Insights

What's Inside: Why Many Paper Millionaires Don't Feel Rich; The Race for AI Could Be Driving Up Your Power Bill; Voluntourism: Getting Away and Giving Back; The Voice of Experience: Advice on Aging from Older Americans; and What Can You Learn from Your Tax Return?

Most people understand, at least in theory, that they should have an estate plan. They know they probably need a will and they may have heard the word "trust" mentioned in a financial article or across a dinner table. And yet the majority of American adults have never actually sat down and done the work.

U.S. stocks opened last week with notable momentum, pushing the Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 to record highs by mid-week. Investors apparently ignored lingering inflation and a politically charged Federal Reserve.

If you earn a strong income, you may already know the sting of the Roth IRA income limit. You sit down to make your annual contribution and discover that the IRS has effectively locked the door due to your income being too high to contribute directly to a Roth IRA.

Two hotter-than-expected inflation reports and a lack of progress in negotiations to end the war in Iran created havoc in some corners of the financial markets last week.

You spent decades building a federal retirement package that most workers would envy (a pension, a TSP, Social Security, and a FEHB health plan that follows you into retirement). What a lot of federal employees don't fully reckon with, though, is that the IRS is going to take a meaningful piece of that income.

Despite elevated geopolitical tensions and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz, equities have climbed back to all-time highs as investors refocus on the strength of corporate earnings and the broader economic backdrop. Companies are beating profit estimates at an unusually strong pace, while earnings growth has accelerated to levels rarely seen outside of post-recession recoveries.

The U.S. stock market ended last week with strong gains, which led to record highs for the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ. The surge in stock values was largely driven by a better-than-expected jobs report (see below), falling crude oil prices, and robust tech company earnings.