Latest news with #MichelleSingletary
Vox
28-04-2025
- Business
- Vox
How to talk to your boomer parents about retirement
is the host of Explain It to Me, your hotline for all your unanswered questions. She joined Vox in 2022 as a senior producer and then as host of The Weeds, Vox's policy podcast. Money is always stressful, but between on-again, off-again, on-again tariffs, inflation, and a general sense of uncertainty, all things finance have been especially anxiety-inducing lately. Much of the advice given is geared toward people who have time to make up losses in the stock market. But what if you're retired or close to retirement age? That's the matter at hand on this week's episode of Explain It to Me, Vox's call-in podcast where we answer the questions that matter to you most. Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary knows that worry firsthand. She's on the edge baby boomer and Gen X and is looking ahead to when she's no longer working. 'Like many people, I'm stressed to the max,' she says. 'So I am punching a lot of pillows and crying and screaming and doing a little cussing, but trying to not let the fear dictate moves. And that's the key.' Today, Explained Understand the world with a daily explainer plus the most compelling stories of the day, compiled by news editor Sean Collins. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. What other advice does she have for people looking to retire soon? And how should those of us who have more time talk with our older loved ones about their retirement plans? Below is an excerpt of our conversation, edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. If you'd like to submit a question, send an email to askvox@ or call 1-800-618-8545. What should people who are approaching retirement age be doing right now in this economic moment? You want to do a retirement budget. Figure out what it would take if you retired to live in retirement. And if you have a shortfall, then there are some things that you need to do. Try to boost your savings. Try to look at your housing situation. Can I cut housing? Can I have a roommate? Do I need to move someplace that is more affordable? So you have to do some forward thinking before you retire to make sure that your finances are as secure as possible. Related The best financial advice right now is the most counterintuitive I have to admit something: I was particularly interested in this episode because my parents are boomers. What advice do you have for listeners that are like me? It's understandable that you're concerned about your parents because if they're not prepared, then that burden may fall on you. I say burden, not in a sense of you don't want to do it, but certainly when you are in your 30s, 40s, and early 50s, you're trying to get ready for your own retirement. But I think this is a good opportunity to have open conversations. This is a window to say, 'Hey, How are you positioned? Are you worried? Is there anything I should be concerned about? Is there something I can do differently to help you?' And maybe that'll open up a conversation where they say, 'No, we're fine. We're really worried, but we got things in control. Here's what's happening.' It's a very difficult conversation to have, especially if you've grown up in a household where money wasn't talked about a lot. For a younger adult to try to come to their parents and say, 'Hey, you got any money? What's going on?' — that's a hard conversation. But the roles aren't reversed. You are not their parents. You are now an adult friend who happens to be their child. How do you recommend that listeners start that conversation with the retirement-age folks in their lives? Start with yourself and your own feelings. Say, 'I'd love to talk to you about this because I'm a little worried. I'm saving for retirement and this is what's concerning me.' And then you say, 'How about you?' What you don't want to do is say something like, 'Do you have any money? What's going on?' You don't want to come at them in a more adversarial way. You should see each other as companions and accountability partners. What should people prioritize when they look at their finances right now? In this moment, cash is king. If you got a tax refund, I would be saving that. If you were already just getting by — maybe you weren't living paycheck to paycheck but there wasn't much left over — I would be stockpiling cash in a high-yield savings account in case you lose your job, in case the economy really does go into a recession, if it gets worse than it is now. The prudent thing right now is to not get into any kind of debt or use a lot of cash that you might need if you lose your job. If I was a federal employee, a federal contractor, anybody whose income is derived from the federal government in a significant way, I would be canceling vacations. I would not be doing major home improvement projects. I don't want to make people panic — although it's perfectly fine if you're scared because that's just human nature. But I will say the prudent thing right now is to not get into any kind of debt or use a lot of cash that you might need if you lose your job. What are the different ways people can help their parents financially without getting behind on their own goals? Do your own budget, and make sure that you have a cash cushion for yourself. Make sure that you are saving in a way that will hopefully help you have a secure retirement. Get rid of all your debts: If you got credit card debt, student loan, car note — everything except for your mortgage. Then, if all of that is taken care of, if you want to create an account where you put some money in every month to say, 'This is the money that I'm gonna designate to help my parents or maybe another relative.' My husband and I do that. We have a family and friends fund so that if somebody loses their job or has some difficulty, this is where we pull the money to help them out. What advice do you have for people who are at retirement age but haven't been able to save as much? How do they prepare for this moment? The first thing I would say is don't beat yourself up. You are where you are. Accept that, but do something about it. If you are getting close to retirement, then you've got to make some hard decisions. Look at your housing situation. You might have to say, 'You know what? Those young adults that were asking me about my money? Maybe I have to move in with them or they move in with me.' And so you look at the big parts of your budget and how you might change that. Financial advice can admittedly be a little frustrating because we hear the same thing over and over again. 'Sit tight, stay the course, don't make any rash decisions.' What do you say to people who feel antsy right now? Who want a different answer than what they usually hear? Listen, good advice is good advice, no matter what. Good advice is timeless. And people want a microwave answer to a problem that needs to be baked in the oven. You can't microwave your way away from this situation. You just can't. There is no secret recipe or secret anything. We know by history. The market eventually returns historically. Could it change in the future? Sure it can. But we have decades and decades of data that show that when we go into an economic downturn, we come out because it's in everybody's interest to make sure that happens. And so while you may be tired of us saying, 'Hold tight,' you might be tired of us saying, 'Don't make rash decisions,' that is the best advice. We know that when you make decisions in haste, when you make decisions based on your emotions, you make bad decisions.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A staggering 40% of Gen Zers plan to splurge more on non-essentials this year. Is it time for a reality check?
As Trump's trade policies continue to send shockwaves through the economy — creating fears of rising prices, layoffs and a potential recession — investors are bracing for impact. With markets in flux and uncertainty in the air, financial anxiety is mounting. While no one can control the stock market, The Washington Post's personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary says there's one thing people can take charge of: their spending. But according to new data, Generation Z isn't exactly slamming the brakes. I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) Nervous about the stock market in 2025? Find out how you can access this $1B private real estate fund (with as little as $10) Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how In fact, 40% of Gen Zers plan to spend more on non-essential purchases in 2025 compared to last year, according to Northwestern Mutual's latest Planning & Progress Study — earning the title 'Spend Z.' Their intention to spend outpaces every other generation and persists despite credit card bills (22%) and personal education loans (16%) being their main sources of outstanding debt. While many in this position might choose to cut back on non-essential spending, Gen Z as a whole doesn't seem to want to make any sacrifices. On a recent episode of the Post Reports podcast, Singletary didn't mince words when offering advice to young adults navigating these choppy waters: 'You have to put your adult hat on and say, 'You know what? I wish I could eat out, but I can't.'' That may be easier said than done in an age where Uber Eats orders and late-night Shein scrolls feel like self-care rituals. But experts warn that trading savings for short-term splurges could leave young consumers vulnerable — especially with the economy on shaky ground. There's a good chance you may have found yourself uttering the phrase, 'I really shouldn't be spending this much' — mid trip to the mall with an oat milk latte in hand. But despite headlines warning of an economic slowdown and the not-so-soft whisper of a recession, a growing number of young adults are choosing indulgences over budgets. According to a 2023 Morning Consult report, Gen Zers and millennials are spending more than $400 a month on non-essential purchases like travel, recreation and dining out. That's significantly higher than the $250 Gen Xers spend and double the nearly $200 boomer benchmark. The economy as a whole is still banking on consumer resilience. The National Retail Federation projects 2025 retail sales will hit $5.42 trillion, perhaps driven in part by younger generations keeping their wallets open, even as their savings shrink. While the impact of economic uncertainty may not yet be visible in your day-to-day life, it's likely on the horizon. And when it arrives, you'll want more than just a closet full of trending accessories. A well-padded emergency fund will offer the kind of value fast fashion can't. Read more: The US stock market's 'fear gauge' has exploded — but this 1 'shockproof' asset is up 14% and helping American retirees stay calm. Here's how to own it ASAP Prioritizing wants over needs during economic uncertainty can leave young consumers vulnerable to debt, with little to fall back on when the unexpected hits. 'Now that you're a young adult, you've got bills to pay. You have to save for retirement. You have to save for an emergency fund. Maybe you've got young children yourselves,' Singletary said on the podcast. You can start by building a budget. Not just a mental tally of your spending — but a written, trackable plan that accounts for fixed expenses, savings goals and the real cost of lifestyle choices. Even small changes can have a lasting impact. For example, swapping food delivery for planned grocery runs can save hundreds each month while teaching discipline in spending. Next, it would be a good idea to create an emergency fund. You could aim to save up three to six months' worth of your essential expenses and make each contribution non-negotiable, like rent. This cushion can help cover job loss, medical bills or even the inevitable life hiccup — all without reaching for a credit card. Aside from an emergency fund, you could also start contributing to a retirement account — whether it's a Roth IRA or 401(k). Putting even a small amount away now allows compound interest to do the heavy lifting long term. And if you're still craving that big splurge, you can budget for it by setting aside a small amount regularly and make it a conscious reward — not a spontaneous swipe. Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says this 7-step plan 'works every single time' to kill debt, get rich in America — and that 'anyone' can do it Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Washington Post
14-04-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Don't look at your 401(k), they said. I looked.
I opened my first 401(k) at 24, when my first grown-up job agreed to transition me from hourly to salaried. 'It might look like a pay cut,' the human resources rep told me, acknowledging that my monthly check was about to shrink. 'But you get benefits.' She encouraged me to contribute to the organization's retirement plan, which she said involved a 3 percent match at 100 percent and a 2 percent match at 50, and I nodded like I understood what that meant, and then later that night I proudly called my dad to tell him I had a 401(k), and I pronounced it 'four hundred and one.' And then — then nothing, mostly. The funds were direct-deposited, the match was matched, and every few months I'd dig up my T. Rowe Price log-in to see how things were going, and years passed, and that basically brings us up to this past week. 'Don't look,' an analyst warned as I flipped past NBC. 'I haven't looked,' confided The Post's columnist Michelle Singletary. teased of the 'worst thing you can do' to your 401(k) right now — and, spoiler alert, that thing was to check it. Your 401(k) was essentially Medusa, and direct eye contact with it could kill you. My favorite surreal headline came from the Times of India, of all places, and it read: 'Donald Trump says he didn't check his 401K. Experts say you shouldn't too.' I probably don't need to explain to you why financial analysts are right, but as an elder millennial, I feel I need to explain to them what it felt like to be the rest of us this week, us normies, as we all trapped ourselves to the rocket ship called the U.S. economy and waited for either a blastoff or an O-ring failure. Whatever the American Dream once was, for whole generations of us, it has been distilled down to a 3 percent match. You get to be in charge of your own destiny, was the enthusiastic promise of the 401(k). You get to decide what investments are right for you. Never mind that I have no business deciding what investments are right for anybody. Sir, I majored in English. But this is what we were given, so this is what we would work with. We rode the bus and we saved enough for the 3 percent match. We side-hustled with Uber and saved enough for the 3 percent match. We bought avocado toast and listened to elders say that if we stopped buying avocado toast then we could be retired by now. (If food tariffs go into effect, they are probably right.) We watched housing prices outstrip income to unprecedented levels, and watched universities start charging 60 grand a year with straight faces, and paid for health insurance with deductibles so high that you wondered how it was even legal to be called insurance. Sometimes I lie awake and marvel about the fact that my granddad was able to raise six kids on the wages of a garbageman, while I just paid $900 to have a splinter removed, but I digress. The 3 percent match was your gateway to financial security. It's pretax, don't you see? It was the best we could do. It was everything we had. How privileged we were, to have a job with a 3 percent match. And how crazy it is that the chance to gamble your own hard-earned money on the stock market — because the choice is either that or post your personal sob story on GoFundMe — is, in this country, privileged? By now I hope it's clear that I have no idea what the stock market did this week, or is doing, or will do. But when we are talking about the stock market, what we are talking about is how 35 percent of working-age Americans, according to the Census Bureau, have money in 401(k)s or similar accounts (18 percent have IRAs, and about 14 percent have pensions), and how each of us walked into an HR office at one point believing that we were holding up our end of the bargain. And how each of us saw this week that we might be in charge of our own destinies, but our destinies could explode if one man decided to roll out of bed and declare 145 percent tariffs on China. There's no bargain there. Not in any sense of the word. There are only the expectations of progress we have been trained to have in this country. That stock markets would rebound, that things would be better for our kids. Three percent better, maybe, with a 100 percent match. I've also found myself thinking a lot about Florence Thompson this week. In 1936, Thompson was a mother of seven, following crop patterns along the West Coast, as her family eked out a living picking their way through those fields. Outside a pea farm in California, the car broke down and Thompson and her children set up a temporary camp, while Thompson's partner set out to acquire what was needed to get them back on the road again. They stayed awhile, days or weeks, and at one point a photographer named Dorothea Lange stopped by and asked to take Thompson's photograph, and those images — Thompson nursing one rag-clad child, two others burying their faces in her shoulders, Thompson's hand grazing her chin as she stares out into bleakness and dust — those images became the defining portraits of the Great Depression, a time that nobody would aspire to return to. The first Social Security payments hadn't been doled out when those photos were taken. They would happen the following year. Medicaid arrived in 1965. Section Eight housing came in 1974. 401(k)s came in 1978. All of those changes would be within Thompson's lifetime. I wonder whether she understood, then, that things would get better, that the country would try really hard to figure out how to provide for its struggling residents. There's a rocking chair in one of the images. If you're familiar with only the most famous portrait, a close-up, you might not have realized that. But if you look at the whole set of pictures, you'll see: Thompson and her children are sitting in a three-sided tent, and there are wooden crates and a few steamer trunks, and in front of all of it there's an intricate rocking chair. I think about the possibility that Florence Thompson packed up that rocking chair every time she and her children moved. How cumbersome it would have been. How impractical. But how she took it with her anyway, a promise for a better future. The best she could do, everything she had in the world.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Personal finance expert shares what you need to know amid Trump's tariff whiplash
There are growing concerns over Americans' finances due to President Trump's tariff whiplash and fears of a recession. Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist at The Washington Post, joins José Díaz-Balart to give advice to Americans amid this moment of uncertainty in the markets.
Washington Post
08-04-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
You can't control the stock market. But you can control your spending.
If you have money in the stock market, you've probably been pretty shaken watching some of your money evaporate in the days since President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs went into effect. And even if you aren't an investor, there are plenty of other anxiety-inducing economic forecasts from Trump's latest trade policy, including the likelihood of higher prices, job losses and even a recession. With so much uncertainty, it's hard to know what to do — and not do — in this precarious moment. Michelle Singletary, The Post's personal finance columnist, offered some counsel on Tuesday's Post Reports podcast about what we should all be doing to protect ourselves financially. Here's an excerpt from our conversation: Colby Itkowitz: I've been thinking so much about people who are about to retire or have just retired. You're having to give people advice right now. What are you telling them they should do with their retirement accounts? Michelle Singletary: Well, I am telling them what I'm doing. I'm still working, but my husband is retired. He's coming on two years of retirement. So we had thought about tapping his retirement account. We hadn't had to at this point, but we were thinking about some major projects around our home. And we think, you know, we've got this nice, you know, retirement account, we can pull out money and do these projects. And then this happened. The tariffs happened and we pulled back. And so I am right there with a lot of folks looking at, in my case, my husband's and my retirement account going down daily over the last week or so. But I have to remind myself that we have set ourselves up in a position that we don't have to tap that money. And we also know, hopefully if we stay healthy, that we have another 20 or 30 years to live off this money. And so even though this is a moment in time where it is so scary, we wouldn't take all that money out at one time anyway. And so I'm saying to you, if you're in retirement, if you must take money, only take what you absolutely need, because you don't want to lock in more losses than you have to. And hopefully you have some savings set aside for a time like this. So you should have money in the market, bonds and stocks, and some cash, and those of us who've saved really well, we don't want to touch that cash because you know that's our emergency money. Well guess what, folks, this is an emergency, and so touch the cash first. See how you can do on that, and hopefully if you're retired you've got Social Security coming in, or maybe a pension or some other fixed income. You've got maybe some CDs and hopefully you have reduced your debts to little or nothing and that you've got manageable expenses so that you can give yourself some time to ride this out. Everyone else who's got 10 years, 15, 20 years, 30 years, you have time on your side, so you can afford to ride out. I was in church on Sunday and my 24-year-old, who my husband and I have been trying to encourage to put money in the market, not related to her retirement so she could save for that car she's going to get in 10 years — cause, you know, we teach our kids to keep their cars forever — and she says to me at church, she says, 'Mom, should I still put money in a market that you were telling me about now?' And I sent, I text her back two words: Yes, ma'am. Colby Itkowitz: You anticipated my next question, Michelle, which is, if you're younger, if you're in your 20s, 30s, or early 40s, and you're now thinking, 'Oh, I don't want to risk putting my money in the stock market.' What is your advice to them? And it sounds like you told your daughter to keep investing, so why keep investing? Michelle Singletary: Well, because, as I said, there's time on their hands. And listen, right now, there are going to be paper losses. She'll put money in, and it will lose some of its value. But over time, we know, historically, and I have to keep saying that, because past results is not indicative of future results, however, the market has had a habit of working a certain kind of way all the time. And so what we told our 24-year-old is that you've got decades to see this go up and down and over time. You're going to see if you have a balanced portfolio returns of eight to 10 percent — good solid returns help you keep past inflation — and that's a good place to be. People are panicking. I get it. You don't want to see any more losses, although, when you do sell, now you're going to lock in those losses. Michelle also had some tough love for younger people who might be reluctant to scale back their lives. Colby Itkowitz: You know, for young people who, like you said, have just lived through the pandemic, I imagine there's going to be some bitterness at the suggestion that they should kind of put the fun things in their life on hold, right? They basically had to put a lot of those things on hold during the pandemic. They're starting to live again. And now we're saying, 'No, no no. Don't do that vacation. Don't go out to eat at that restaurant.' What do you say to them? Michelle Singletary: Welcome to the adult world. I mean, you know, it's actually not a time to grow up. It's just — this is the reality. And we, as adults, unlike children, children who can't get what they want, they fall to the floor and kick their little heels because they don't understand. 'Why can't I have that, mommy? Why can't I have that, daddy?' But now that you're a young adult, you've got bills to pay. You have to save for retirement. You have to save for an emergency fund. Maybe you've got young children yourselves. You have put your adult hat on and say, 'You know what? I wish I could eat out, but I can't.' And I understand it, right? I get it, but this is the reality that we're in right now. Listen to the full episode here:
