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The Money Overview

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Tyler Foster

Latest Articles by Tyler Foster

Renting & Leasing

Buying the typical home now costs over $1,000 more a month than renting it — the widest gap on record, and it’s keeping a generation stuck as tenants

Run the numbers on a median-priced home in Phoenix today and the result is blunt: buying costs roughly $1,200 more per month than renewing a...

Social Security & Medicare

Full retirement age officially hit 67 this year — and anyone born in 1960 who claims at 62 will lose 30% of their Social Security check for life

If you were born in 1960, you are part of a group that holds a distinction no previous generation of American retirees can claim: your...

Tech & Your Wallet

Millions are now typing bank balances and logins into ChatGPT’s new money tools — and researchers found 4% of all AI prompts already leak sensitive personal data

Somewhere today, a corporate accountant will paste a spreadsheet of quarterly revenue figures into ChatGPT. A gig worker will upload three months of bank transactions...

Cost of Living

Egg prices have crashed back to about $2 a dozen — a rare grocery win as bird flu eases, even while beef and coffee keep setting records

A dozen large eggs cost about $2.12 in April 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics average price series, with some regional markets still...

Social Security & Medicare

Waiting until 70 to claim Social Security now pays up to $5,181 a month — about $1,000 more than the $4,152 that same worker gets at full retirement age

The Social Security Administration’s 2026 benefit tables spell out a gap that is hard to ignore: a maximum-earning worker who files at 70 collects $5,181...

Cost of Living

Chocolate now costs more than double what it did in 2024 and orange juice is up 28% — tariffs and bad weather are quietly wrecking the breakfast aisle

A standard chocolate bar that cost $1.79 two years ago now runs well over $4 at many supermarkets. A half-gallon of not-from-concentrate orange juice that...

Cost of Living

Southwest just raised its first checked-bag fee to $45 — a 28% jump it blames on the Iran war, a year after killing the free bags that made it Southwest

A family of four flying Southwest Airlines this summer and checking one bag each will pay $360 in round-trip baggage fees. Thirteen months ago, that...

Mortgages & Rates

Mortgage rates are stuck near 6.6%, so buyers are winning concessions instead — sellers covered closing costs or bought down the rate on 1 in 4 sales last quarter

The listing price on a townhouse outside Raleigh, North Carolina, never budged from $420,000. But at closing, the seller wrote a $12,000 check that covered...

Stocks & Wall Street

Just five tech stocks have driven more than half the S&P 500’s gains this year — so your index fund is now a bet on a handful of companies

As of early June 2026, the S&P 500 has returned roughly 11% year to date. But strip away just five names and the picture changes...

Tech & Your Wallet

Cloudflare, Upwork, and payments firm Bill each cut up to a third of their staff this month — pushing 2026’s AI-driven layoffs past 70,000 workers

In a single day, more than 2,000 tech workers learned their jobs were being restructured out of existence. On May 7, 2026, Cloudflare, Upwork, and...

Economy & The Fed

One year after Moody’s stripped the U.S. of its last AAA rating, the 30-year Treasury yield just hit 5.14% — the number that sets the floor under every mortgage

The 30-year Treasury yield crossed 5.14% in late May 2025, a level not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis. It arrived almost to the...

Cost of Living

Airfares are actually cheaper this Memorial Day than last year — the rare corner of travel that got more affordable while gas, hotels, and rental cars all climbed

A round-trip flight from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale over Memorial Day weekend is running roughly $40 to $60 less than the same trip cost a...

Tax Changes & Deadlines

The standard deduction climbed to $32,200 for married couples this year — but the new senior bonus deduction is the break most retirees are leaving on the table

Married couples filing jointly for tax year 2026 will claim a record standard deduction of $32,200, thanks to the latest round of inflation adjustments the...

Cost of Living

You now need to earn $127,000 a year to afford the median U.S. home — up from $79,000 before the pandemic, pricing out half of all households

Six years ago, a household earning $79,000 could qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home in the United States. That was the math in...

Government & Policy

A new federal “debanking” rule takes effect June 9 — after that, your bank can no longer close your account over your politics or your industry

A new federal “debanking” rule takes effect June 9 — after that, your bank can no longer close your account over your politics or your...

Mortgages & Rates

Foreclosure filings jumped 28% in a year to the highest level since 2020 — and rising insurance and tax bills, not bad mortgages, are driving them

When Maria Gonzalez bought her three-bedroom stucco house in Hillsborough County, Florida, in 2020, her total monthly payment was $1,480. She locked in a 3.1%...

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