by Paul Schrodt If you’re thinking about shifting careers, you’re far from alone. In fact, it’s becoming the new normal: 49% of people say they’ve made a dramatic career switch, according to a recent Indeed survey. Millennials in particular are virtually turning it into a hobby: Gallup found in 2016 that 21% of those in the generation said they’d changed jobs within the past year, more than three times the number of non-millennials who reported the same.

by Cheryl Winokur Munk President Donald Trump has long promised to boost America’s coal, oil and gas industries. As it happens, the top-performing stock of the Trump era isn’t a fossil fuel producer. It’s just the opposite. Fremont, Calif.-based Enphase Energy helped revolutionize the home solar panel market with hardware that makes solar panels more efficient.

by Mallika Mitra Tech and communication stocks like Facebook and Apple have had a really good year — and could be taking up way more space in some of your mutual funds than you realize. On average, the tech and communications sectors make up about 34% of U.S. large blend funds, according to Morningstar. That’s slightly shy of their 39% share of the S&P 500. But that hasn’t stopped some fund managers from upping the exposure even more, in some cases well above benchmarks.

by Daniel Bortz The pandemic’s latest effect on the housing market could be a good one for borrowers: Fewer mortgages are requiring a home appraisal, which is making it a whole lot easier for some people to purchase a home or qualify for a loan refinance. According to a September report from the public policy think tank American Enterprise Institute, appraisals were waived on 42% of all government-sponsored purchase and refinance mortgages in July, up from roughly 20% in December.

by Mallika Mitra Commuting from your bedroom to your kitchen table may have granted you some creature comforts, like staying in your pajamas until noon or snuggling with your dog instead of fighting for a seat on a packed train. It’s probably also saved you some serious time. The daily commute — which, back in 2015, was 26 minutes each way for the average U.S. worker — has been squashed for many, at least for now.

by Carla Fried Older adults will get a 1.3% increase in their Social Security benefit in 2021, the Social Security Administration was expected to announce Tuesday morning. That works out to about a $20 monthly bump in the average Social Security benefit, to nearly $1,540. While something is better than nothing, the cost-of-living adjustment (widely known as the COLA) for 2021 is lower than the rising expenses many retirees face — particularly for health care.

by Noel Davila Money is a fiction. That doesn’t mean that the bills in your wallet or the numbers in your bank account aren’t real — it just suggests that the only reason money has value is because we believe it does. At least that’s how Jacob Goldstein, host of NPR’s Planet Money, explains it in his recently-released book, "Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing.

by Julia Glum Many Americans desperately need a second stimulus check in order to financially survive the rest of 2020. But as Election Day draws nearer, the chances of those payments going out anytime soon seem to get lower and lower. Especially if you look at President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.

by Ingrid Case If insurance that covers one peril is good, a policy that covers two is even better — or so the growing number of people who are buying hybrids of life insurance and long-term care insurance seem to believe. Yet financial advisors say these two-for-one products may offer dubious value for many consumers. Long-term care insurance helps pay for your care when you are no longer physically or mentally well enough to live independently.

by Charlotte West Derek Sykes should be finishing his last year at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UMN). Instead, he is starting his third year of college after having to take last year off to work to pay off thousands of dollars in unpaid tuition and fees. The summer before what would have been his junior year, Sykes withdrew from half of the classes he had enrolled in for the summer semester due to schedule conflicts with his job.

by Kenadi Silcox While there are plenty of high-flying stocks in 2020, so far the S&P 500’s top-performer isn’t some gadget maker or drug company rushing to save the world. It’s a marketplace for dainty crafts and elegant artwork. Etsy, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based e-commerce platform for small-time sellers of vintage and hand-made goods, is having its best year since going public in 2015 thanks in large part to the coronavirus pandemic.

by Chris Taylor The stock market seems to be shrugging off COVID-related economic pain. Well, some parts of the stock market. And it’s not just industries like airlines and hotels that are struggling, banks are also having one their worst years since recovering from the 2008-2009 financial crisis. The year 2020 is ugly indeed for the nation’s banks, and not for one particular reason.

by Chris Taylor Mark Mandel may live in Green Valley, Arizona, about halfway between Tucson and the Mexican border. But in his mind, he’s already strolling the streets of Paris. Like many of us, the semi-retired software engineer has been pretty much stuck at home the last seven months or so, with most nations around the world not even admitting American travelers due to the COVID-19 crisis. But that doesn’t mean Mandel can’t dream — and plan.

by Ingrid Case No cat or dog is quite like the one we own and love, and the policies to protect their health are almost as varied. Pet-insurance coverage ranges widely, and understanding those differences will help you make the right choice for your animal. The decisions begin with the type of policy to buy, which determines the general coverage you can expect from your coverage.

by Cheryl Winokur Munk For small investors, a slice of a stock might be better than none at all. That, at least, is the theory behind the purchase of fractional shares, investments that represent less than a full share in well-known companies trade on major exchanges like the NYSE or Nasdaq.

by Julia Glum The explosive New York Times report that President Donald Trump didn’t pay income taxes in 10 of the 15 years before winning the election has left Americans scratching their heads. How could a self-proclaimed billionaire with such a wide-ranging empire pay only $750 in taxes his first year in the White House? How did he write off $70,000 for his hair? The confusion is understandable.

by Daniel Bortz Mortgage rates keep falling, yet many homeowners are still sitting on the sidelines waiting to refinance. Rates have been dropping steadily since the coronavirus crisis began, spurring a refinancing boom. According to mortgage data firm Black Knight, servicers originated more than 2.3 million refinance loans in the second quarter of 2020, the highest volume in nearly 17 years. With rates below 3%, a recent Black Knight study found that 19.

by Martha C. White You’re probably eager to put 2020 behind you, but unfortunately, at least one aspect of this tumultuous year is going to linger into the next one. Tax season 2021 is primed to be a confusing one, with a laundry list of new considerations to take into account.

by Mallika Mitra Stock market investors may be shrugging off the Coronavirus, happy to buy shares at prices well-above recent March lows. But data suggest executives who lead the companies that make up the S&P 500 are a lot more cautious. They’re saving for a rainy day.

by Kristen Bahler Thirteen years ago, Thomas Nitzsche was working night shifts in the customer service department of a global financial services company — tasked, mainly, with helping clients wire cash from credit cards to casino ATMs in the wee hours of the morning. Nitzsche lost that job when the 2008 recession rolled around, and as a brand new homeowner, he had to fight tooth and nail to keep from losing a lot more.

by Mallika Mitra You’ve probably come across all sorts of tips for “maximizing productivity” while working from home. From going on midday walks to actually eating breakfast for a change, there’s no shortage of advice for how to make the most out of your workday. But according to a new study, being productive isn’t so much about what you’re doing as when you’re doing it.

By Chris Taylor For tech investors this month, the smartest buy of all might have been some Dramamine. That’s because the technology sector, which has seemed so bulletproof for most of 2020, has been whipsawing around pretty violently. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite, for example, plummeted almost 10% in a week, before recovering some of those losses in recent days.

by Kenadi Silcox Back in mid-March, the Sept. 30 deadline for student debt relief outlined in the CARES Act may have seemed a long way away. Now that the date is fast approaching, what’s going to happen with your student loans? The answer: relatively little. The Education Department and its loan servicers have announced more guidance in recent weeks about how they will implement President Trump’s executive order to pause student loan payments through the end of the year.

by Mallika Mitra The tell-tale signs of fall are already knocking at our door. Temperatures are dropping, school is starting, and seasonal jobs are popping up ahead of the holidays. But those temporary employment opportunities are going to look pretty different in the age of coronavirus — and they’re going to be hard to land.

by Julia Glum The stock market has been all over the news lately, thanks to the Apple and Tesla stock splits, the race for a coronavirus vaccine and the fluctuations in the Dow. Even amateur investors are paying attention — and, in many cases, wondering if now is the perfect time to wade into the stock market. It’s not a decision to make lightly. Buying individual stocks can be profitable, but as you might guess from the recent market volatility, it can be risky.