Here’s how much the average working boomer has saved for retirement

Three news items that say a lot about the retirement crisis facing Americans and what we can do about it—if we want to. The first is a survey of 1,000 working Americans conducted recently showing much...

Pornhub Parent Company’s CEO, COO Are Departing as Scrutiny Builds Over Alleged Nonconsensual Content

Two top executives at the parent company of major pornography site Pornhub have resigned, the company said Tuesday, amid scrutiny of alleged nonconsensual sexually explicit videos hosted on the site. ...

Millennials Are Right to Expect Cuts in Social Security. What to Do Right Now.

Text size Millennials need to save more over the course of their careers, according to a new report. Dreamstime Millennials will probably collect less in Social Security than older generations, but a ...

Is the Stock Market Closed on Juneteenth?

U.S. stock markets will be closed to observe Juneteenth for the first time in history.  The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will shut down on Monday, June 20, in observation of the newest federal h...

What the Fed’s biggest rate hike in decades means for the bear market in bonds

Historically bad. That’s how the mammoth $53 trillion U.S. fixed-income market has performed this year as the Federal Reserve works to curtail high inflation threatening to wreck the economy. To turbo...

Hot Housing Market Keeps Home Foreclosures at Bay

The U.S. moratorium on home foreclosures ended nearly a year ago, but the sizzling housing market is still protecting many delinquent mortgage borrowers from losing their homes. The pandemic that wipe...

‘I feel bad that I’ll be taking most of his income’: I make twice what my boyfriend does. He pays me $300 in rent, but I want him to pay $800. Is that fair?

Dear Quentin, My boyfriend and I have been together seven years, and in that time I bought a house. I used my own savings and spent about $10,000 on renovations. My house is a three-bedroom family hom...

3 markets in which housing is more affordable than its historical average

Here’s where housing is relatively affordable. Getty Images Home prices have skyrocketed in recent years, with CoreLogic revealing in its latest report that home prices grew by 20.9% year over year in...

3 crucial financial moves to make now after the Fed’s biggest rate hike since 1994

In a matter of months, it’s become more expensive to carry a credit card balance, a car loan or a mortgage as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have seeped into borrowing costs. It’s tough med...

Fed’s biggest rate hike since 1994 means millions more homebuyers may be priced out of the housing market

Pity those first-time house buyers. On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to a 1.5% to 1.75% range, the biggest increase since 1994 as it tries t...

Crypto crash FOMO? ‘I missed the bus on Bitcoin, but now feel like my time has come. Is it time to go big or go home? I have another 25 years of a boring 9-to-5 job, and I just want out.’

I read a letter from a reader last year who was suffering from crypto FOMO, and I have been following the crypto markets ever since. I felt like I missed the bus on Bitcoin, but now feel like my time ...

‘The goal is never to seek the top’: The wild, hair-raising ride of a 30-something investor who battled against NFT hackers and dodged the crypto crash

Vinny Zane has a taste for life — and an appetite for risk. The 38-year-old teacher and father of a 2-year-old son on Brooklyn’s Coney Island got into crypto in 2017 with $4,000 worth of Bitcoin, and ...

‘I respect every profession equally, but I feel like so many people look down on me for being a waitress’: Americans are tipping less. Should we step up to the plate?

I read your article about tipping. I’ve been serving and bartending for almost 16 years now, since I was 18. Waiting tables is so hard on your body, and a lot of people don’t appreciate all of the wor...

Dow tumbles as inflation reading triggers market shock waves: What investors need to know

From Wall Street to Main Street, fears that the U.S. economy could be sliding into 1970s-style “stagflation” have been percolating. References to the sticky situation appeared in news headlines all we...

‘I’m being taken advantage of by my own husband’: I pay all the bills and gave the down payment for our home, and all he does is buy stuff and contribute to his 401(k)

I’m being taken advantage of by my own husband. I have been married for almost 10 years. When my husband and I were first married, he convinced me to stop working after the first year or so, which I r...

I put $200K toward a down payment for a condo unit with my boyfriend. He is on the title, but not on the mortgage. How do I protect my equity investment now?

Dear Quentin, I recently sold my apartment and put the equity earned (over $200,000) toward a new condo unit I own with my partner. My partner — we are not married — is on title, but not on the mortga...

Apple is offering ‘buy now, pay later.’ 4 reasons to think twice before signing up

After months of speculation, Apple AAPL, -0.45% finally unveiled its buy now, pay later offering this week, wading into an industry that’s experienced explosive growth. But consumers should be wary of...

My parents-in-law sold their home and bought an RV. They have $200K in the bank. How can they protect their assets from being used for nursing-home costs?

My father-in-law has health issues. While he is not quite ready for a nursing home, that may be a necessity in the near future. He has state retirement benefits and a very small Social Security check....

Home affordability has ‘collapsed’ in 2022. What to expect next, according to BofA

The double whammy of surging mortgage rates and skyrocketing home prices has led to “collapsed” housing affordability in America, according to Chris Flanagan’s team at BofA Global Research. The situat...

Altria’s Cigarette Addiction Is Becoming Unhealthier

For years tobacco companies have been fighting regulators more than each other. That might be about to change, and Altria MO -0.61% in particular needs a game plan. If Philip Morris International’s PM...

Biden open to canceling $10,000 in student loans per borrower — what that means for your budget, credit score and tax bill

If $10,000 vanishes from your student debt, you may want to celebrate. This is a question millions of student loan holders may be facing soon if President Joe Biden proceeds with a controversial plan ...

Our retirement system hurts the middle class

America has a vast and elaborate system of public policies supposedly designed to help us all save for retirement and avoid the catastrophe of a penurious and poverty-stricken old age. But does this s...

Elon Musk says workers should return to the office or quit. It’s a big gamble: ‘Tesla is kick-starting its own local Great Resignation’

Elon Musk is giving his employees an ultimatum. Tesla’s  TSLA, -2.36% chief executive officer and founder responded Thursday to an apparent leaked email that called on employees to return to the offic...

‘Should we wait to see how the market plays out?’ I want to purchase a rental home. Is this a good time?

Dear MarketWatch, Is it a good time to buy an investment home to rent out, or should we wait off on it? We live in Arizona, but the home I’d be buying is located in El Paso, Texas. It would involve ta...

Canopy Growth Stock Is Falling as Earnings Disappoint Wall Street

Text size Canopy Growth reported a 36% drop in revenue from Canadian recreational cannabis sales compared with the same quarter a year ago. Chris Roussakis/Bloomberg Canopy Growth stock is plummeting ...

After 2 stormy years of ‘moonshot’ house prices, don’t hold out hope for a major correction. Why COVID-era property values may be here to stay.

There is hope for first-time buyers looking to enter the U.S. housing market, but observers say they will have to be patient. After a two-year surge in home prices during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ho...

‘I have great plans for myself’: My girlfriend doesn’t understand how her student loan works and rents a pricey apartment. What if we marry — and divorce? 

My girlfriend and I have been in a relationship for seven months, and it is getting more serious. I don’t expect us to get married in the next year but I like to plan ahead and if things keep working ...

Good news for home buyers? Fannie Mae chief economist says the U.S. housing market has finally turned a corner. Here’s why.

The inventory shortage, high prices and rising interest rates have finally bitten. Single-family home sales fell sharply by 16.6% in April to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 591,000, accordin...

Bank of America is raising its hourly minimum wage to $22 — here’s how many people don’t even come close to pay like that

Bank of America workers are getting a pay bump at the end June when minimum wages climb to $22 as a part of the major bank’s longstanding plan to get its starting rate to $25 by 2025. It’s good news f...

The Great Resistance is here. Companies and employees are in a battle of wills over returning to the office.

Amy Faust Liggayu, 32, a market-research project manager based in Tinley Park, Ill., and mother of a 7-month-old son, never imagined she would have a life where she could spend five days a week with h...

A Near-Retiree Wants to Maximize His Social Security. Here’s Some Advice.

Noli Cabantug has spent his career going back and forth between the public and private sectors. Now, at age 58, he’s wondering what his retirement income will look like and what he can do over the nex...

Opinion: This plan to tax the ultrarich is much simpler and better than Biden’s idea

President Joe Biden and Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) have proposed different ways to tax unrealized capital gains every year. Their shared goal is understandable, with trillions of ...