Ask people when “tax season” is, and many will say spring. That’s when the documents get gathered, the appointment gets booked, and the return gets filed. It’s also, for a lot of financial decisions, several months too late. The year the return describes ended on December 31. For a number of items, whatever happened in it is locked in. And for anyone within sight of retirement, that matters more than it used to, because the...

You know the season. Envelopes in the mailbox, messages in your inbox, and a cashier asking if you'd like to round up for a good cause. And somewhere between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, a lot of generous people make many of their charitable decisions in a hurry. In 2025, nonprofits received 37% of their annual online donations in December, with the final days of the year carrying much of that weight. 1 That's a...

Many people picture a scam as something obviously off: a strange email, a robotic voice, a too-good-to-be-true offer. The more dangerous version sounds like rescue. A calm, professional voice tells you your bank account has been compromised, and they’re calling to help you fix it before it’s too late. That’s what makes it work. Impersonation scams, where criminals pose as banks, financial institutions and other trusted businesses, have become one of the more common ways...