Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode: Learn how to navigate job changes, maximize retirement benefits, and celebrate personal and financial accomplishments.How should you navigate job changes when it affects your retirement benefits? What options do military spouses have for saving for retirement? Hosts Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner discuss managing unvested retirement funds to help you understand how to make the most of your employment benefits. They begin with a discussion of the importance of celebrating success after working towards a goal, financial or otherwise. Then Sean talks to Lacey…

The October jobs numbers were flat out terrible, with the emphasis on the flat, meaning virtually no change from September. The Dow Jones polled estimate was 110,000 new jobs, which itself would have been far off from the previous month. Instead, it was 12,000 total, or 10.9% of the expectation. A roughly 89% disappointment. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), it takes a month-over-month change of about 130,000 to be statistically significant. Media outlets reported experts, pundits, and some politicians blaming the results on Hurricanes Helene and Milton as well as the Boeing labor strike. But things are…

Trump wins the 2024 presidential electionFormer President Donald Trump will be back in the White House come January. In case you missed it, here’s a rundown of his plans for the economy and your personal finances — and what economists are projecting for his second term. Read more.Immigration and the economy are consistently the top issues for potential voters in this year’s presidential election, but the two are intertwined more than you might think. Harris wants to increase the number of agents at the border; apprehend, remove and bar unlawful border crossers from reentering for five years; pursuing criminal charges…

Majority of Americans Aren’t Confident in the Safety and Reliability of Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency markets continue to face challenges. The currency’s value has dropped, lawsuits are mounting and Congress is mulling regulations. Meanwhile, Americans remain skeptical about cryptocurrency, and the share who’ve used it has not grown in the past three years, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Roughly six-in-ten Americans (63%) say they have little to no confidence that current ways to invest in, trade or use cryptocurrencies are reliable and safe. This includes three-in-ten adults who say they are not at all confident, and a third who say…

Want to know how different generations spent their money in 2023? There’s a government data source for that. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released data from the annual Consumer Expenditure Survey, and here are some of the insights from the Silent Generation to Gen Z. Average incomes change throughout our lives — increasing as we get further along in our careers and then decreasing as we retire and age. Likewise, the things we spend on change depending on our life stage.Housing represents a bigger chunk of total spending for groups with lower incomes such as Gen Z and the…

Voters in Washington State have decided to keep the state’s first-in-the-nation public long term care insurance program. On Tuesday, they easily rejected a ballot initiative that would have killed the far-reaching law. The WA Cares law provides up to $36,500 in long-term care insurance benefits, with the amount increasing with inflation. It is funded with a payroll tax surcharge of 0.58 percent on all workers in the state. For a median income worker, who makes about $78,000, that equals about $450 annually, or about $9 a week. The initiative was one of four ballot measures sponsored by Let’s Go Washington,…

Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode: Learn how the presidential candidates’ policies on health care and student loans differ in how they could impact your finances.What impact could presidential policies have on health care and student loans? How might these policies affect your personal finances? Hosts Sean Pyles and Anna Helhoski discuss health care costs and student loan forgiveness to help you understand how upcoming elections may influence your financial future. They begin with a discussion of health care with Richard Frank, director of The Center on Health Policy, about…

Donald Trump’s return to the White House combined with Republican control of the Senate, and perhaps the House, will place taxes high on the policy hit parade. Trump will get much of what he promised during the campaign. But some elements of his agenda likely will be sidetracked, either because he does not seriously pursue them or because of resistance—including from Republicans—on Capitol Hill. Expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) almost certainly will be extended, largely intact, though not without a prolonged battle over key details. Trump will enact substantial new tariffs, though at first…

Trump wins the 2024 presidential electionFormer President Donald Trump will be back in the White House come January. In case you missed it, here’s a rundown of his plans for the economy and your personal finances — and what economists are projecting for his second term. Read more.Vice President Kamala Harris is pledging to increase the housing supply and make it more affordable, especially for first-time home buyers. She’s preaching to the choir of voters who rank housing affordability as a top-three issue in the election — about 25%, according to the results of a survey by Ipsos and Redfin,…

More Than 40% of American Households Rely on Credit Cards to Pay the Bills, Leading to a Vicious Debt Cycle Today’s economy has many Americans relying on credit cards to foot the bills for everyday expenses. A total of 41% of U.S. adults say they rely on credit cards to cover purchases throughout the month after paying for monthly expenses such as rent/mortgage, car payments, and childcare, according to CivicScience consumer polling this month. And many are going into debt as a result, adding to the growing amount of national credit card debt, which reached $1.14 trillion this year. New…