Economy explains macro indicators like interest rates, exchange rates, and inflation, and connects them to investment decisions. It traces how a single data point ripples into asset markets.
Open enrollment lands in October. Compute your 2027 baseline now with two numbers off your paystub, then check what your employer actually sends.
The 2027 Part D cap is $2,400, but reaching it takes $7,500 of retail drug cost, up $945 from 2026. The $700 deductible is a ceiling, not a bill.
The 400% cutoff for 2027 coverage is $63,840 for one person, $86,560 for a couple, $132,000 for a family of four. A dollar over and the credit is zero.
The $6,000 senior deduction saves a single 67-year-old $720 and a couple $1,440 in 2026. It is not "no tax on Social Security," and it phases out fast.
If box 3 of your 2025 W-2 tops $150,000, your 2026 catch-up must be Roth. That runs $1,920 in the 24% bracket and $3,600 at ages 60 to 63.
Leftover 529 money has four exits. The Roth rollover moves one IRA limit a year, so $20,000 takes three years, and cashing out costs 6.6% to 10.2%.
Four options for a 401(k) from a job you left, the 20% withholding that turns a $50,000 check into $40,000, and three cases where an IRA costs you.
Social Security break-even ages assume your money earns nothing. At a 3% real return, claiming at 62 versus 67 breaks even at 82 years 9 months.
Fed hike odds tripled to roughly one in three by the July 24 close, then the oil that drove them fell about 16% from its peak. Here is what to check.
Gas averaged $4.001 a gallon on July 20, 2026, up 88 cents in a year. A household burning 540 gallons pays about $475 more than last year.
The Fed meets July 29, 2026 with markets pricing about an 83% chance of a hold. One 25bp move is worth roughly $25 a year on $10,000 in savings.
Refinancing federal student loans cuts your rate below federal rates near 8%, but you forfeit RAP forgiveness and every federal protection for good.
Renters insurance costs about $15 a month, and your landlord's policy covers none of your stuff. Use AI to inventory belongings and size the coverage.
The 2026 401(k) limit is $24,500 and the average employer match hit 4.7%. Run a mid-year checkup with AI to catch a missed match, high fees, and drift.
The new RAP student loan plan went live July 1, 2026. New borrowers get two options; SAVE and PAYE borrowers have until July 1, 2028 to choose.
US car insurance averages $2,158 in 2026, up 43% since 2021. Read your renewal line by line, compare quotes fairly, and use AI to find your negotiation points.
Recession indicators are free to check. Pull four FRED numbers, and as of July 2026 none is triggered. Here is how to read them yourself with AI.
FICO now folds buy now, pay later into your credit score, and Affirm reports Pay in 4 to two bureaus. See which apps hit your file and check yours with AI.
Top CDs still pay near 4.1% as the Fed holds before its July 29 meeting. Decide whether to lock a savings rate or wait, and run your own numbers with AI.
Your bank cut or denied your credit. Compare five emergency borrowing options by 2026 APR, speed, and risk, then let AI build your personal cost table.
Backblaze (BLZE) signed a $335 million, five-year storage deal with CoreWeave on June 23 and the stock more than doubled, from around $7.50 in May to about $17.80 by mid-July. I pulled the 10-K and the 8-K from SEC EDGAR and did the math on whether the re-rating holds: the deal versus current revenue, the new valuation, and the scenarios where this breaks.
The 4.2% CPI headline is an average nobody pays. Here is how to calculate your personal inflation rate with ChatGPT and your own spending data, before June CPI drops July 14.
The dollar index hit a 13-month high near 101.8 this summer. A strong dollar sounds abstract, but it quietly reprices your imported groceries, your Amazon cart, and your trip to Europe. Here is where a strong dollar helps you, where it does not, and an AI prompt that turns exchange rates into your own budget numbers.
Fed holds rates, CPI runs hot: headlines that sound like another language. Here is the two-number cheat sheet behind every Fed story, plus a copy-paste AI prompt that translates any rate headline into what it means for your mortgage and credit card.