MW Want to retire from a soul-sucking job? Here are the financial factors to consider.
By Philip van Doorn
Also: Buy signals for bonds and stocks, words of wisdom from the Moneyist and how to navigate a tech career as AI disrupts the labor market
Feeling that you are "done" with work may not be reason enough to retire.
In the Help Me Retire column, Alessandra Malito answers questions from MarketWatch readers about all aspects of preparing for retirement and enjoying life after careers end.
This week she responded to a 62-year-old who is fed up with her job and wishes to retire, but who also described a complicated set of personal and financial circumstances. Here is what she should do to prepare for retirement.
More from the Help Me Retire column: My wife, 74, collects survivor benefits on her first husband. Can she now claim on her own Social Security record?
Hulbert's contrarian view of the bond market
Mark Hulbert made the case for investors to begin accumulating bonds, based on these market metrics.
Joy Wiltermuth explained how some bond-market investors were circling to scoop up defaulted Venezuela government bonds even before U.S. forces captured Nicolás Maduro, the country's president, on Jan. 3.
More top-down market analysis from Hulbert:
-- Even Warren Buffett couldn't keep beating the market without fail. Here's why.
-- These undervalued stocks blew away the S&P 500 in 2025 - a 2026 repeat is likely
A buy signal for stocks
Joseph Adinolfi explained how and why a 100-year-old stock-market indicator was flashing green.
Related coverage:
-- Aerospace, defense stocks surge after Trump's proposed $1.5 trillion military-spending budget - but are investors too optimistic?
-- A shift in leadership is taking shape in the U.S. stock market. Here's where investors can find fresh opportunities.
Venezuela, Trump and oil
Here is a sampling of MarketWatch's team coverage of the energy market following President Donald Trump's decision to have Maduro captured:
-- Trump says Big Oil will invest $100 billion in Venezuela as Chevron, Exxon come to the White House today. Here's what to watch.
-- Trump wants oil at $50. He thinks Venezuela can help - but oil drillers might not go along.
-- How Trump's control over Venezuela's oil gets him close to a seat at OPEC's table
-- Here's how much oil Venezuela is producing and exporting, as the country's future hangs in the balance
Other market reactions: Emerging-market stocks - even in Venezuela - are rallying after Maduro's capture
Bright spots for the U.S. housing market
On Thursday, Trump said he would direct Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) to purchase an additional $200 billion in mortgage-backed securities. Joy Wiltermuth explained how those purchases might affect mortgage loan rates. The answer isn't a simple one.
One factor that has held back the U.S. housing market in recent years has been the reluctance of home sellers with low fixed-rate mortgage loans to put their homes up for sale. Aarthi Swaminathan described a recent change in the broad housing market that may begin to boost the volume of home sales.
More housing coverage: Why Trump banning institutional investors like Blackstone from buying homes won't bring down housing costs, according to experts
Big Tech coverage
Shares of Intel were already up 11% for 2026 through Jan. 8.
Britney Nguyen explained how Micron was standing out, not only among technology companies but among the entire S&P 500 by this metric.
More coverage from the MarketWatch technology team:
-- Why is Intel's stock surging? Here's what Wall Street has to say.
-- As AMD chases Nvidia, here's how it's positioning itself for the future of AI
-- Intel's stock is so cheap compared with TSMC's - and this analyst now says 'buy'
-- Oklo's stock surges. Why Meta's new nuclear bet is so significant.
-- Why Big Tech stocks are so much more attractive than they were only two months ago
An outperforming ETF with a different take on value stocks
Financial advisers always tell their clients to have diversified portfolios. But the typical index fund is actually rather concentrated. For example, the "Magnificent Seven" companies - Nvidia (NVDA), Apple $(AAPL)$, Microsoft $(MSFT)$, Alphabet $(GOOGL)$, Amazon.com (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla $(TSLA)$ - together make up 34.7% of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, the $690 billion exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 SPX.
Here is an ETF that holds none of the Magnificent Seven and that followed a unique value-oriented strategy to outperform the S&P 500 by a wide margin in 2025.
How to manage a tech career during the AI transformation
Emily Bary and Aditi Shrikant interviewed tech industry experts, including Autodesk $(ADSK)$ CEO Andrew Anagnost, who explained how computer programmers could manage or build careers even as artificial intelligence takes over many aspects of traditional software-development work.
The Moneyist takes a hard line
Quentin Fottrell answers complicated questions about finance and family relationships in the Moneyist column.
Quentin Fottrell - the Moneyist - answered questions from a reader who brought up an age-old subject. How much help should parents provide to adult children? Two parents explained that they had been allowing their daughter to live in a house that they owned, under an arrangement through which the daughter would pay them rent sufficient to cover the monthly mortgage payments. But they were having difficulty collecting that rent from their daughter. They asked Fottrell how he felt about the idea of them paying off the remaining $40,000 mortgage loan and giving the house to the daughter.
Here's the answer from the Moneyist, including a discussion of tax and other implications of whatever the parents decide to do.
More from Quentin Fottrell: My friend, who had no children or wife, died suddenly. His sister is contesting his will. Will she succeed?
Is it time to sell the family silver?
Record-high prices for silver might tempt you to sell your old coins.
With silver trading near record highs, you or your loved ones might be tempted to sell silver coins, jewelry or other items that have been sitting around for decades.
Here is a handy guide from Charles Passy and Andrew Keshner on what to know before you sell your silver.
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-Philip van Doorn
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 09, 2026 14:33 ET (19:33 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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