Have fun AND retire rich — a great tax-refund life hack

For the 100 million of you who will get a tax refund this year, the former head of retirement solutions at J.P. Morgan has a great and very simple idea. Don’t spend all your refund. And don’t save all...

‘The graveyard shift is the most understaffed:’ I work as a waiter on the Las Vegas Strip. We are overworked, underpaid, and our drunk customers often don’t tip

Dear Quentin,  I currently work at a fast-casual restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip. I have worked at the company for three years. I work at the busiest outlet of this restaurant in the world. During t...

Financial Face-Off: Should you use your tax refund to buy I bonds or crypto? One of these options could get a 9.6% return. Let us explain.

Hello and welcome to Financial Face-off, a MarketWatch column where we help you weigh financial decisions. Our columnist will give her verdict. Tell us whether you think she’s right in the comments. A...

Decade-High Mortgage Rates Pose Threat to Spring Housing Market

U.S. housing sales are heating up again this spring, but the highest mortgage rates in more than a decade threaten to cool the sales pace that has gripped the market for nearly two years. Home sales r...

The 26-Year-Old Dropout Lapping the Hedge-Fund Field

Eva Shang is doing the hedge-fund thing her way. That means making money but also making time to blog about dreams, her labradoodle and her fear of becoming a Silicon Valley has-been at age 26. Legali...

These money and investing tips are what you need when markets aren’t giving what you want

Don’t miss these top money and investing features: Sign up here to get MarketWatch’s best mutual funds and ETF stories emailed to you weekly! INVESTING NEWS & TRENDS Americans of all ages are fail...

Here Are Some Answers to Common Questions on Social Security Disability and Spousal Benefits

Photo illustration by Barron’s Staff; (reference) Dreamstime (4) Text size Have a question about saving for retirement or your personal financial situation? Whatever the question, Barron’s Retir...

When Quitting Normalizes, Benefit to Low-Wage Workers May Subside

Low-wage workers capitalized on the rare opportunity of a tight labor market with a burst of job-switching. That wave shows signs of easing now and economists say that, apart from a one-off rise in wa...

New York City Companies Prepare to Put Pay Ranges on Job Listings

New York City employers are hustling to figure out what to do about impending salary-disclosure rules, while hoping for a delay. A sweeping pay-disclosure law requiring nearly all companies operating ...

Big Investor Sold AMC and Apple Stock. It Bought PayPal and Pfizer.

Text size An AMC theater Dreamstime A large European asset manager slashed its investment in the volatile shares of a movie-theater chain, and made other changes in its U.S.-traded stock portfolio. DN...

California’s French Four-Day Workweek – WSJ

The popular book “The 4-Hour Workweek” provides tips on how to make more money by working less. Now California Democrats are taking a page from the book by proposing to mandate a four-day week, which ...

Utilities Plan Huge Electric Grid Upgrades, Adding to Power Bills

American utilities are planning their biggest spending increases in decades to upgrade aging grids, prepare for electric vehicles and make the transition to renewable energy—moves poised to further bo...

Ex-UBS Advisor Pleads Guilty to Fraud That Funded Multiple Romances

An ex- UBS advisor pleaded guilty in a federal court in Miami to defrauding clients of more than $5 million, the Justice Department said. German Nino, who was charged earlier this year, entered a plea...

Tesla Could Reopen Its Shanghai Factory Next Week: Report

Text size An aerial view of Tesla’s Shanghai factory, which closed in late March due to rising cases. Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images Tesla might be reopening its most productive facility earlier than i...

Warren Tells IRS to Focus Audits on the Rich, Not Low-Income Taxpayers

Lawmakers are calling on the IRS to stop disproportionately auditing low-income taxpayers, who they say are far more likely than other taxpayers to face IRS scrutiny, with audit rates for poorer filer...

Opinion: Why the United States is reluctant to become the Saudi Arabia of natural gas

OXFORD, England (Project Syndicate)—With images of Russian aggression and war crimes in Ukraine continuing to dominate the media in Europe and around the world, Germany has pledged to cut its imports ...

This is where property taxes increased the most last year — it’s not in California or New York

Today’s home buyers could be in for a shock when the tax man comes calling. In 2021, around $328 billion in property taxes were imposed on single-family homes across the country, according to a new re...

This is how much you made if you bought into the oil crash 2 years ago

If you want to retire rich, the late, great Dan Bunting has some advice for you. “Always buy the market (i.e., stocks or even just the index) after a spectacular bankruptcy,” my old friend Bunting, a ...

Why a Yield Curve Inversion Might Actually Be Good News for Investors

Text size Dreamstime About the author: Ashwin Alankar is the head of Global Asset Allocation at Janus Henderson Investors. The recent trend by the market to frame new developments in a negative light ...

You Made $700 From an Online Side Hustle. Now the IRS Will Know.

Now that your 2021 taxes are done—or at least under way—it’s time to focus on a key tax change for 2022 affecting millions of Americans making money through platforms like eBay , Etsy , Airbnb , Venmo...

The Pandemic Made These Retailers Stronger. Their Stocks Are Buying Opportunities.

Far from killing retail, as initially feared, Covid-19 wound up being a boon for the industry. It’s the recovery that looks more perilous. The pandemic was a great time for retailers. Consumers were f...

A retired nurse lost $43,000 to bitcoin — watch out for red flags online

A New York retired nurse lost $43,000 of her life savings to bitcoin scammers, after transferring the money to them through a malicious computer pop-up – an unfortunate reminder to be vigilant when it...

Inflation is raging, but these 16 companies have pricing power

Decades of deflationary forces that helped feed booming prices for U.S. stocks are over, at least for now. But some companies are countering the trend, by a combination of holding down expenses and ra...

‘Please help!’ It seems like I have been paying my child’s student loan forever. How much longer must I pay it off?

Dear Quentin, It seems like I have been paying my Parent PLUS Loan forever. Someone told me that when my husband passed away, even though we were divorced at the time, I wouldn’t have to keep paying t...

Recession is `the most likely’ outcome for U.S. economy, says Larry Summers

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, whose out-of-consensus views about the risks of persistent inflation have come true, is reiterating his concerns about a potential U.S. downturn: He now says a...

Mortgage rates soar to highest level in over a decade — even wealthy home buyers are feeling the pain

Mortgage rates are soaring, and no one is being spared. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 5% as of the week ending April 14, representing an increase of 28 basis points from the pr...

4 big expenses you should factor in for retirement

Retirement planning is part savings, part guessing game. While many of your day-to-day expenses will remain the same, there are big-ticket categories that can take a large bite out of your savings. Th...

As mortgage rates climb, one big thing homebuyers should consider doing now

Is a mortgage rate lock right for you? Getty Images Mortgage rates will likely rise throughout 2022, many experts predict. Indeed, both Holden Lewis, home and mortgage expert at Nerdwallet, and Jeff O...

‘The weight of this debt is crushing’: I’m 74, and a retired speech-language pathologist with a student-loan debt of $200K. Am I obliged to pay it off?

Dear Quentin, I have not seen anyone address student-loan debt for people over 70 years of age. I am a 74-year-old retired  speech-language pathologist with a student-loan debt of $200,000.  I’m on a ...

Sierra Oncology Stock Soars After $1.9 Billion Takeover by GSK

Text size The deal comes ahead of GlaxoSmithKline’s planned spinoff of its consumer health division in July. AFP via Getty Images GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to buy U.S. rare cancer therapy compa...

Sierra Oncology Stock Soars After $1.9 Billion Takeover by GlaxoSmithKline

Text size AFP via Getty Images GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to buy U.S. rare cancer therapy company Sierra Oncology for $1.9 billion in cash, as it looks to boost its portfolio of new specialty medicine...

Three value stocks that can provide safety as interest rates rise

Stocks have been on a rocky road this year, as investors have tried to anticipate every possible move by the Federal Reserve to combat inflation. Value strategies have held up better than growth strat...