Category: Taxes and Retirement

Hawaii's unemployment insurance program — managed by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) — provides up to $868 per week. That 2026 maximum adjusts annually based on the state's average wage, so it's likely to tick up again for 2027, though DLIR typically doesn't announce the new figure…

Delaware's unemployment insurance program — managed by the Delaware Department of Labor — provides up to $450 per week for up to 26 weeks. That 2026 cap is locked in; the open question is whether it moves for 2027, something policymakers have discussed given Delaware's relatively high cost of living,…

Connecticut's unemployment insurance program — managed by the Connecticut Department of Labor (CTDOL) — has one of the higher benefit maximums in the Northeast. The 2026 base maximum ($721/week, or up to $796 with dependents) is locked in through October 2028 under a state law that froze the cap to…

Alaska’s unemployment insurance program — managed by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (DOLWD) — provides up to $370 per week. That 2026 maximum adjusts periodically; I haven't seen a specific figure confirmed for 2027 yet. Given that Alaska consistently ranks among the most expensive states to live in,…

✅ Updated for the Current Tax Season 🔍 IRS Cycle Code Decoder & Refund Date Estimator Enter your 8-digit IRS cycle code from your tax transcript to decode your processing date and estimate when your direct deposit will arrive.   🗂️ How to Find Your IRS Cycle Code Go to…

The four largest hyperscalers, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft, are guiding to roughly $730 billion in combined 2026 AI infrastructure capex, up from $410 billion in 2025. By the end of September 2026, the question on Wall Street has moved past "how much are they spending" to "is it working,…

Does it feel like you missed the recent crypto surge or AI tech stock rally? This feeling is the Fear Of Missing Out, or FOMO. It drives many investors to buy at the peak and sell in a panic. This is a story that keeps repeating through history during any…

Nationally, upper middle class means a family of three earning roughly $133,000 to $400,000 — but the honest answer depends heavily on your state. In Mississippi (MS) you can hit the tier at around $89,000, while in Massachusetts (MA) the bar starts near $181,000. The full state-by-state table is below.…

If you inherited an IRA anytime after 2019, there's a good chance you've been told the rule is simple: empty the account within 10 years, take distributions whenever you want in between. That's no longer entirely true, and the IRS's penalty-free grace period for getting it wrong ended after 2024.…

For retirees on a fixed income, every tax break matters. The $6,000 Senior Bonus Deduction added by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is one of the most straightforward new benefits in the law: if you're 65 or older, you get an extra $6,000 subtracted from your taxable income,…

Last year, a friend of mine who'd been freelancing for three years got hit with a $1,400 penalty from the IRS — not because she didn't pay her taxes, but because she paid them all at once in April. She'd been doing this since she started. Nobody told her it…

Imagine waking up to a notification that your company just reported record-breaking profits. You feel a sense of security until, moments later, a second alert hits: 40% of your colleagues are being let go. This isn't a hypothetical — it's the recent reality for thousands of employees at Block, the…

The 10% global tariff surcharge currently in effect on most US imports expires by law at 12:01 a.m. on July 24, 2026 — this week — and there's no extension bill moving through Congress to stop it. What happens after that is genuinely unsettled, so here's the full timeline of…