Investors who have taxable accounts—as opposed to tax-favored retirement accounts such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs) or 401(k)s—are often eligible for lower tax rates on investment income a...
Tag: wsjlifework
The Truth About the Four-Day Workweek, From People Who Have Tried It
More companies are experimenting with the four-day workweek, and workers who have tried it are divided on how fruitful an abbreviated schedule can be. Hundreds of WSJ readers responded to our story ab...
The Only 401(k) Savers Who Didn’t Lose Money in The Past Year
The only workers whose 401(k) balances grew in 2022 were the Gen Z savers still decades away from retirement, according to new data from Fidelity Investments. While the average nest egg among Fidelit...
Tech Layoffs Hit H1B Visa Workers Hard
When she lost her job at Google last month, Jingjing Tan started worrying about her dog, an energetic, 75-pound German shepherd. As a foreign worker living in the U.S. on a temporary work visa, if she...
Property Taxes Are Going Up; Here’s How to Lower Your Bill
Listen to article (1 minute) The cost of homeownership will rise for millions of Americans in coming weeks as new property-tax assessments arrive in the mail. Property taxes have risen across much of...
The U.S. Consumer Is Starting to Freak Out
Listen to article (2 minutes) The engine of the U.S. economy—consumer spending—is starting to sputter. Retail purchases have fallen in three of the past four months. Spending on services, including re...
How to Be Happier in Your Job in 2023
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple ...
Your Coworkers Are Less Ambitious; Bosses Adjust to the New Order
Listen to article (2 minutes) Where have all the go-getters gone? At law firm Nixon Peabody LLP, associates have started saying no to working weekends, prompting partners to ask more people to help c...
Why Accountants Are Quitting and Even Some New Graduates Don’t Want Their Jobs
More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors have left their jobs in the past two years, a 17% decline, and the dwindling number of college students coming into the field can’t fill the gap. The e...
Here’s What a $1 Million Retirement Looks Like in America
Once a symbol of extravagant wealth, $1 million is now the retirement-savings goal for millions of Americans. For retirees able to accumulate $1 million in savings, the funds translate into inflation-...
Six Ways to Protect Your Money in 2023
The highest inflation in four decades. A bear market in stocks. Fears of a recession. A crypto implosion. The past year was a trying one for American households. It strained their budgets, reduced the...
Big Changes to 401(k) Retirement Plans Move Ahead in Congress
Listen to article (2 minutes) Congress is on the verge of passing a bill that aims to help Americans save more for retirement and leave their retirement savings untouched and untaxed for longer. The b...
For Landlords, Rising Housing Costs Make It Harder to Earn Passive Income
Listen to article (1 minute) Many Americans dream the path to building wealth is like a trip around the Monopoly board, buying up properties that generate rental income. That can be true, but financia...
The 4% Rule for Retirement Spending Makes a Comeback
Listen to article (2 minutes) Retirees walloped by high inflation and volatile stock and bond markets are getting some good news: The 4% spending rule—or something close to it—is back. The traditional...
Should You Retire Early to Get a Larger Lump Sum on Your Pension?
The math on when and how to retire is shifting for millions of workers with pension plans. Blame the steep rise in interest rates. When workers retire with a pension, many are given a choice between r...
Why Interest Rates Are Rising Everywhere—Except Your Savings Account
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple ...
When It Pays to Have a Mortgage in Retirement—and When It Doesn’t
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple ...
Enough, Bosses Say: This Fall, It Really Is Time to Get Back to the Office*
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple ...
Here’s What a $2 Million Retirement Looks Like in America
For many Americans, retirement advice is limited to encouragement to save more or warnings that they haven’t saved enough. But most people get little guidance or give little thought to what to do with...
If Your Co-Workers Are ‘Quiet Quitting,’ Here’s What That Means
Not taking your job too seriously has a new name: quiet quitting. The phrase is generating millions of views on TikTok as some young professionals reject the idea of going above and beyond in their ca...
IRS Changes Guidelines for Inherited IRAs, Causing Confusion and Pushback
Figuring out the most efficient way to navigate the tax impact of inheriting individual retirement accounts has become more complicated since the Internal Revenue Service issued proposed new rules in ...
IRS Gives Wealthy Families More Time to Shelter Assets from Estate Tax
The federal government is giving widows and widowers more time to deal with the intricacies of the estate tax after a spouse dies. When one spouse dies, their partner often inherits all or part of the...
Big Changes to 401(k) Retirement Plans Get Closer With Senate Vote
Americans could wait longer to start emptying retirement accounts and face fewer restrictions on emergency withdrawals under a bill advanced unanimously Wednesday by the Senate Finance Committee. The...
What the Fed Rate Hike Means for Your Savings, Credit Cards and Loans
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreemen...
What the Fed’s Interest-Rate Increase Means for Your Mortgage, Loans, Savings
The Federal Reserve raised its short-term benchmark rate by a half-percentage point on Wednesday, the sharpest increase since 2000, to a range between 0.75% and 1%. Though widely expected, the move wi...