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Monthirayodtiwong | Istock | Getty Images Saving for retirement appears to be taking a backseat to other financial considerations for many Americans right now. Just 17% have made saving for their post-working years their top financial priority for 2022, according to First National Bank of Omaha‘s latest financial wellness survey. This is despite 59% of

Manusapon Kasosod | Moment | Getty Images Investors for the last two years poured money into environmental, social and corporate governance investment strategies. In 2020, net new assets into ESG funds jumped to $51.1 billion — more than double the year before. And last year, these funds attracted nearly $70 billion in new assets, according

Petar Chernaev | E+ | Getty Images Once the clock strikes midnight on Jan. 1, it’s typically too late for someone to do anything meaningful to reduce their tax bill for the previous year. However, tax season does have a way of getting people thinking about what they can do to limit what they fork

Morsa Images | Digitalvision | Getty Images Health savings accounts eclipsed $100 billion by the end of January, according to Devenir, an HSA investment consultant, as more consumers use the tax-advantaged accounts to save for future health costs. The firm forecasts HSA funds will hit $150 billion by the end of 2024. “The growth is

President Joe Biden introduces his budget request for fiscal year 2023 on March 28, 2022 in Washington. Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images President Joe Biden released his 2023 federal budget request on Monday, calling to hike the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%, a proposal floated by the administration last year. The

StefaNikolic | E+ | Getty Images Certified financial planner Amber Miller is used to thinking about the costs and challenges of life for her clients. It gave her a leg up when it came to preparing for the birth of her own first child last year. “We had our daughter, Zahra, in August, and we’re

David Dee Delgado | Getty Images News | Getty Images The bond market is flashing a warning sign for the U.S. economy. That harbinger is called an “inverted yield curve.” These inversions in the bond market have been reliable predictors of past recessions. Part of the yield curve inverted on Monday. An economic downturn isn’t

Getty Images Having an emergency savings fund should be a top goal in order to be able to cushion an unexpected financial blow without going broke, according to experts. Still, many people are falling short. A Bankrate study found just 44% of people are prepared to pay for an unexpected $1,000 expense with cash. More

Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, at the SEC headquarters in Washington, on July 22, 2021. Melissa Lyttle/Bloomberg via Getty Images The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday unveiled a sweeping proposal to expand investors’ insight into the threat that climate change poses to public companies and how they contribute to a

The IRS has already issued more than 45 million refunds this year, at an average $3,352 each. That’s over $500 more than last year, when the average refund was just over $2,800. For most Americans, a lump-sum payment of this size is rare and fewer people want to squander it. Now, nearly half — or 46%

Ridvan_celik | E+ | Getty Images The current stock market, highly volatile and trending lower this year, makes this a daunting time for individual investors seeking to identify companies with reasonable risk and good long-term growth potential. Concerns about overall market performance — as of mid-March, the S&P 500 Index had had the fifth-worst start

Tom Werner | DigitalVision | Getty Images If you haven’t filed your taxes, there are four weeks until the federal deadline, which is April 18 for most Americans.   Some 63.5 million payers have sent returns through March 11, according to the latest IRS filing data, with an average refund of $3,352. However, millions of Americans have

A man walks past a bitcoin symbol in the window of a company that offers blockchain application services on Dec. 21, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. Bitcoin and other virtual currencies rose strongly in value in 2021. Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images Financial advisors have been reluctant to integrate cryptocurrency into client

Eakgrunge | Istock | Getty Images Ageism is one of the most unfair paradoxes in the labor market: People put in decades of hard work and then find themselves penalized for having done so. And the problem is only worsening: Nearly 80% of older workers say they’ve seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace,

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images After spending decades as your parents’ child, becoming the caregiver for Mom or Dad can be a jarring role reversal. Yet for an estimated 42 million Americans, providing care for a parent or other adult relative age 50 or older is a daily reality, according to a recent study

IRS commissioner Charles Rettig testifies during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on June 8, 2021. Tom Williams | Pool | Reuters The IRS is still digging through tens of millions of unprocessed tax returns with roughly four weeks until the 2021 filing deadline. But Commissioner Charles Rettig expects the backlog to clear by year-end. The

andresr | E+ | Getty Images It’s not uncommon to discover that retirement isn’t the ideal existence you thought it would be. If you are a retiree on Medicare who’s rejoining the workforce, be aware that you might have choices when it comes to your health-care coverage. Depending on where you work, you may be

Making more money is great, but it doesn’t mean as much if you are having a harder time making ends meet. Although wages are rising, the prices consumers must pay for goods and services are rising faster — notching a new 40-year high in February. As a result, real inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings for the

Getty Images As inflation rises, many Americans are shifting life milestones, including retirement. Some 13% of Gen Xers and baby boomers say they have postponed or considered delaying plans to leave the workforce due to soaring costs. That’s according to a survey from the Nationwide Retirement Institute, showing a cross-generational wave of Americans canceling or

Westend61 | Getty Images The now-volatile stock market may not be the ideal starting point for new investors, but it’s always a good time to begin investing. Millennial Americans — ranging in age from 22 to 40 — are famously wary of the financial markets. Market collapses like the dotcom bust of 2002 to 2004

Tom Brady of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers waves to fans at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on Sept. 9, 2021. Julio Aguilar | Getty Images Tom Brady sat on the sidelines for only 40 days before deciding to end his retirement from pro football. It is possible that more retired workers could do the

Tara Moore | Getty Images Retirees who are feeling the pinch of higher prices, take heart: There could be a much bigger Social Security cost-of-living adjustment next year. A preliminary estimate from The Senior Citizens League, a non-partisan senior group, finds that the 2023 cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, could be as high as 7.6%, based

marekuliasz | iStock | Getty Images As conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to send shock waves through the markets, many investors may be questioning what, if anything, they should do next. The most common advice is to stay the course. That can be difficult on days like Tuesday, when fresh losses prompted both the

A “now hiring” sign is posted in the window of a restaurant in Los Angeles on Jan. 28, 2022. Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images The pandemic-era phenomenon known as the Great Resignation remained a hallmark of the labor market in early 2022, according to federal data issued Wednesday. Nearly 4.3 million people

In this article LC As daily life gets more expensive, workers are having a harder time making ends meet. While wage growth is high by historical standards, it isn’t keeping up with the increased cost of living, which is growing at the fastest annual pace in about four decades. “Wages are up 5.1% over the past year,

Getty Images Interest rates are almost undoubtedly going up this month, for the first time in three years. The Federal Reserve is expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% next week to curb inflation, which is running at a 40-year high. Additional hikes are likely later this year. American households will feel that

Getty Images If you’re considering a Roth conversion, your timing and yearly planning can significantly reduce the tax bite, financial experts say.  The popular retirement savings strategy allows higher earners to skirt the income limits for Roth individual retirement account contributions. While the maneuver may kickstart tax-free growth, you’ll owe levies on pretax deposits. And

Kevin Winter | Getty Images If you’re eager to jumpstart an education fund, you may consider a larger, upfront contribution to a 529 college savings plan. While the average account balance was $30,287 in 2021, according to the College Savings Plans Network, depositing and investing sooner may pay off, experts say. “The earlier you get

Bloom Productions A retirement-savings option that can be smart at the outset of your career probably needs to be reexamined down the road. Target-date funds, as they’re called, offer a way to put your savings on autopilot: Holdings gradually shift away from riskier assets like stocks and toward more conservative investments (bonds and, perhaps, cash)

Thomas M. Barwick | Getty Images Social Security benefits make up about 30% of elderly Americans’ incomes, according to the Social Security Administration. For some beneficiaries, it can be 90% or more. Yet many people do not think of those earned benefits, and the monthly checks that come with them, as a personal financial asset,