Your Money Adviser
More Expensive Cars Are Leading to Longer-Term Loans
By ANN CARRNS
Car loans used to last three or four years, but the average length of a new-car loan is now a record five and a half years, with some loans reaching eight years.
Lowering debt, adding to savings or learning more about investing are strategies that can help combat stagnant income.
Wealth Matters
A Billion Still to Spend, and Only Two Years to Do It
By PAUL SULLIVAN
Foundations that plan their own demise have bucket lists and regrets too.
Your Money
On the Trail of Lost Money
By RON LIEBER
Tens of billions of dollars sit in the unclaimed property funds that states run, waiting to be taken back by owners.
Shortcuts
Beyond a Parent’s Reach: When a Child Legally Becomes an Adult
By ALINA TUGEND
Most parents know that their children are legally adults when they turn 18. But the full significance may not be apparent until something drives it home.
Retiring
The Ethical Will, an Ancient Concept, Is Revamped for the Tech Age
By CONSTANCE GUSTKE
Originally an oral tradition to pass on wisdom from a family patriarch or matriarch, ethical wills today are more likely to be videos or Facebook pages.
Your Money Adviser
Influenza, a Familiar Virus, Requires Attention, Too
By ANN CARRNS
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends flu shots for everyone 6 months old and older.
Sketch Guy
Living Your True Wealth
By CARL RICHARDS
What if our financial decisions were transparent to everyone around us? Would it change our choices?
Your Money Adviser
Another College Expense: Preparing for the SAT and ACT
By ANN CARRNS
Test-preparation tutors and classes can be expensive, but there are less costly alternatives.
Charles Schwab to Offer Free Advisory Service for Online Investments
By RON LIEBER
The brokerage firm is moving to compete with companies like Wealthfront and Betterment that put customers into low-cost exchange-traded funds.
AT&T Accused of Deceiving Smartphone Customers With Unlimited Data Plans
By EDWARD WYATT
The Federal Trade Commission said smartphone customers who signed up for an unlimited data plan often found their data speeds reduced if they were in the top 5 percent of users.
The Upshot
A New Push to Get Low-Income Students Through College
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Michael Bloomberg’s charity announced an effort to reduce the number of poor students who excel in high school and fail to get through college.
Wealth Special Section
Learn more about time management, limiting risk in your retirement portfolio, the new Gotham funds and luxurious health spas that cater to affluent executives.
Older Women and Challenges of Wealth
By FRAN HAWTHORNE
Thanks to gains made in their generation, and to demographic factors, many women now nearing retirement age control substantial assets.
More Boot Camp Than Spa
By PAUL SULLIVAN
Many established spas and retreats are retooling their offerings to attract the same target: wealthy, successful and highly stressed-out executives.
Making Sure Retirement Savings Don’t Run Out
By CONRAD DE AENLLE
Financial advisers say investment portfolios, financial plans and lifestyles can be adjusted to limit the risk of running out of money before you run out of time.
Big Deal
Pied-à-Neighborhood
By JULIE SATOW
The Census Bureau tracks vacancy rates to find out who lives in Manhattan full time.
Robert Neubecker
Millions of people are clearly not using 401(k) and similar plans as retirement accounts at all, and it’s a threat to their financial health.
Wealth Matters
In Some Ways, the Rich Aren’t So Different From You and Me
By PAUL SULLIVAN
Wealthy people and those less so have more in common than most pundits would suspect.
Retiring
Gaining in Years, and Helping Others to Make Gains
By KERRY HANNON
The 2014 winners of the Purpose Prize, all 60 and older, have volunteered their skills and experience to help people and improve communities.
Shortcuts
The Downsides of Generous Workplace Perks
By ALINA TUGEND
Some high-tech companies offer top-shelf extras like gourmet meals and child care, but critics say this just keeps people at work longer.
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State Wage Initiatives Fare Better Than Democrats
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Strategies: When iPhones Ring, the Economy Listens
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Your Money Adviser: Lantern, a Start-Up, Offers Online Therapy for Anxiety and More
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Years After the Market Collapse, Sidelined Borrowers Return
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Your Money Adviser: Finding the Best Ways to Cut Utility Costs
Money Management
Calculate Your Financial Comeback
See how long it could take for your portfolio to return to its peak value.
The 1% More Savings Calculator
What would happen to your savings balances if you saved just one percent more a year?
Interactive Feature: 31 Steps to a Financial Tuneup
A customizable checklist to guide your own financial tuneup, providing tips, the time needed to achieve them and links to additional resources.
Interactive Feature: Managing Your Money Through the Ages
An interactive checklist to help navigate ways to prepare and secure your financial future at each stage of life.
Financial Calculators
The Upshot
Is It Better to Rent or Buy?
By MIKE BOSTOCK, SHAN CARTER and ARCHIE TSE
The choice between buying a home and renting one is among the biggest financial decisions that many adults make.
Student Loan Calculator
A guide to student loans at various universities, and what it takes after graduation to repay that debt.
INTERACTIVE FEATURE: Sketch Guy: Personal Finance on a Napkin
Carl Richards, a financial planner, has been explaining the basics of money through simple graphs and diagrams.
INTERACTIVE FEATURE: What Percent Are You?
See how your household income ranks in 344 zones across the United States.
What Do the One Percent Do?
Students and Money, in Their Own Words
The college-application essays that four students submitted this year on emerging stronger from economic challenges.
Inexpensive Advice for Index and Exchange-Traded Fund Investments
These companies offer help picking and rebalancing index and exchange-traded funds or similar investments, and none charge more than about 0.5 percent of your assets each year for the privilege.
Sunday Business
The Upshot
When a Stock Market Theory Is Contagious
By ROBERT J. SHILLER
Is the world economy suffering from “secular stagnation”? True or false, the idea alone could keep hurting stock prices.
The Haggler
When a Company Doesn’t Sound Like a Broken Record
By DAVID SEGAL
After asking Comcast about a customer’s billing issue, the Haggler got a quick answer — and a rare look at a corporate attempt, called Einstein, to fix a systemic problem.
The Upshot
Why the Economic Gender Gap Will Eventually Close
By TYLER COWEN
Research shows real differences in men’s and women’s economic behavior, but suggests more equitable times to come.
Applied Science
Your 401(k) Is Healthy. So Maybe You Are, Too.
By MATT RICHTEL
A study finds that people who are good at planning their financial future are more likely to take steps to improve their physical health.
Student Loans
Number of Student Loans in Default Declines
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
It was the first drop in the default rate in years, but 21 schools still have rates so high that they could be barred from federal loan and grant programs.
The Upshot
What We Mean When We Say Student Debt Is Bad
By SUSAN DYNARSKI
Student loans need reform. But recent gloomy reports obscure the key benefit of borrowing for college: a college education.
The Upshot
Q. and A. About Student Debt
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Readers have questions. Co-authors of a recent study from the Brookings Institution have answers.
The Upshot
The Reality of Student Debt Is Different From the Clichés
By DAVID LEONHARDT
A new research paper finds that typical debt burdens have not risen significantly over the last two decades.
Your Money
A Beginner’s Guide to Repaying Student Loans
By RON LIEBER
A road map to help those with student loans steer clear of common repayment mistakes and protect their credit scores.
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The Upshot: A Closer Look at Simplifying Financial Aid Applications
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Your Money: High Cost to Focusing on Student Loans Over Saving
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The Upshot: Remember the Problems With Mortgage Defaults? They’re Coming Back With Student Loans
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The Upshot: Finding Shock Absorbers for Student Debt
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High & Low Finance: The Hefty Yoke of Student Loan Debt
From Sunday Business
Strategies
What Goes Up Must at Least Slow Down
By JEFF SOMMER
After a five-year surge for stocks, a market forecaster says it’s time for investors to temper expectations.
The Haggler
Online Jeers, Strangely Giving Way to Cheers
By DAVID SEGAL
Employees of a hair-removal chain — the topic of a previous Haggler column — say superiors asked staff members to post favorable online reviews of the company.
Your Money Contributors
Paul Sullivan
writes Wealth Matters, a column looking at strategies that the wealthy use to manage their money and their overall well-being.
Special Sections
Retirement
Valuing knowledge and experience, some employers are making extra efforts to encourage longtime workers to stay.
Giving
Guide dog schools are considered charities that do work of great value, but they have commensurate expenses. Also, a step-by-step guide to choosing a charity wisely.
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