Author: News Room

After the wedding and honeymoon bliss wears off, it’s time to get back to reality. Money is a topic that requires discussion between you and your partner, hopefully before nuptials take place. Finances can be a huge point of contention between couples, so it’s important to establish a plan early on about how you both, as a married couple, are going to deal with money. Money is also often an awkward topic between partners, but it’s vital to be honest with each other through financial conversations. After all, 44% of couples argue at least occasionally about money, according to Bankrate. Below…

Americans know that carrying a credit card balance is a bad idea, but 45% typically do so anyway, a recent survey said. Consumers of all ages and financial backgrounds are amassing credit card debt, and struggling to live within their means, and these behaviors are only getting worse, the Quicken survey said. Roughly 77% said they owned a credit card. Half (50%) of the consumers earning an annual income between $50,000-$99,000 said they relied on credit cards, rather than cash, for the bulk of their purchases.  Americans now owe $1.08 trillion on their credit cards after racking up a collective $48 billion in…

When student loans restarted in October of last year, many borrowers were less than excited. The one saving grace for those struggling to keep up with these payments was the 12-month “on-ramp” where missed payments wouldn’t affect credit scores or result in default. This on-ramp was intended to make restarting payments less of a burden on borrowers, but it’s quickly coming to a close. On September 30, any missed payments or partial payments will result in the usual consequences borrowers saw before the student loan pause.These consequences include dings to borrowers’ credit scores, loan default, collection calls and garnished wages if…

New construction homes are continuing to grow in popularity, largely due to a lack of older homes on the market. In the fourth quarter, 31.8% of single-family homes for sale were new construction, according to a Redfin report. That’s down just slightly from last year’s high of 31.9%.Prospective homebuyers are seeking new construction more often for several reasons. New home construction has grown significantly since 2009, now that the effects of the Great Recession have finally lessened. The pandemic also gave rise to a new build craze as mortgage rates hit all-time lows. “Newly built homes are selling quickly right…

By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stock markets are increasingly concentrated, including a greater weight of U.S. equities and technology stocks, and, while not necessarily unwarranted, could call for some diversification, according to Goldman Sachs strategists. The U.S. equity market has outpaced other major regions since the global financial crisis, taking its share of the global equity market to 50%, Goldman strategists led by Peter Oppenheimer said in a note on Monday. The U.S. stock market’s relatively stronger earnings growth and its greater exposure to faster-growing industries — and less exposure to slow-growing companies — are among the…

It goes by many different names: semi-retirement, partial or phased retirement, second career, and so on. But typically, it means the same thing: working in some capacity after retiring early. According to the 2024 State of Retirement Planning Study by Fidelity Investments, the rise of remote and hybrid work has shifted retirement preferences for working Americans under age 42. The study found that 66% of Gen Z and Millennials prefer a phased retirement and 57% of all respondents plan to work part-time in retirement. As more workers consider the growing appeal of semi-retirement, some ask — is working part-time in…

By Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) – Prospects of strong wage hikes this year have heightened the chances the Bank of Japan will phase out its massive monetary stimulus in what would be a landmark shift away from its decade-long stimulus programme. Below are the key tools that make up the central bank’s complex stimulus framework, and what will likely happen to them when the BOJ decides to exit from ultra-loose policy: NEGATIVE INTEREST RATE POLICY Since 2016, the BOJ has been applying a 0.1% charge on a small pool of excess reserves financial institutions park with the central bank. By…

By Karen Brettell NEW YORK (Reuters) -The dollar jumped against the euro and yen on Wednesday as investors positioned for U.S. and European inflation data due on Thursday, with month-end portfolio rebalancing also likely to sway market direction. hit a more than two-year high, benefiting from strong overall market liquidity. Brad Bechtel, global head of FX at Jefferies in New York, noted that foreign exchange volatility picked up on Wednesday, which may be “hedging in front of the inflation data,” and also because of month-end flows. The implied volatility used by banks to price three-month options on the euro against…

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile wants to have three or four new lithium projects operational by 2026, the country’s Minister of Finance Mario Marcel said on Saturday. The South American country – the world’s largest producer and the second-largest producer of lithium – initiated a policy last year to increase state control of the strategic metal needed in batteries for electric vehicles. Marcel spoke following a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who has been touring the country. On Saturday, Yellen visited the U.S. lithium producer Albemarle (NYSE:) in northern Chile, saying expanded U.S.-Chilean ties would benefit both countries, improve…

The Department of Justice says it won’t provide Congress with the audio tapes from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interviews with President Joe Biden despite threats from House Republicans to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in criminal contempt. In a new letter obtained by CNN, DOJ said it would not be turning over the audio tapes by the deadline Republicans set for them. The department noted the committees already have all of the transcripts of the interviews they requested from Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents, including the transcripts of interviews with the president and with his ghostwriter, which…