The financial news that actually matters
Investors holding state and local government debt receive interest payments that bypass federal income tax entirely, a benefit written directly into the Internal Revenue Code. That single provision shapes how cities, counties, and states borrow tens of billions of dollars each year, and it determines whether individual bondholders keep more of their returns or share…
Workers between the ages of 60 and 63 can now steer as much as $35,750 into a 401(k) plan during 2026, a jump of $3,250 over what someone in the standard catch-up bracket can contribute. The increase comes from a new “super catch-up” provision that raises the extra allowance for this narrow age group to…
A surviving spouse who earned the same paycheck before and after a partner’s death can owe thousands of dollars more in federal income tax the following year, not because anything about their earnings changed, but because the tax code reassigns their filing status. The IRS determines filing status based on marital status on the last…
Devin Ward Elder, the founder and CEO of a San Antonio investment firm, pleaded guilty to wire fraud for running a scheme that raised about $69.5 million from roughly 345 investors between January 2023 and March 2025. The plea, entered in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, caps a federal investigation into…
Depositors holding large balances at a single bank can multiply their federal insurance protection fivefold simply by naming beneficiaries on a trust account. The FDIC’s updated brochure, released April 1, 2024, confirms that trust accounts receive $250,000 in coverage per unique eligible beneficiary per owner, with a hard ceiling of $1,250,000 when five or more…
Ray Dalio’s warning that a “capital war” between nations could freeze global markets and drive up U.S. borrowing costs has taken on sharper edges in 2026. At least two major European pension funds have already begun pulling back from U.S. Treasuries, citing political risk. Those moves, still small in dollar terms, test whether scattered institutional…
Berkshire Hathaway held $397 billion in cash and short-term Treasury bills as of March 31, 2026, according to its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That record stockpile arrived at the same moment the so-called Buffett indicator, which divides total U.S. corporate equity market value by nominal GDP, reached 229 percent of the…
Investment fraud stripped more money from older Americans than any other category of scam in 2025, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. The bureau recorded over 201,000 elder-fraud complaints totaling more than $7.7 billion in losses, with investment schemes alone accounting for more than $3.5 billion of that figure. At least 12,400 victims,…
Savers hunting for a low-risk return just got a fresh number to work with. The U.S. Bureau of the Fiscal Service set the Series I savings bond composite rate at 4.26% for bonds issued from May 1 through October 31, 2026. That rate locks in a 0.90% fixed component alongside an inflation adjustment tied to…
Workers juggling two or more jobs in 2026 face a quiet payroll tax trap: each employer withholds Social Security tax on wages up to $184,500, the new annual wage base, without knowing what the other employer already collected. When combined wages cross that threshold, the result is an overpayment that can be recovered as a…