The holidays have a way of sneaking up on us. One minute you’re lighting the first candle or putting up the tree… the next minute you’re staring at a stack of receipts wondering how everything got so expensive. If you’ve ever opened your January credit card bill and felt your stomach drop, you’re not alone. The holidays are joyful—but they can also be financially stressful. The good news? A few intentional shifts can protect your budget and  keep the season meaningful. Let’s

Gemini 3 Arrives—Right as America’s AI Spending Hits Historic Levels If you’ve seen the headlines about Google’s new AI model, Gemini 3 , you’ve probably noticed something unusual: people aren’t just calling this an “update.” They’re calling it a shift —a meaningful step toward AI tools that feel less like chatbots and more like capable digital assistants. Strong reactions to Gemini 3 aren’t happening in a vacuum. They coincide with an extraordinary wave of AI spending in the

Why Costs Feel So High—and Why You’re Not Imagining It If you’ve felt like your dollars don’t stretch the way they used to, there’s a reason. Housing, healthcare, childcare, groceries, insurance premiums—many of the core expenses families rely on have been rising faster than incomes for several years. Even households with strong earnings are asking the same question: Why does it feel so much harder to get ahead? What’s happening isn’t just inflation; it’s a full recalibration

What Is a Portable Mortgage—and Why Is Everyone Talking About It in 2025? If you’ve heard the phrase portable mortgages 2025  floating around lately, there’s a reason. A portable mortgage is a home loan you can take with you  when you move. Instead of paying off your existing loan—and potentially losing a great interest rate—you’d transfer that same rate and remaining term to your next home. It’s getting attention because millions of Americans are sitting on ultra-low mortgag

The confidence gap between stockholders and everyone else If you’ve noticed that some people sound much more upbeat about the economy than others, there’s a reason. Recent reporting from The Wall Street Journal   suggests that most of the optimism comes from households that own stocks . Market gains—especially from technology and AI companies—have lifted portfolio values and, with them, confidence. Households without meaningful stock exposure are seeing a different picture. R

A Surprising Signal from the Atlanta Fed The Atlanta Federal Reserve's GDPNow model , a real-time tracker of U.S. economic growth that gets updated automatically, has just given its U.S. economic growth outlook a big bump. The model's Q3 2025 estimate has jumped to 4.0%  — that’s an annualized number — up from 3.9% just a week ago and a full percentage point above the Blue Chip consensus forecast of around 2.5%  [1]. This wasn’t a one-off either. It’s largely because of stron