Many people can tell you their portfolio balance. Far fewer can tell you what else determines whether their retirement actually works. That's understandable. The balance is the number on the statement. It's concrete, and it feels like a score. But judging retirement readiness by that one figure is a little like judging your health by your weight—useful, and nowhere near the whole story. A framework published in the Journal of Financial Planning offers a wider...

What do you do when you earn well and have generally dialed in the fundamentals: save, invest, reduce debt, stay protected? The challenge was never knowing what to do. It's knowing what to do first, and in what order. That's a harder question than it looks. Each of these priorities is sound on its own. Max out the retirement contributions. Pay down the balances. Build the cushion. Put money to work in the market. But...

Trump Accounts have been in headlines for months. Few of those headlines explain them the same way. Depending on the article, they sound like a college fund, a retirement account, or something brand new altogether. For parents and grandparents trying to figure out whether any of it matters for their family, the noise has gotten in the way of the signal. What These Accounts Actually Are Section 530A accounts (Trump Accounts) officially launched on July...