Also in Weekend Reads: The disrupted bond market, a warning for traders who borrow money, and advice from the Moneyist
MarketWatch's series on the rental generation continued with a series of interviews with people who shared their strategies to invest in the stock market while renting to build wealth.
This week Jillian Berman and Venessa Wong continued their series about people who expect and even plan to remain renters instead of ever buying home. The new article features interviews with several people who share their strategies for renting and investing to build wealth, rather than spending more on buying a home. One fascinating discussion in the article is about how managing rental costs requires a "skill set."
How some people in their 20s have been buying homes
The economic deck may appear to be stacked against people in their 20s who wish to buy homes. But Aarthi Swaminathan interviewed several people who have gotten it done, including a man who bought a home on his own at the age of 22.
More residential real estate coverage from Aarthi Swaminathan:
-- Will a data center hurt your home's value? Research says no. Sellers disagree.
-- 7% mortgage rates are already here, some buyers and mortgage experts say
Stock market warnings
From the end of 2020, the S&P 500 returned nearly 124% through Sept. 3, with dividends reinvested. The index hasn't had a down calendar year since 2022. September has been the weakest month for the index, historically.
This is turning out to be another decent year for the broad U.S. stock market, with the S&P 500 SPX returning 14% through Thursday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA has returned 13% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP has returned 14.8%, all with dividends reinvested.
Here's a look at year-by-year returns since the end of 2020:
Total returns S&P 500 Dow Jones Industrial Average Nasdaq Composite Index
2026 YTD 14.1% 13.0% 14.8%
2025 17.9% 14.9% 21.1%
2024 25.0% 15.0% 29.6%
2023 26.3% 16.2% 44.6%
2022 -18.1% -6.9% -32.5%
2021 28.7% 20.9% 22.2%
End of 2020 through Sept. 3, 2026 123.7% 95.4% 114.9%
Source: FactSet
The chart above may appear to be rather smooth at first glance, but the S&P 500 declined 18.1% in 2022, with technology stocks falling especially hard when the Federal Reserve changed direction and began raising short-term interest rates in March of that year, after the federal-funds rate had been in a target range of zero to 0.25% for two years.
So we have had four excellent years for U.S. stocks so far.
Rising long-term bond yields signal the market's expectation that the Fed will raise interest rates soon. The more attractive yields already available in the bond market, as well as seasonal influences, are among the factors driving a series of articles on what investors should do ahead of a possible stock-market pullback:
-- Six reasons that the risk of a stock-market selloff is rising. Here's what investors should be doing.
-- An old stock-market adage applies this month - how you should play it
-- Corporate earnings have been growing at a blistering pace. Here's why that's not likely to last.
-- How to profit from September stock-market weakness
Mark Hulbert's counter view: Whether the Fed raises interest rates this month isn't as big a deal for stocks as you might think
Bond-market trends
When bond prices fall, their market yields rise. For investors holding bonds, it is no fun to see account balances declining during a selloff. But such periods also offer opportunities for income-seekers with money to invest to buy bonds with more attractive yields.
A bond-market selloff might also lead some investors to move money out of the stock market to take advantage of yields at multiyear highs.
Early on Friday, 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds BX:TMUBMUSD10Y were trading at a yield of 4.79%, up from 4.72% a week earlier and 4.17% at the end of last year.
Joy Wiltermuth dug into the mechanics behind the decline in bond prices and rising long-term rates and professional investors' expectations for moves that Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh can make to calm the market.
Isabel Wang explained how governments' efforts to intervene and prop up currencies or hold down interest rates might have the opposite effect.
Jules Rimmer explained why investors might be in for a surprise with interest rates declining in 2027.
Related coverage:
-- This could be the 10-year Treasury's tipping point into the danger zone
-- The U.S. economy powers up as summer winds down, but it's not free of trip wires
-- Wall Street is nervous about a Fed rate hike, which looks more likely after a top official's remarks
Borrowing to trade stocks
Be careful: borrowing to juice your trading bets can backfire.
Joseph Adinolfi described how the use of leverage by investors to fund short-term trades has led to painful recent reversals in pockets of the stock market.
Longer-term: How to invest in a booming stock market that's way cheaper than the S&P 500
Where should you retire?
There has been a lot of coverage of challenges in Florida's housing market, including very high homeowners-insurance premiums, high asking prices, and high mortgage-interest rates.
But three Florida cities are high on WalletHub's latest list of the best places to retire. Jessica Hall explained the differences between this survey of retirement destinations and others that rank Florida lower.
Tech news
This week, Nvidia (NVDA) made another splash when it agreed to acquire Hugging Face for $13 billion. Emily Bary and Britney Nguyen explained how the deal could alter the competitive landscape for Anthropic and OpenAI.
More coverage from the MarketWatch Companies team:
-- As Broadcom's stock falls, Wall Street focuses on the company's forecast
-- Adobe just announced its next CEO. Here's why its stock is dropping.
-- Palantir's stock is slumping. Why bond yields and Google may be to blame.
-- Volkswagen's stock gets boost from plan to double job cuts to 100,000
-- SpaceX is back in the $2 trillion club after nearly two months
Ask you might receive
Don't Short Yourself - MarketWatch's new weekly newsletter - offers smart tips to help you earn and grow your money.
When making a large purchase or contracting for a service, you might feel shy about asking the seller to lower their price, but it is a good habit to get into. This week in the Don't Short Yourself newsletter, Genna Contino provided numerous examples of how you can save a ton of money by haggling.
How to pay for a home when you retire
This week in the Help Me Retire column, Alessandra Malito answered a question from a 68-year-old widow: Should she raid her 401(k) to buy a home or borrow the money instead?
Related: Raising Social Security's full retirement age is political dynamite because it could make this group of people poorer
Advice from the Moneyist
Quentin Fottrell is the Moneyist.
This week Quentin Fottrell - the Moneyist - helped a 72-year-old widow who provides monthly financial support to her grandson because his mental illness has left him unable to manage his own affairs. How can she set up a rock-solid estate plan with a trustee to look after her grandson's financial well-being?
More from the Moneyist:
-- My wife and I are in our 70s. Should we move to California and take on a bigger mortgage to be near our kids?
-- 'It's not fair': My twin brother and I were left houses by our parents. Can I make him pay his share for taxes and upkeep?
-- 'Please don't let this happen to you': My best friend died without a will - her neglectful family gets everything
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-Philip van Doorn