After years of being the only group that didn’t feel the impact of rising grocery prices, middle-income consumers are now starting to feel the pinch. According to a report by data company Numerator, middle-income consumers now account for the majority of those affected by the rising prices. While ruralRead More →
Americans have good reason to be unhappy with the economy and President Joe Biden. At the State of the Union, he bragged on the strong recovery, but abstract statistics like GDP growth, the unemployment rate and average hourly wages don’t rhyme well with many voters’ personal experiences. Paychecks aren’t keeping upRead More →
Shoppers moved online in droves during the pandemic — and online prices moved upwards. “The COVID-19 pandemic reversed a predictable pattern in e-commerce, where consumers were generally able to purchase goods cheaper online. This reversal was the result of surging demand, supply chain constraints, and growth in categories that hadRead More →
People have spending money on Lysol and Clorox during a year in which coronavirus has upended people’s lives. Cards Against Humanity eschewed its annual Black Friday stunt in light of the pandemic and protests regarding the killing of Black Americans by police. David Ryder/Getty Images For Cards Against Humanity,Read More →
Rachel Robasciotti founded her wealth management firm, Robasciotti & Philipson, 16 years ago. She describes the company, established after she had spent five years in the financial services industry, as a “a bridge between financial markets and social justice activism”: a place where the principals are deeply committed toRead More →
Billionaire CEO Jeff Bezos is honoring Juneeteeth on Friday as a day of edification at Amazon.com and urging employees to attend “learnings opportunities,” to recognize the end of slavery in America. Juneteenth, which is celebrated annually by many on June 19, is a day commemorating the end of slavery inRead More →
I am in a tough moral situation and I don’t know what to do. My older sister and brother-in-law have been fighting about money for the past year or so. He is a big spender, not just for himself, but for the whole family, friends, and community. While they makeRead More →
The unrest in cities across the U.S. this week is just the latest manifestation of a struggle that will continue until the wealth gap between white people and black people is addressed, black economists said. What is the wealth gap? It is the stark divide between how much capital whiteRead More →
Dear Moneyist, I have an estranged husband, and we have been living separately for years. He has been filing taxes jointly without my knowledge AND now he has received my stimulus money AND my kids’ stimulus money. I can’t hire an attorney because I’m poor, and I live in aRead More →
Dear Moneyist, I received three direct deposits yesterday for $1,200 each for my kids, all of whom are under 17. They are aged 10, 10 and 15. We already received our $2,400 stimulus check. My wife is on permanent disability and she receives a Social Security payment monthly for them.Read More →
As if getting divorced isn’t stressful enough, trying to do so during a pandemic may seem overwhelming. With normal routines disrupted, jobs and income lost, stock markets fluctuating, and real estate markets uncertain, it may seem nearly impossible to move forward once a decision to divorce has been reached. SoRead More →
Dear Moneyist, For most of his life, my father has lived a life of crime and drugs. He threw away every opportunity we gave him, financial or otherwise. He was never really around besides the odd note written on yellow legal paper that I would get from time to time,Read More →
Dear Moneyist, We’ve been married for five years — happily, or so I thought. We have shared all our assets prior to our marriage, including our current accounts and bank accounts, etc. I continued to work for five years after we married, and I just retired at 65. My husbandRead More →
Toxic workplaces have become easier for corporate shareholders to recognize. This bodes well for changing practices to create safer, stronger companies and foster better business outcomes. Yet identifying bad practices isn’t enough. Culture management is a hard, technical skill. Company leaders need to paint a positive picture of the future in order forRead More →
The most fortunate young Americans are ahead of their older peers when they were their age. A sizeable number have seen a savings bump in recent years. One quarter of millenmials have $100,000 or more in savings, up from 16% two years ago, according to Bank of America’s BAC, -0.69%Read More →
Dear Moneyist, I married a guy that lied about his debt. Now he is trying to divorce me. I did try to get an annulment after I found out, but I was denied. He said he wanted to marry me to give me his survivor benefits. When I didn’t accept,Read More →
Dear Moneyist, My youngest sister persuaded my father to sell his home and buy her a property with two residences: a small town house for him and a nice four-bedroom house for her and her family. My father recently passed away. We discovered that our sister’s mother-in-law is an attorney.Read More →
On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Americans will pause to reflect on the civil-rights movement — the progress made and the lingering challenges. More than half a century after Dr. King’s untimely death, the U.S. has made strides toward realizing his vision, but discrimination still exists — both inRead More →
Dear Moneyist, My 93-year-old father has dementia. He married his second wife, who is 91, four years ago. He did not make a last will and testament, and cannot legally make one now because of his dementia. He is not expected to live much longer because of heart problems. MyRead More →
Washington’s year-end spending deal has included a measure that lifts the age for buying tobacco products to 21 from 18, but one prominent anti-tobacco group is issuing warnings this week about the development, rather than celebrating a victory. Raising the buying age nationwide for all tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes,Read More →
Dear Moneyist, My sisters have for years been giving me hostile, trivial, meaningless gifts for the holidays. I would say that the gifts are less meaningful than what parents would pick out to give their children’s teachers. ‘Last year, it was a $2 ornament signifying a $2 donation to aRead More →
Dear Moneyist, My friend’s father was a widower who had roughly $5 million in stocks. He was 84 when he met and soon married his younger bride (a nurse who was 60 at the time, divorced with grown children). She signed a prenuptial agreement when they married. A few yearsRead More →
‘Here is this guy that comes out with his manifesto, holding the Confederate flag, and had just hijacked everything that people thought of … people saw [the Confederate flag] as service and sacrifice and heritage, but once he did that, there was no way to overcome it.’ That was Trump’sRead More →
OK boomer — share the wealth. When baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) hit a median age of 35 in 1990, they collectively owned 21% of the nation’s wealth. The millennial generation will hit that 35 median age in four years and they are nowhere near owning that percentage.Read More →
There’s more evidence that e-cigarettes may be bad for your health. Smoking e-cigarettes increases the risk of heart disease — elevating bad cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose levels, and decreasing blood flow in the heart — and is also associated with coronary vascular dysfunction, according to two separate studies that willRead More →
