Personal Finance

The Personal Finance desk's data pages: Investing Basics, Loans & Mortgages, Retirement, Saving & Debt, Taxes.

• Investing Basics: Returns on stocks, bonds, bills, homes and gold since 1928, the common index funds and ETFs compared on cost and return, what fees take over decades, and the IRS limits and tax rules for 401(k)s…
• Loans & Mortgages: Today's mortgage, auto, personal-loan and card rates against their own history, how the Fed's rate reaches them, the payment on a typical home then and now, and payment and rent-versus-own…
• Retirement: What an investment became since any year from 1928, every 10, 20 and 30-year stretch of returns, how long savings lasted at different withdrawal rates, and Social Security's cost-of-living raises and…
• Saving & Debt: How much Americans save, what credit cards cost and how many balances go unpaid, what share of income goes to debt payments, and where the average household's money goes (BLS spending survey), with a…
• Taxes: Federal income tax brackets, standard deductions and capital gains rates for the last two tax years from the IRS, with a calculator that works out tax bracket by bracket, marginal against effective…