The market has its best week since April, Biden wins, and some telecommuters could face a tax surprise in April. Here's how the headlines could affect your money.
Market has best week since April
After last week's close marked the highest weekly gains since April, markets soared Monday morning on news that an experimental Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech showed more than 90% efficacy in trials. This had a tide-raising effect on airline and cruise stocks, whose businesses were hard hit by the decrease in travel.
The Dow and the S&P set new record highs at the open.
Biden wins presidency, NBC News projects
On Saturday, four days after Election Day, Joe Biden won more than the requisite 270 votes to become the next president of the United States, NBC News projected, though counting is still ongoing in some states and President Donald Trump has not yet conceded.
Some of Biden's planned policies could affect your pocketbook. He has vowed to protect the Affordable Care Act by bringing back the individual mandate and adding a public health insurance option. This could help those who find health insurance unaffordable even with the ACA tax credits.
His other financial policy priorities include making student loans more forgivable and upping the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Telecommuters: You might have a tax surprise in April
If you are telecommuting during the pandemic and you chose to move to a state with higher taxes, you might be hit with a higher tax bill in April than you were expecting. Depending on how much time you spent in the new state, you might owe taxes there.
Plan ahead and find out whether you owe taxes in your new state and if so, how much.
Words you've heard: Individual mandate
In the context of the Affordable Care Act, an individual mandate is the requirement for most Americans to have some type of health insurance or else face a penalty. Individual mandates help ensure that there are enough funds in the total insurance pool to cover those who need it.
Although the daily news can have an impact on your wallet, remember to take a long-term outlook when it comes to decisions on spending, saving, and investing.
More from Grow:
- Markets get jumpy around presidential elections: Here are 3 good reasons to stay calm
- 'Nobody ever got rich just by saving money,' says early retiree: Here's how you do it
- What to expect from the market if Trump or Biden wins the 2020 election, according to experts