Tax Guy: When does a solo 401(k) make sense for self-employed people, and what are the contribution limits?

Are you newly self-employed after joining the Great Resignation? Welcome aboard. Given your new status, you need to know about your tax-favored retirement plan options. Or have you been self-employed for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to setting up a tax-saving retirement plan? Procrastinators like you need to know their options too. Here’s […]

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The Moneyist: ‘The weight of this debt is crushing’: I’m 74, and a retired speech-language pathologist with a student-loan debt of $200K. Am I obliged to pay it off?

Dear Quentin, I have not seen anyone address student-loan debt for people over 70 years of age. I am a 74-year-old retired speech-language pathologist with a student-loan debt of $ 200,000.  I’m on a fixed income, and the weight of this debt is crushing even with income-based repayment. I have no hope of ever repaying this debt. Shouldn’t […]

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The Wall Street Journal: Starbucks may expand worker benefits that would exclude unionized staff

Starbucks Chief Executive Howard Schultz is ramping up the company’s campaign against a unionization push in its U.S. stores, saying new benefits being developed for chain employees legally can’t be extended to unionized locations. In an online forum with U.S. store leaders this week, Schultz said he is reviewing the company’s benefits to develop an expanded employee-benefit package […]

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: Kohl’s, Guess and other consumer companies are facing off with activist investors. One expert says it’s a signal of optimism

Kohl’s Corp. once again responded to activist investors Macellum Advisors GP, LLC on Monday in a letter to shareholders laying out the skills and expertise of the company’s board, which Macellum seeks to replace. The letter is the latest in the ongoing battle between the department store retailer and Macellum, which owns about 5% of […]

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Coronavirus Update: WHO says omicron variant now accounts for 99.2% of global COVID cases and warns that people are still developing severe disease and dying

The omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 accounted for 99.2% of all cases sequenced in the latest week, according to the World Health Organization, further cementing its dominance over other variants. In its weekly epidemiological update, the agency said that while vaccine effectiveness wanes against omicron for all disease outcomes following primary vaccination, […]

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Peter Morici: American foreign policy needs radical surgery

This is not your father’s Cold War. In the Eisenhower-Khrushchev era, the West, Russia and China lived in separate economic spaces. Nuclear weapons posed limited danger, because neither the United States nor Russia could strike the other without risking annihilation. American forces were capable of deterring aggression across two oceans. Nowadays, America is underarmed and too reliant […]

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Dow Jones Newswires: New Zealand central bank accelerates monetary tightening with rate hike

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points, accelerating the withdrawal of pandemic-era monetary stimulus after inflation surged to a multidecade high. It was the fourth consecutive rate increase from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand after 25-basis-point increments at each of its October, November and […]

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FA Center: ‘The news is constantly reminding young folks that they are not getting ahead.’ But does a 19-year-old really need a financial adviser?

Typically, financial advisers seek out the wealthy. But some financial planners welcome younger, less affluent clients in their early 20s or even their late teens. These young go-getters may not bring in millions of dollars in assets to manage, but their desire to build wealth and avoid money mistakes leads them to pay for an […]

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The Margin: Disney heir denounces Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill after publicly coming out as transgender

Walt Disney Co. DIS, +0.15% heir Charlee Disney publicly came out as transgender in a recent interview, and said they wished they could have done more to advocate against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill. The bill, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third […]

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The Moneyist: ‘They said we need to give them money’: My husband’s family wants him to pay for a new car — and they call ME a gold digger! How do we stand up to them?

Dear Quentin, I am a stay-at-home mom. My husband is a police officer and is mandated to work between 10 and 16 hours a day. Our oldest child is a sophomore in high school. She is a straight-A student with a lot of extracurricular activities. Our son is in elementary school; he struggles with school […]

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