What We're Reading
Most Couples Plan to Start Married Life With This Costly Ball and Chain
About a third of couples getting married in the next year plan to borrow up to $10,000 to cover wedding bills, according to a new survey from Student Loan Hero.
What Kind of Housing Does N.H. Need, and Why Don't We Have Enough Of It?
In the southern region of New Hampshire and on the Seacoast, vacancy rates are low, housing prices are high, and there is a lack of affordable housing for families and young adults. In the northern and western parts of the state, substandard housing remains a problem. As part of the The Balance series on NHPR about the cost of living in the Granite State, we look at why our state continues to have issues, and how some cities, like Londonderry, are turning to mixed community developments.
The Financial Literacy Problem
Financial literacy has been dropping for years, making the need for a personal finance education even more crucial.
As Big Firms Exit Broker Pact, Investors are Uneasy
For years, wealth management firms agreed not to stand in the way of such broker recruitment, putting client needs ahead of their own. But now, some firms are balking at letting clients go, and are threatening legal action to make them stay put. At the root of the fight is money, billions of dollars in client fees that wealth management firms reap every year.
Downsizing Baby Boomers Face a Key Decision: Is it Better to Rent or to Buy?
The rent-or-buy decision is more commonly thought of as a dilemma for young professionals establishing their households, not people approaching retirement. But whether it’s a financially savvy decision or simply the only solution when they can’t find a suitable place to buy, some baby boomers are choosing to rent an apartment downtown when they downsize.
Investors Should Study 'Broker Protocol' for Their Protection
It's 4 p.m. on a Friday, and out of the blue you get a phone call from your brokerage firm — but it's not the trusted advisor with whom you have worked for 20 years. Instead, it's a new voice from a person you don't know, who tells you that your former advisor has left the firm and your account has been reassigned to him.
They're Out to Reveal the 'Dirty Little Secret of Higher Education'
For all its faults, you can give the Internet credit for at least one big win: making prices far more transparent than they were in those dark days before http://everything. Sitting on a bench with a mobile phone, it’s easy to compare the price of a ride across town with Uber versus Lyft; buying a used Toyota from any dealer in the country; getting a home mortgage; or embarking on a kayak tour in Maui. But a Boston startup launching this month contends that the price of one important thing is still pretty opaque: going to college.
Nobel in Economics is Awarded to Richard Thaler
Richard H. Thaler, whose work has persuaded many economists to pay more attention to human behavior, and many governments to pay more attention to economics, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday.
If You're Dreaming of Retiring, It's Important to Make a Plan - and Commit to It
The go-to strategy to encourage people to save for their retirement years has been to frighten them with the numbers. The average cost of retirement is more than $700,000, according to a study released this year by Merrill Lynch. If you want a swanky retirement, you’ll obviously need more. Fidelity Investments estimates that health care and medical expenses alone will total $275,000 for the average 65-year-old couple retiring in 2017. And then there’s the scariest number of all. If you retire at 65, you could live an additional 25 years. The horror: You could outlive your savings.