Last week Amazon completed its purchase with Whole Foods. Why is this such a big deal? This deal is going to shake up the grocery industry. Until now, Amazon has been a minor player in grocery, with just 1 percent of market share. Whole Foods has just under 2 percent. But this deal shows Amazon […]
What do we need to know right now about 401(k) loans? We have seen a significant rise in 401(k) loans in recent years. Loans against retirement accounts have been taking the place of home equity loans because fewer Americans have home equity in the wake of the housing market collapse in 2008. But these loans […]
Why do we need to talk about taxes right now? I know that taxes are a favorite topic to avoid, but as the saying goes, nothing is certain but death and taxes. Because of that, it is better to be knowledgeable about the subject. Last week, a Wall Street Journal article highlighting a rise in […]
Why we are talking about the housing recovery. The broader housing market has been on fire lately. We have seen housing prices in cities across the country rise very rapidly, and in many cases, this trend has made housing unaffordable. Construction has not been able to keep up with demand for houses in numerous zip […]
So, how’s the economy doing these days? Our latest peek at the state of the U.S. economy came out on Friday, and Commerce Department numbers show the economy expanded at a rate of 2.6 percent in the second quarter of the year. That is a big improvement over the 1.2 percent rate of growth we […]
How is the American consumer doing? Because the American consumer is one of the most important components of the American economy. You have heard me say many times on this show that consumer spending is responsible for 70 percent of GDP. (Gross Domestic Product). Where the American consumers go, the economy tends to follow. […]
Financial literacy is so important. What is the current thinking about it? There is some bad news, and there is some good news. The bad news is that the emphasis on financial literacy has been significantly lacking in this country, and we can see the results in testing. On the positive side of the ledger, […]
What do we need to know about summer jobs? There are two reasons we are talking about summer jobs. First, a lot has changed since we were kids. What teens and young adults do during the summer has become much more varied. But more importantly, for those who have kids who do have summer jobs, […]
A new study is out that will give parents of college students another thing to think about. What does it say? If parents of college students, or college-bound students, did not have enough to think about financially – be it paying tuition or dealing with student loans– a new study from Nerdwallet found that college […]
What do we need to know about the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement last week? The Paris Accords were brokered in 2015 and agreed to by 195 countries, with the goal of reducing emissions through individual government plans. On Thursday, the president withdrew the U.S. from the agreement. I spoke with dozens […]
A new study shows women are better at saving for retirement than men. That’s right. A new study of Fidelity Investments client data found that women earned 0.4 percent higher returns and save a higher percentage of their paychecks than men do, at that is true at every salary level. According to the data, women save 9 percent […]
Last week was a bad one for traditional retailers. What’s going on? That is right. The earnings last week from major retailers – Macy’s, Kohl’s, JC Penney, and others – were dismal. And it is a sign of things to come. The decline in this sector is secular, not cyclical. In a time of […]