Market Performance: January 29, 2024.

U.S. stocks are drifting around their record heights Tuesday following a mixed set of profit reports. The S&P 500 was 0.1% lower in afternoon trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 100 points, or 0.3%, as of 2:19 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% lower. UPS slumped 7.1% even though it reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected.

Its revenue fell short of Wall Street’s estimates, and it also gave a forecast for full-year revenue in 2024 that was weaker than expected.

Three Ways to Reduce Taxes on Your Investment Earnings

When it comes to investing and growing wealth to secure your financial future, it isn’t how much you make that matters most — it’s how much you keep. And yet, investors often overlook the critical role tax efficiency can play in successful retirement planning.

The strategic management of your investments can help you minimize what you owe, maximize what you earn (and hold on to) and build a nest egg that will last longer for you and your heirs. But it takes proactive planning to make it work. This isn’t something you can wait until each year’s tax season to worry about and maybe try to play catch-up. Proper tax planning means looking at the big picture, assessing your goals and finding opportunities to reduce your tax burden for the short and long term.

With that in mind, here are three moves that could help you lower your tax bill — and keep more of your hard-earned money — now and in the future.

No emergency fund? These tips can help you build savings and find extra cash in your budget, advisors say

Finding extra money to set aside for cash savings is a difficult goal for many Americans. Financial advisors say they use these tips to help people build better savings habits and find extra cash in their budgets to set aside. If you're like most people, you may not have an emergency savings fund. It's not necessarily our fault, experts say, as our brains are programmed to focus on our needs today.

We're just not wired to save. Research shows Americans' cash balances often fall short of that goal. A new Bankrate survey released last week found just 44% of Americans could pay for an unexpected $1,000 expense with savings.

Changing our instincts to spend today requires us to build new habits.

Financial advisors often see this barrier to savings with their clients and have their own tactics for nudging clients to set aside more cash and free up flexibility in their budgets.

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