Finance & Investment News
Not so long ago, a credit freeze was a tool usually reserved for people who had suffered identity theft. But as data breaches have piled up — culminating with the massive data breach at credit agency Equifax announced in September — the freeze has become more widely recognized as the most effective way to protect your credit, even if a thief hasn’t yet made fraudulent use of your personal information.
Whether you’re starting out, have already retired or are somewhere in between, we show you how to make your money grow and last.
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Nike (NKE, $53.19) has churned out a disappointing 2017 so far. Its shares have gained just 2.3%, a fraction of the 10.7% return delivered by Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. Read more
Bought your Powerball ticket yet? The grand prize has climbed to $700 million, and will climb even higher if no one matches the winning numbers Aug. 23. Read more
What a difference a few months make. Read more
You’ve no doubt heard about the awesome and ubiquitous power of the “cloud.” It seems straightforward. You take everything on your computer, upload it to the cloud, and–poof!–you can access your data, photos or programs from anywhere. But what is the cloud? Where is it? It’s all a bit, well, nebulous.
Do your eyes glaze over when you heard the word annuity? When you imagine handing over a large chunk of money to an insurance company in exchange for promised income, do those glazed eyes turn into a death stare?
Investors need to cover their bases with a good variety of financial vehicles that reach beyond the old stock-and-bond game.
Your odds of becoming a millionaire aren’t what they used to be—they’re better. A record number of U.S. households have reached that enviable goal: At the end of 2016, 10.8 million households had a net worth of $1 million or more, not including their primary residence, reports the Spectrem Group. In fact, there were 1.6 million more millionaires in the U.S. in 2016 than there were in 2007, just before the stock market crash. What the market took away, the current bull market has restored—and then some.
If you don’t have many medical expenses now, in the long term you’ll be able to benefit even more from the tax advantages of an HSA. You’ll get a tax break for your contributions, then you can build up a tax-free stash of money to help pay for medical expenses in the future — even after retirement. Here are some things you may not know about HSAs, as well as some strategies to make the most of these plans.