A survey of nearly 2,000 American retirees conducted for What The Happiest Retirees Know revealed insights into their habits and behaviors. No topic was off limits, even those often seen as taboo: money, social media, sex, love, faith, and diet. The responses were candid and transformative for anyone willing to use them as a guide for their own retirement. One clear throughline was that a lack of curiosity does not seem to bode well for retirement happiness. An inquisitive, adventurous spirit appears to be the special sauce as long as it’s channeled and catalyzed in a healthy way. This intrepid…

Wall Street’s second-largest exchange now faces a dramatic shift in its push for diverse board leadership representation. Nasdaq’s groundbreaking board diversity rules hit a major roadblock as the U.S. appeals court ruled that it could not impose rules requiring companies listed on the exchange to have women and minority directors on their boards or explain why they do not. The Breakdown You Need To Know: Constitutional drama stayed backstage while statutory grounds stole the spotlight as the Nasdaq rules were challenged by the National Center for Public Policy Research and Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment. Fresh off the Supreme Court’s…

As the Trump administration gears up to take over the White House in January of 2025, many student borrowers are wondering what comes next. Some are especially concerned about Trump’s intentions to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, as well as some of his past remarks about the future of student loan forgiveness. The Biden Administration attempted a lot of reforms to help student loan borrowers, but the results have been mixed. The administration’s never-ending attempts to forgive student loan debt have created constant upheaval, and signature programs like the Saving On a Valuable Education (SAVE) income-driven repayment plan, are…

There’s been growing activity in antitrust. The would-be acquisition of Albertsons, the second-largest U.S. grocery operator, by number one Kroger was knocked asunder by a court. That may become a more unusual action with the replacement of Chair Lina Khan, whose term is over. Donald Trump’s choice of the next FTC chair, current Commissioner Andrew Ferguson, has been talking about investigating online social media platforms “for unfair acts or practices relating to their opaque, unpredictable processes for banning users and censoring content.” But no matter what exactly the new administration decides to do, it’s unlikely to address a growing problem…

Tax savings via retirement accounts are great when you are accumulating wealth. However, the tax situation is not so fun when you are finally required to start making withdrawals based on your age. If you are charitably minded and looking to minimize taxes on your retirement account withdrawals, a strategy of qualified charitable distributions (QCD) may help you pay fewer taxes over your lifetime. New clients of mine typically donate more than $100,000 per year to various charities. One of the reasons the couple hired me was because their previous basic financial advisor didn’t offer tax-planning advice or guidance. This…

Let me begin this article by saying that I am not a naturally generous person. As a finance professor, it may not be surprising to learn that saving is what comes most natural to me. Ever since I was a child, I have always focused on conserving everything, not year end giving. This pattern has held true even until now. For example, if you give me a bottle of sunscreen, I will “annuitize it” immediately and figure out what the least amount of sunscreen I can use so that I can stretch it out over the longest period. Unnatural Year…

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode: Discover how to embrace “lazy” money management, maximize Roth IRA contributions and fix over-contribution mistakes.How can you passively grow your money? What should you do if you over-contribute to a Roth IRA? Hosts Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner discuss lazy money-management strategies and Roth IRA over-contribution fixes to help you stay on top of your finances with minimal effort. They begin with a discussion of “lazy” personal finance tips, with actionable advice on automating investments, leveraging savings buckets, and using target-date funds for hands-off…

President-Elect Donald Trump and top Congressional Republicans are calling for the closure of the U.S. Department of Education. Whether they can ultimately succeed is an open question. Even if they do, it doesn’t necessarily mean that federal student loan forgiveness and repayment programs will simply disappear. But borrowers could still see big impacts. “I say it all the time, I’m dying to get back to do this: We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education,” said Trump in September during a a campaign rally in Wisconsin. Trump also criticized President Joe Biden’s efforts to enact broad student loan forgiveness.…

Right now, in Río Tercero, a small city in Argentina near Córdoba, Virginia More works with Pinterest as a software engineer, bridging her local experience with cutting-edge Silicon Valley projects. Similarly, Luis Ramos Paco, from Santiago de Llallagua, Bolivia—where growing potatoes and raising animals is necessary to provide for one’s family—now works with a US-based SaaS client to update its legacy system with a friendlier UI. The remote work revolution has opened doors for skilled professionals like Virginia and Luis worldwide. Companies like BairesDev– which connects Latin American talent with U.S. tech firms– are bridging global income gaps and allowing…

We have previously explored The Ultimate Tax Plan. This particular tax fraud was accomplished by the involved taxpayers donating the interests in their operating businesses to tax-exempt charities so that the tax liabilities for those entities could by absorbed by the charities. After several years of dodging taxes in this fashion, the taxpayers could then repurchase these interests for a song and thus regain ownership of their businesses. There is thus no reality to the purported donation as it is all just a paper sham to evade taxes. The promoters of The Ultimate Tax Plan and the guilty pleas of…