Personal Finance
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Banks face yet another risk, this time from faster payments, Moody’s says
A forthcoming Federal Reserve initiative to enable faster payments could give consumers and businesses more flexibility but bring further risk for banks, according to a Moody’s analyst. With the Federal Reserve slated to roll out its FedNow instant-payment system in July, Moody’s analyst Stephen Tu weighed in Monday to suggest the service may end up…
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HELOCs are back. Cash-strapped borrowers are tapping into a $33 trillion pile of home equity.
Goodbye pandemic refi cash-outs. Hello HELOCs? Home-equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and second-lien mortgages have been staging a notable comeback as U.S. homeowners look for liquidity and ways to monetize the pandemic surge in home prices, according to BofA Global. It used to be that borrowers sitting on an estimated $33 trillion pile of equity…
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Pride Month: These are the 5 most LGBTQ-friendly states in the U.S. — and the least
A number of states are becoming less friendly toward LGBTQ+ people — and they’re putting themselves at economic risk as a result. That’s according to the annual LGBTQ+ Business Climate Index survey from Out Leadership, an organization that connects LGBTQ+ people and their allies with companies around the world. The survey tracks all 50 states…
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Why the ‘easy money’ has been made in the stock-market rally — and what comes next
A revitalized 2023 stock-market rally finally ran out of fizz last week. And it might take some time to get back on track in the face of a dip in market liquidity and signs that a surge of buying fueled by “fear of missing out” has largely run its course. “We don’t think the rally…
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Struggling to buy a house in 2023? Try these tactics from 2021, real-estate agents say.
Home buyers have accepted the new normal of 7% mortgage rates, but now they’re feeling a sense of déjà vu as real estate is back to being a competitive sport in many parts of the U.S. At the beginning of this year, buyers were still holding on to hope that mortgage rates would go back…
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San Francisco landlords borrowed $9 billion from Wall Street. Now they want big tax relief from a struggling city.
San Francisco commercial property owners with almost $9 billion in outstanding loans from Wall Street are seeking tax relief from a city bracing for a budget shortfall that’s expected to eclipse $1.2 billion in five years, according to Barclays. The requests come from many owners of San Francisco’s best known office buildings, hotels and retail…
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Is ChatGPT the future of investment advice?
Artificial intelligence is all the rage these days. Some attorneys use it to write legal briefs to judges and computer nerds use it to write programming code. However, some experts have predicted it could lead to the end of civilization. So I wondered: Can AI replace an investment adviser? Lots of people ask me questions;…
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Call it the baby-boomer effect: America is getting older faster than ever. What does that mean for the country?
America is nearing the big 4-0. The Census Bureau said Thursday morning that the median age in the United States hit a record 38.9 last year. Median means that half of Americans are older than that, and half are younger. The number is going up rapidly. In 2000, the median age was 35; in 1980, it was 30. …
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The magic number for retirement climbs as most Americans expect to work longer — except Gen Z
Americans think they’ll need $1.27 million to retire comfortably, but they plan to work longer to amass that nest egg. The new magic number for retirement is up slightly from last year, when U.S. adults said they believed they needed $1.25 million to retire comfortably, according to new findings from Northwestern Mutual. High-net-worth individuals –…
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Credit-card debt burdens are worst in this state. Here’s why.
Credit-card customers in Mississippi are living with the highest “debt burden” nationwide, according to a new report. That’s despite the fact that Mississippi has a relatively low “debt load” when compared to other states, said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at CreditCards.com, which published the report Tuesday. The average bank card balance there is…