COST Mar 2025 940.000 call

Top tips for retirement, travel, paying your mortgage: Wealth!

On today's episode of Wealth!, Host Brad Smith breaks down key personal finance tips, from mortgage rate hacks to saving for retirement and planning your summer vacation. Home prices in the 20 largest US cities have surged by an average of 7.2% year over year, according to recent Case-Shiller data. Structured Finance Association CEO Michael Bright advises homebuyers to "shop around" and build relationships with brokers to potentially "get a loan at a lower rate than you otherwise would." Yahoo Finance's Personal Finance Editor Molly Moorhead also emphasizes the impact of making just one extra mortgage payment each year in saving homeowners money in the long run. US Consumer confidence declined in June, with the index falling to 100.4, signaling growing economic concerns among American consumers. As cost-conscious consumers increasingly seek deals, McDonald's (MCD) has joined the ranks of fast food chains adapting to economic pressures by introducing a new value meal option. Starting June 25, the global fast food giant will add a $5 value meal to its menu. Citi Senior Global Economist Robert Sockin explains that despite these value meals, "the bigger problem is that you've had large gains in food prices over this cycle. And really, it's taking time for people to adjust to these much higher prices. And as I've noted, as we've got income gains that real purchasing power has improved and is likely to continue to improve given that food inflation is still running at relatively low levels. " 59% of employees who are not saving for retirement believe they are, according to Principal Financial Group. IRAHelp.com Founder and CPA Ed Slott explains why now is a great time to save for retirement: "Everybody thinks inflation is bad, and I get that because things cost more. But when it comes to taxes, inflation is great because tax brackets expand too. So more money can come out at lower rates. And the other opportunity now is the low rates... We have historic low tax rates now. So the key to anybody saving for retirement is if you have an IRA, a 401(k), remember those accounts are loaded with taxes. The only way you can get to that money is by paying taxes. So if you can get that money out now, because I'm worried about future higher taxes, we have debt limits, the laws may be changing, so anybody stockpiling money in an IRA or 401(k) should be taking action." Finally, as the summer travel season heats up, Yahoo Finance's Kerry Hannon breaks down how you can still find a deal. She believes the key to summer travel is being flexible: "If you can travel the last two weeks of August, that's going to be a good time. And it gives you time to book it right now and get some of the best advantages of that time gap in order to nail down some of these good rates." She notes that skipping popular destinations is also preferable, explaining, "Hotel prices are up about 10% particularly in the crowded cities. So I encourage people, maybe skip Paris, go to Lyon, skip Dublin, go to Cork." This post was written by Melanie Riehl