Economics

• A whopping 304,000 jobs were added in January, but December’s 312,000 was revised down to 222,000. Get all the details here: (NYT)

Investing

• State Street basically invented the ETF, so why has its share of the ETF market steadily declined over time. (WSJ)
• December market performance was the worst since the Great Depression, but January was the best in 30 years!!! Talk about volatility! (CNBC)

Budgeting

• Do your budgeting lessons include covering hospital bills? These stats are pretty shocking (hospital bills take a larger percentage of average family’s income than taxes.) (Forbes)
• Interesting chart showing how prices of things have changed over 20 years. (howmuch.net)

Taxes

• Tax refunds in 2018 may not be as large as the average taxpayer expects: many should have adjusted their withholding given the change in the tax laws. (Fox Business) 

Higher Education

• Read about research uncovering what impact pressure on universities to enroll more low-income students has actually had on that target demographic. (Inside Higher Ed)
• Cutting “list price” of tuition (and cutting discounting) so as not to scare off potential applicants pays off, as many people don’t realize few actually pay the list price. (WAPO)
• A slow down in endowment growth exacerbates tough financial times at colleges and universities. (WSJ)
• The college student dining experience runs from robot-delivered food to soup kitchens. (Marketwatch)

Retirement

• Here is an interesting take on retirement in today’s world. (Forbes)
• Struggling to come up with a spending budget for retirement? Here is what the average retiree spends by category. (Barron’s)
• Signing up for Medicare is complicated, especially if you work past 65. (NYT)

Technology

• Two-factor authentication might not be enough to keep your accounts safe. (NYT)
• Why Apple products keep increasing in price, and some advice on how to get them for less. (NYT)

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