry, fish, and eggs spiked 12.5%.2 Food [...]
Probate is the process of proving the validity of a will and supervising the administration of an estate usually in the probate court. State law governs the proceedings in the probate court, so the process can vary from state to state. Supervising the administration of an estate can result in additional expense, unwanted publicity, and [...]
The COVID-19 recession and the continuing pandemic pushed many older workers into retirement earlier than they had anticipated. A little more than 50% of Americans age 55 and older said they were retired inQ3 2021, up from about 48% two years earlier, before the pandemic. 1 For people age 62 and older, retiring from the [...]
About 4.3 million U.S. workers quit their jobs voluntarily in December 2021, after a record 4.5 million quit in November — the largest number since the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began recording voluntary job separations in December 2020. 1 There are plenty of theories about why people are quitting in droves, including a strong [...]
Baseball stadiums are filled with optimists. Fans start each new season with the hope that even if last year ended badly, this year could finally be the year. After all, teams rally mid-season, curses are broken, and even underdogs sometimes make it to the World Series. As Yogi Berra famously put it, "It ain't over [...]
It's easy to confuse Medicare and Medicaid, because they have similar names and are both government programs that pay for health care. But there are important differences between the programs. Medicare is generally for older people, while Medicaid is for people with limited income and resources. What is Medicare? Medicare is a fee-for-service federal health [...]
The IRS issued more than 128 million income tax refunds for the 2020 filing season, putting $355.3billion into the hands of U.S. consumers.1For most recipients, such a sudden influx of cash prompts an important question: What's the best way to use the money? Last year, 27% of consumers said they planned to spend their refund [...]
Every year, the Internal Revenue Service announces cost-of-living adjustments that affect contribution limits for retirement plans and various tax deduction, exclusion, exemption, and threshold amounts. Here are a few of the key adjustments for 2022. Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax •The annual gift tax exclusion (and annual generation-skipping transfer tax exclusion) for 2022is $16,000, [...]
An initial public offering (IPO) is the first public sale of stock shares by a private company. IPOs are important to the financial markets because they help fuel the growth of innovative young companies and add new stocks to the pool of potential investment opportunities. When a company files for an IPO, new shares are [...]
