Many of the articles this week have a common theme: reflecting on the 2010’s as the decade comes to a close. Wishing you all a joyful holiday season and hope you enjoy your well-deserved break!

Personal Finance

• Do you think the Social Security Administration should mail out statements annually, or let people log on and check themselves? (WAPO)
• Time again for New Years Resolutions: Here is a list from AICPA of 20 things you should consider doing to keep your financial life in order. (BusinessWire)

Banking

• The World’s Cash Is Disappearing. Bankers Aren’t Sure Where It Went. (WSJ—subscription)
• Will the 2020’s see the death of cash? We are moving in that direction, but may never get there. (USA Today)

Budgeting (what and how we buy things) 

• Here is an interesting reflexion on how Netflix changed TV. (Vanity Fair)
• Another reflection on the 2010s—this time on how the real estate market has changed (Zillow and Redfin), and what we should expect for the 2020s. (Curbed)

Budgeting/Managing Credit

• Caught this one on NPR’s Planet Money segment yesterday about how certain employers and changing how and how often people get paid using an app called DailyPay. At $2-$3 per “advance” it is certainly cheaper than paying overdraft fees or payday lenders.
• Experian reports that the average credit score for Americans is ending the decade on an eight-year high of 682. (PRNewswire)

Investing

• While the decade saw no bear markets in terms of stocks, this article reflects on investments by asset class over the decade. (Fortune)

...the 2010s was the first decade since 1850 (which is about as far back as we have good data) that the U.S. didn't experience a single recession.

• We have been all about the zero-fee mutual funds, but be careful. You can’t assume they actually mimic the index. (Humble Dollar)
• This one digs a bit deeper into financial theory for those of you interested in learning about the Efficient Markets Hypothesis and why it is still relevant to consider, even if you see apparent contradictions. (Evidence Investor)

Paying for College

• The ISA debate continues as the government looks like it might get involved. (Inside Higher Ed)
• There is a new Jesuit model for community college that is seeing great outcomes and is about to expand. What is different about it? (Support) (Inside Higher Ed2)

Taxes

• The Child Tax Credit doubled with the new tax bill, but you have to earn over $30,000 to get it. What you need to know about how the Child Tax Credit works. (NYT)

Retirement

• The Congress passed the SECURE ACT and included it in the spending bill which is expected to become law. Here are ten things you need to know about how it might impact your retirement. (Yahoo Finance)

And a late addition: 

Careers

• LinkedIn came out with their emerging jobs list for 2019.  Care to guess what the top job was? (MarketWatch)

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