Jessica Roy

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Jessica Roy

Reader Marie in Oakland asks:I keep getting offers in the mail for a home equity investment. Do you have any thoughts on this model versus a reverse mortgage? I am a recently retired nurse with approximately $900,000 equity in my home. I want to have a larger emergency fund and make some updates to my 1950s home. And a reader in Alameda asks:We are in our 80s. We own our home outright and have no debt. Expenses are rising at a surprising rate and our health is decent but precarious.

4 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Jessica Roy

Are we headed toward a recession? Some economists think so. J.P. Morgan Research economists put the odds at 60% for this year. At Morgan Stanley, the odds are at 40%. Goldman Sachs researchers projected a 45% likelihood of a recession. So even the experts think a recession is not a guarantee. Still, with President Donald Trump’s rapidly fluctuating tariff policy and immigration crackdowns, “uncertainty” is the word on everyone’s lips — and the markets hate uncertainty.

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | Jessica Roy

My health care facility data was hacked and I was offered 2 years of free credit monitoring services. Is it worth it to sign up for these services to prevent identity theft, or are there other things I should do instead (other than freezing my credit)? What you got is known as a data breach notification. State agencies and businesses, including health care providers, are obligated under California law to notify you when your unencrypted personal data was acquired by an unauthorized person.

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | Jessica Roy

It’s a scary time to be making direct eye contact with a stock ticker. After a major drop last week from President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, stocks briefly buoyed Tuesday morning before coming back down. The S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow erased all gains and ended the day down at market close. Article continues below this adBut not all investors have been put off by the news. Searches for the term “buy the dip” have spiked in the past week, according to Google Trends data.

1 month ago | modbee.com | Jessica Roy

President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" has come and gone. In a soon-to-be more economically isolated America, tariffs are going up and markets are already down. On Thursday, the day after he announced sweeping global tariffs, Trump said the rollout is "going very well" and predicted "markets are going to boom." By the close of trading, the Dow had plunged more than 1,600 points and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq suffered their worst losses since the pandemic crash of 2020.