Markus Andrews

Retirement account balances hit fresh highs in the third quarter of 2025 amid an upswing in the stock market, according to a new report by Fidelity.
Even heading into a period of increased economic uncertainty, savers maintained their contribution rate, Fidelity also found.

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Retirement account balances, which sank at the start of 2025 amid wild market swings, hit record highs in the third quarter, according to the latest data from Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest provider of 401(k) savings plans.
The average 401(k) balance jumped 9% from a year ago to $144,400, an all-time high, Fidelity found.

The average individual retirement account balance also rose 7% year over year to $137,902.

Fidelity’s report showed increased interest in Roth 401(k)s and IRAs, particularly among younger savers.
Like a traditional 401(k), Roth 401(k)s let you contribute up to $24,500, which is the new, higher limit for 2026. But a key difference is that contributions to a Roth 401(k) are taxed upfront so withdrawals in retirement are tax-free.
Roth 401(k) plans are similar to better-known Roth IRAs although the contribution limits vary. With a Roth IRA, savers under the age of 50 can make after-tax contributions up to $7,500 a year, as of 2026, and then take tax-free withdrawals in retirement.
“Retirement is about taking a long-term view, and the growing interest in Roth products shows that investors recognize their potential for tax advantages and long-term growth,” Robert Mascialino, president of wealth at Fidelity Investments, said in a statement.

While other research points to retirement saving shortfalls across generations, Fidelity’s “numbers tell a different story,” said Mike Shamrell, Fidelity’s vice president of thought leadership. “We’re seeing a lot of positive behaviors among younger workers, especially Gen Z.”

Number of 401(k), IRA millionaires hit all-time highs

The gains in account balances also helped boost the number of 401(k) millionaires to a fresh high. 
The number of 401(k) accounts with a balance of $1 million or more jumped to 654,000 as of Sept. 30, up 10% from the second quarter, according to Fidelity.
The number of IRA-created millionaires also increased by 11.5% from the previous quarter to a record 559,181.

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Positive savings behaviors were key to better outcomes, Shamrell said.
The majority of retirement savers continued to make contributions, even during periods of market turbulence. Although there have been concerns about the economy, “the good news is, as of now, it has not turned into any sort of pullback on their retirement savings efforts,” Shamrell said.
The average 401(k) contribution rate, including employer and employee contributions, held steady at 14.2%, Fidelity found, just shy of their suggested savings rate of 15%.

A great stretch for the major indexes also helped.
U.S. markets came under pressure after the White House first announced country-specific tariffs on April 2, causing some of the worst trading days for the S&P 500 since the early days of the Covid pandemic.
However, markets rebounded in the second and third quarter. Through Sept. 30, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 9% for the year, the S&P 500 was higher by 14% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 17%.  More

The new restructuring at the Education Department doesn’t involve the federal student loan portfolio, for now. But the instability at the agency could still harm borrowers, experts said.
At the same time, Trump officials are exploring options to sell some of its education debt to the private market.

US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon attends the International Women of Courage Awards Ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2025.
Brendan Smialowski | Afp | Getty Images

When the U.S. Department of Education announced this week that it would transfer much of its programs to other agencies, it didn’t appear that the country’s federal student loan portfolio would be impacted.
However, financial aid experts and consumer advocates are still worried for borrowers.

More than 40 million Americans hold student loans, and the outstanding debt exceeds $1.6 trillion. 
“What is concerning is the destabilization of the Department of Education and Federal Student Aid at the very moment when consistent, technically skilled oversight is most needed,” said Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program in New York.
The major overhaul of the agency is occurring at an especially challenging time for the federal student loan system. More than 5 million people are in default on their education debt, and President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminates several long-standing affordable repayment plans and relief options.
“Student loan eligibility and repayment involve multiple systems working together, and institutions need that process to be seamless, current and accurate,” said Melanie Storey, president and CEO of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. “As the delivery of other programs moves to other agencies, these dependencies must be carefully considered.”
On Tuesday, Trump administration officials said they had signed agreements with four federal agencies, including the departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, to start managing programs currently under the Education Department.

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The move is part of Trump’s directive to dismantle the agency, experts said. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has argued that the recent government shutdown proved that the department is not needed.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration laid off nearly half of the Education Department’s staffers.
“They are attempting to hollow out the U.S. Department of Education, leaving behind a shell of the original organization,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

Privatization concerns

The Trump administration’s goal of hobbling the Education Department will be difficult while the agency still oversees the massive federal student loan portfolio, experts say. But it may be trying to offload the debt.
The new restructuring at the Education Department doesn’t involve the loans, but Trump officials are exploring options to sell some of the debt to the private market, Politico reported in October.

Student loan borrowers have faced even more problems in the private market than with the government, consumer advocates said. When private companies played a bigger role in federal student lending in the past under the Federal Family Education Loan, of FFEL, program, Rodriguez said, “borrowers saw their debt balloon with no end in sight due to loan mismanagement.”
Any major loan transfer “will also result in errors that could harm borrowers and push relief further out of reach,” said Aissa Canchola Banez, the policy director at Protect Borrowers.
Currently, private lenders account for 8% of all student loans but are the subject of more than 40% of student debt complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, lawmakers recently wrote in a letter to Trump officials. More

ETF Strategist

ETF Street
ETF Strategist

Fixed-income ETFs are becoming more popular than their mutual fund counterparts.
Bond ETFs pulled in almost $344 billion through Oct. 31 this year, compared with $138 billion going into fixed income mutual funds in the same time, according to Morningstar Direct.
There are now more actively managed bond ETFs than there are passively managed funds.

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If you’re thinking about putting money into bond exchange traded funds (ETFs) rather than mutual funds, you’re not alone.
Fixed-income ETFs have pulled in nearly $344 billion through Oct. 31 this year, compared with $138 billion going into fixed income mutual funds, according to Morningstar Direct. It’s part of the larger trend of investors preferring ETFs: In October alone, about $74 billion flowed out of mutual funds, while ETFs attracted $166 billion.

And while ETFs have some advantages over mutual funds, and bonds are viewed as safer investments than stocks, experts say it’s important to know what you’re buying.
“You have to remember the role of bonds in a portfolio,” said Dan Sotiroff, senior analyst for passive strategies research at Morningstar. “It’s usually to serve as a ballast — and how big of one is something you have to sort out on your own or with your advisor.”
‘Legitimate edge’
Both mutual funds and ETFs let you invest in a fund that holds a mix of underlying investments. The advantages of ETFs range from lower costs to tax efficiency to their trading all day in the open market. (Mutual funds are only priced once a day, after the markets close at 4 p.m. Eastern Time.)
One reason for assets flowing to bond ETFs is simply that more have been launched in recent years, especially those that are actively managed — meaning professionals are choosing which bonds to invest in — which previously was the sole province of bond mutual funds. In contrast, passively-managed ETFs track an index, and their performance mimics that benchmark, for better or worse.
“Active management has a legitimate edge,” Sotiroff said. Managers there “can bring something different to the equation and have a shot at outperforming their benchmark.” 

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The number of actively managed bond ETFs (511) has surpassed the number of passive bond ETFs (393), according to Morningstar.
The active funds come with higher expense ratios — the yearly fees paid by investors, expressed as a percentage of the fund’s total assets. Investors pay an average of 0.35% for actively managed bond ETFs, versus 0.10% for passively managed bond funds.
Know what bonds you’re buying
Also remember that because bonds pay interest, those ETFs distribute monthly payments to investors, who face taxes on that income if the ETFs are held in a taxable brokerage account. If they are in an individual retirement account or 401(k) account, any growth is tax-deferred and then subject to ordinary income tax rates when money is withdrawn after age 59½. If they’re held in a Roth IRA account, withdrawals are tax-free.
And whether you consider passive or active bond ETFs, it’s important to consider the type of bonds you’re investing in, experts say. For example, U.S. Treasurys and corporate bonds with solid credit ratings are considered investment-grade, meaning that there’s less risk of default.
“The correlation with stocks is really low and that’s important to keep in mind” when seeking to diversify, Sotiroff said.

Investment-grade bonds tend to generate less income than riskier bonds, while high-yield corporate bonds with lower investment ratings may offer higher yields but come with a greater chance of default.
If you are relying on bonds for income in retirement, trying to squeeze too much income out of your bond portfolio could end up backfiring.
Bond ETFs “are basically funding our clients’ living expenses, so we need to be liquid and high quality,” said certified financial planner Tim Videnka, chief investment officer and principal with Forza Wealth Management in Sarasota, Florida.
Bonds lose money, too
But as with all investments, bonds can lose money, too, Videnka said.
In 2022, as the Federal Reserve began raising its benchmark interest rate to fight high inflation, bond prices slumped (prices move inversely to yield), and the year ended as the worst ever bonds, with major bond indexes posting large losses.
The year 2022 “showed you can lose money in the bond market,” said Videnka. “People can sometimes forget what can happen when there’s real fear.”
One reason bond prices fall when rates rise is because newly-issued debt comes with higher interest rates, making existing bonds with lower rates less valuable — pushing down their price.
Although the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate — the federal funds rate — in October for the second time this year, it remains far higher than was the case for years before the Fed started raising rates in 2022. The fed funds rate is the rate that commercial banks charge one another for overnight borrowings to meet reserve requirements, and it ripples through the economy, affecting the rate charged for mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt as well as the interest rate on bonds and savings accounts.
“If you go back 15 years ago, after the [2008-2009] financial crisis, we were in a 0% rate environment and then Covid hit and we had another 0% rate environment,” Sotiroff said.
“Now you actually have [positive] interest rates … you have some returns that make bond ETFs attractive,” he said. More

The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it will transfer much of the U.S. Department of Education’s programs to other agencies.
Currently, the agency oversees the country’s $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio, provides funding to low-income students and enforces civil rights in classrooms across the country.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon smiles during the signing event for an executive order to shut down the Department of Education next to U.S. President Donald Trump, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 20, 2025. 
Carlos Barria | Reuters

The Trump administration says it will transfer much of the U.S. Department of Education’s programs to other agencies, a move experts say is part of President Donald Trump’s directive to dismantle the agency.
During a press call with reporters on Tuesday, a senior administration official said the administration had signed agreements with four other federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to begin managing programs currently under the Education Department.

Under the new agreements, the Labor Department will administer more federal K-12 initiatives, and the State Department will assume additional tasks related to international education and the Fulbright programs, according to the Education Department.
Trump signed an executive order in March aimed at closing the Education Department, which oversees the country’s $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio, provides funding to low-income students and enforces civil rights in classrooms across the country.
Only Congress can unilaterally eliminate the Education Department. But the Trump administration may be trying to use a workaround by contracting with other agencies to perform the department’s tasks.
“They are attempting to hollow out the U.S. Department of Education, leaving behind a shell of the original organization,” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration laid off nearly half of the Education Department’s staffers.

“We’ll peel back the layers of federal bureaucracy by partnering with agencies that are better suited to manage programs,” Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon wrote in a recent op-ed in USA Today.
The government shutdown “underlined just how little the Department of Education will be missed,” McMahon said.
Tuesday’s announcement did not include information on the future of the government’s student loan portfolio. However, administration officials are exploring options to sell some of the debt to the private market, Politico reported in October.
Former President Jimmy Carter established the current-day Education Department in 1979. Since then, the department has faced other existential threats, with former President Ronald Reagan calling for its end and Trump, during his first term, attempting to merge it with the Labor Department. More

A new scheme seeks to convince individuals that their Social Security numbers may be suspended due to criminal activities, the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration said in a recent warning.
Consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Adults ages 60 and over are most likely to report large money losses from scams.

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A new “high pressure” scam seeks to convince individuals that their Social Security numbers may be suspended due to criminal activities, according to a new warning.
“Be aware! It’s a scam!” the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration said in a recent alert.

The scheme involves emails sent with the subject line, “Alert: Social Security Account Issues Detected.” An attachment with fake letterhead purporting to represent the SSA OIG warns recipients that their Social Security number may be suspended within 24 hours and that their case may be referred for criminal prosecution.
The schemes typically use scare tactics to dupe victims into handing over their money, such as flagging suspicious activity on accounts, claiming personal information is being used to commit crimes, or alleging online accounts or other personal devices have been hacked.

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When recipients of the fraudulent emails call the phone number provided, they may encounter someone impersonating a Social Security Administration employee who sometimes even uses a federal worker’s real name. Alternatively, callers may be directed to send a text via an automated message.
The SSA OIG, which provides independent oversight of the Social Security Administration, is warning recipients not to share their personal information in response to the notices.
“If you get an unexpected call, text, email, letter, or social media message from SSA OIG or any government agency, pause and think scam first,” Michelle L. Anderson, acting inspector general, said in a statement. “The person contacting you may not be who they claim to be.”     

Notably, the SSA OIG “will never send letters like this,” Anderson said.

Older adults more likely to report scam losses

Government imposter scams may also purport to be from other agencies — the Social Security Administration, IRS, Medicare or Federal Trade Commission, for example. Other schemes may claim to represent well-known businesses.
In 2024, consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud — a 25% increase over the previous year, the Federal Trade Commission reported in March.
Investment scams were the most common way to lose money, with $5.7 billion in losses reported by consumers in 2024, followed by imposter scams, with $2.95 billion in losses.
Adults ages 60 and over are most likely to report losses of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars from scams, according to the FTC. The number of older adults who reported losing $10,000 or more to scams went up more than four times from 2020 to 2024, the agency reported in August. In those same years, the number of older adults who reported losing more than $100,000 jumped nearly seven times.

To avoid becoming a victim, the FTC warns consumers targeted by these types of scams not to send or transfer money to anyone.
The agency also recommends independently verifying whether a phone number or website is real and talking to someone you know and trust before transferring money.
Blocking unwanted calls can also prevent scammers from contacting you in the first place, according to the FTC. More