Immigration policy gets talked about in a lot of contexts, jobs, prices, specific industries. One I don't see discussed much: a large share of the people who provide home health and nursing home care in this country are immigrants, and that workforce is shrinking right as demand keeps rising.
💌 Has your family ever had to figure out care for a parent or grandparent? What did nobody warn you about? Let’s chat about it.
Here’s what’s inside:
P.S. If you want to talk through your own finances, you can book a free 1-hour coaching session here ☎️
Did you know…?
How much do American consumers spend on Fourth of July?
(Actual answer at the end of the newsletter 👇)
Immigration policy is now a retirement-planning issue
A huge chunk of the people who provide home health aide and nursing home care in this country are immigrants, and current immigration policy shifts are shrinking that workforce right as the number of aging Americans who need care is climbing fast. Fewer workers, more demand.
It shows up as a bigger number on an invoice. Private home care already runs $40 to $70 an hour in many areas. A year in a nursing home averages $129,575. Multiply that by however many years a parent, spouse, or eventually you might need that kind of care, and it stops being an abstract policy story and starts being a real hole in a retirement plan that never had a "cost of care" line in it to begin with.
👉 If it's useful, get a rough sense of local care costs now. Home care and facility rates vary a lot by area, and knowing the range before you need it can make a hard moment slightly less overwhelming.
👉 Long-term care insurance is worth a look earlier than it feels necessary. Premiums tend to be lower and approval easier when you're younger and healthier, though it's not the right fit or the right budget for everyone.
👉 If you have family you'd want to loop in, a conversation now beats one during a crisis. Who can help with money, who can help with time, who's local. Not every family can have this conversation easily, and that's okay too.
👉 It's worth checking if your employer offers dependent care FSA or elder care benefits. Some companies offer these quietly and they go unused simply because people don't know to ask.
👉 If future care is something you're thinking about for yourself, it's worth factoring into your retirement number. Most retirement calculators leave it out entirely.
If this stuff feels like a lot to plan around alone, our team's happy to talk it through with you.
The Personal Finance Meter
🚨 Take action
Mortgage rates aren't dropping the way people keep hoping
The average 30-year mortgage rate is sitting around 6.5%, and forecasters mostly agree it's staying in the mid-6% range through the rest of 2026, with maybe a small dip to 6.3% by year end at best. If you've been waiting for rates to drop before buying, it might be worth rethinking that timeline, the math may make more sense now than a lot of people assume.
Source📌 Pay attention
Rolling over a 401(k)? Watch who's giving you advice
Nearly $941 billion is expected to roll from 401(k)s into IRAs this year, and once that money moves, there's no going back. Experts warn some salespeople push rollovers that aren't actually the best move, since 401(k)s often come with lower costs and legal protections IRAs don't have.
Source👀 Keep an eye
The typical first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old
The typical age of a first-time buyer has climbed to 40 (an all-time high) and the ratio of home price to income hasn't been this stretched since the mid-2000s housing bubble. Nothing to act on today, but a trend worth watching if buying a home is somewhere on your horizon.
Source👌 Looking Up
The House just passed a bill to help stop elder financial scams
The House passed the Financial Exploitation Prevention Act 414 to 2, giving mutual funds and ETFs the power to temporarily pause suspicious withdrawals from older adults' accounts when fraud is suspected. Reported losses for adults 60 and up hit $2.4 billion in 2024, though the FTC thinks the real number, including fraud that never gets reported, could be as high as $81.5 billion. It still needs to clear the Senate, but it's a real step in the right direction.
SourceThe Panic Meter reflects our editorial read on urgency — not financial advice.
Why renting is okay
By the numbers
4.1%
The national unemployment rate as of May 2026
The national unemployment rate sat at 4.1% in May, but that number hides a lot. City-level rates ranged from 1.8% in places like Bismarck and Sioux Falls to a striking 16.9% in El Centro, California. The national headline gets the attention, but your local rate is the one that actually shapes your job search or your leverage in salary talks.
$167,970
The "average" 401(k) balance (that almost nobody actually has)
Vanguard's newest report puts the average 401(k) balance at a record $167,970. The median, the number that reflects what a typical saver actually has, is just $44,115. A relatively small group of high earners are pulling that average way up, so if your balance looks nothing like $167,970, you're closer to normal than you'd think.
90 days
Days left to choose a new student loan repayment plan
Student loan servicers are sending exit notices to remaining SAVE plan borrowers, who now have 90 days to actively choose a new repayment plan before getting auto-placed into one that might not be the best fit. Worth logging into StudentAid.gov before the clock runs out.
Need to talk numbers? We can help you sort out your money.
Poll answer
a) $15 billion
The actual number came in around $15.5 billion, spread across food ($9.4B), alcohol ($3.87B), and fireworks ($2.2B+), and this year's holiday got an extra boost from America's 250th birthday.