There’s a growing backlash against artificial intelligence, and honestly, it’s not hard to understand why. A recent Wall Street Journal article described rising public resistance to AI across the U.S., from concerns about job losses and education to data-center energy use, local political fights, and a broader sense that AI is being pushed into everyday life faster than people can process it [1]. That anxiety is real. And some of it is justified. When people hear executives t

Government debt can feel like one of those financial topics that lives somewhere far away from everyday life. It sounds like something for economists, policymakers, bond traders, and people who voluntarily read Treasury auction reports. For most households, the connection is not always obvious. You go to work, pay the mortgage, manage the grocery bill, contribute to retirement accounts, and try to make sensible decisions with the information in front of you. Whether the feder

Retirement planning has a funny way of feeling both urgent and far away. You know you should probably be saving more. You know taxes matter. You know your 401(k), IRA, Roth accounts, brokerage accounts, cash reserves, and future income all somehow connect. But then life happens. The roof needs work. A kid needs help. Groceries cost more than they used to. And suddenly, “I’ll increase my retirement contributions next year” becomes a sentence you’ve said three years in a row. F

If you have been watching the market this spring and feeling something between mildly annoyed and genuinely nervous, you are not alone. The S&P 500 opened 2026 on wobbly footing, with the index down roughly 4% through the first quarter after a strong 18% total return in 2025. [1] The VIX has spent most of the year bouncing between the high teens and the low 20s, and it has traded as high as 35 over the past twelve months. [2] Oil crossed back above $85 a barrel after the Febr

If your tax refund hit your account and your first thought was, “Nice, finally,” you’re not alone. For a lot of people, a refund is one of the bigger chunks of cash they’ll see all year. And this year, the average one has been even bigger than usual. According to the IRS, the average federal tax refund for returns processed through early April 2026 was $3,462, with the average direct deposit refund at $3,454. That’s real money. Not life-changing money, necessarily. But defini

The U.S. national average for regular unleaded gasoline crossed $4 a gallon in early April 2026, the first time the country has seen that number since August 2022. AAA pegged the national average at $4.08 , about a dollar higher than a month earlier. GasBuddy recorded an 11.8 cent jump in a single week and an 85 cent increase from a year ago. This post answers the questions clients have been asking us this week. What is causing the spike, how high could it go, and what shoul