Housing, Lifestyle Inflation, and the “Rent vs. Buy vs. Invest” For many urban and suburban professionals, the classic script—graduate, rent briefly, then buy a starter home—no longer matches reality. Even though mortgage rates have eased off their post‑pandemic peaks, they remain well above the ultralow levels of the 2010s, and housing shortages in many cities continue to push prices and rents higher. At the same time, lifestyle expectations have changed. Many next‑gen inves

Enhance Your Savings Strategy by Visualizing Your Ideal Future There’s a simple mental shift that could help you enhance your savings strategy, and it has nothing to do with willpower or trying to be more disciplined. Research suggests that the way you think about your savings goal can influence 1) whether you start saving, 2) how much you commit to your financial goals, and 3) whether you stick to your plan over time. The key, according to several studies, seems to be thinki

Study: Confidence Higher Among Target Date Fund Investors A new survey by Voya Investment Management finds that participants who invest in target date funds (TDFs) feel significantly more confident about their retirement savings than their peers who are not invested in TDFs. When asked whether investing in a TDF makes them feel more confident about making good investment decisions, 95% of employed TDF investors said yes, including 39% who strongly agreed. Among those who don’

DOL Backs Employers in Forfeiture Litigation The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is urging a federal appeals court to uphold the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming that an employer misused retirement plan forfeitures. On January 30, 2026, the DOL filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Barragan v. Honeywell Int’l Inc., asking the court to affirm a lower court’s decision in favor of the employer. The case centers on whether the employer plan f