Investments

A Treasury Inflation-Protected Security has two moving parts: a fixed interest rate set at auction, and a principal value that rises and falls with the Consumer Price Index. Every six months, the...

Take a hypothetical 52-year-old independent consultant with $100,000 of net profit on Schedule C in 2026 and no employees. Here is how much she could shelter in a solo 401(k), using the 2026 limi...

A company's "cap" is its market capitalization: the share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. A company with 500 million shares trading at $40 has a market cap of $20 billion. I...

A SEP IRA is built for people who earn money on their own: freelance designers, consultants, gig workers with a side business, independent contractors who get a 1099 instead of a W-2, and owners ...

Under current federal rules, most people must begin pulling money out of traditional IRAs and workplace retirement plans in the year they turn 73, and a missed withdrawal can cost 25% of the amou...

Suppose you are choosing between two hypothetical bonds of similar quality and maturity. A corporate bond pays 4.5%. A municipal bond pays 3.2%. At first glance the corporate bond wins by more th...

Meet two hypothetical savers, each with $30,000 in cash.Dana keeps hers in a high-yield savings account at an online bank. Her rate changes whenever the bank decides it should. The money moves to...

If you are in midlife and worried about retirement, you have a lot of company. In the Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, published in May 2026, only 43% of n...

Picture this hypothetical: your aunt passes away and leaves you $30,000. The check arrives a few months later, along with a lot of feelings. You have $6,000 on a credit card at 24%, about one mon...

On December 29, 1989, Japan's Nikkei 225 index closed at 38,915.87. It did not close above that level again until February 22, 2024, according to the Associated Press. That is 34 years without a ...