The financial news that actually matters
Older workers just got more room to save for retirement. Starting in 2026, employees aged 50 and older can contribute an extra $8,000 in catch-up contributions to their 401(k) plans, up from $7,500 in 2025. Combined with a new base deferral limit of $24,500, that means eligible savers can set aside up to $32,500 next…
Retirees who give to charity from a traditional IRA can exclude the transferred amount from taxable income, a strategy that has grown more relevant as fewer older Americans itemize deductions. The mechanism, known as a qualified charitable distribution, is codified in federal tax law under 26 U.S. Code Section 408(d)(8), which spells out the conditions…
Two U.S. banks have shut down so far in 2026, and federal regulators are flagging rising credit stress that could put more institutions at risk. Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust in Chicago was closed by Illinois regulators in March, followed by Community Bank & Trust in LaGrange, Georgia, which was seized by the Georgia Department…
Microsoft eliminated 4,800 jobs across the company on July 6, with 1,600 of those cuts hitting Xbox and its gaming division. Five game studios are shutting down as part of what Xbox leadership has called a reset of the business. The scale of the layoffs, touching both corporate offices in Washington state and game development…
Millions of car buyers who finance their vehicles now have a new federal tax break, but the benefit is tightly income-capped and expires after just four tax years. Under rules signed into law as part of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act, taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income below $100,000 can deduct up to $10,000…
American shoppers are paying near-record prices for steak and ground beef, and the core reason is simple: the nation’s cattle herd has shrunk to its smallest size in roughly 75 years. With fewer animals moving through feedlots and into processing plants, domestic beef production has fallen short of demand, and federal forecasters see no quick…
U.S. equity valuations have reached a threshold crossed only once before, at the peak of the dot-com bubble in March 2000. The cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, known as the CAPE ratio, has climbed to 41.6, matching the extreme recorded just before the technology stock collapse that wiped trillions from American portfolios. For investors holding index…
High earners who want to fund a Roth IRA for 2026 face a familiar barrier: the IRS has set income phase-out ranges that block direct contributions once modified adjusted gross income exceeds certain thresholds. But the backdoor Roth strategy, which routes money through a nondeductible traditional IRA before converting it, remains fully available to taxpayers…
More than 1,700 workers at General Motors battery plants in Ohio and Michigan lost their jobs in early 2026 after the automaker paused cell production at two Ultium facilities and recorded $7.6 billion in EV-related charges for fiscal year 2025. The idlings at Warren, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee, beginning in January 2026, mark the…
Low-wage workers in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, D.C., and Chicago woke up to bigger paychecks on July 1 as a new round of minimum wage increases took effect across multiple states and cities. Alaska jumped a full dollar to $14.00 per hour, D.C. climbed to $18.40, and Chicago reached $17.05, while Oregon recalibrated its regional tiers…