The past year has taught us big lessons about our finances

Published 1:30 am Sunday, December 25, 2016

There’s a reason your car has a rearview mirror. You have to see what’s behind you.

So, let me look back at the year’s 10 most important stories affecting people’s finances:

10. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau structure ruled unconstitutional. A U.S. Court of Appeals objected to the agency being run by a single director who can be removed only “for cause” by the president. Under the ruling, the director can be removed at the president’s discretion.

Lesson: A president too cozy with corporate American could pick a director who won’t be a fierce champion for consumers.

9. $1.6 billion Powerball. The year began with the biggest jackpot in U.S. lottery history. There were three tickets sold in California, Tennessee and Florida. Lots of people played, hoping to become instant millionaires. But odds of winning were 1-in-292 million.

Lesson: You want financial security? Spend less and save more. Don’t gamble your money away.

8. Fiduciary rule. The Department of Labor, the federal agency that oversees retirement plans, finalized a rule to require financial professionals advising people about their retirement accounts to act in their clients’ best interests.

The lesson: We need to make sure investors are getting reliable advice about retirement savings.

7. Prince died. The iconic “Purple Rain” artist once wrote “slave” on his face to protest a deal that denied him ownership of his own music. But he died at 57 without a will.

Lesson: Listen to Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” Then imagine your heirs crying and screaming over your stuff. Is that the financial legacy you want to leave? Get a will.

6. Stock market ups and downs. The year began with the Dow crashing in January — 392 points in one day. It dipped again by nearly 400 points in September. At year’s end, it’s riding high, close to a 20,000 milestone.

Lesson: This is the nature of investing. There will be ups and downs. Invest for the long term. You can’t time the market.

5. Overtime. A Labor Department rule that would have given overtime to 4 million salaried employees earning up to $47,476 a year (up from the current threshold of $23,660) was halted by a Texas judge.

Lesson: They giveth and they taketh away.

4. IRS telephone scam. Scammers, claiming to be from the IRS, were threatening people with jail if they didn’t pay a tax bill they didn’t owe. But by the end of the year, the number of new victims started to drop precipitously as federal enforcement actions took place in the U.S. and India. The agency says there’s been a decline from as high as 200 new victims a week last spring to 19 new victims in the last week.

Lesson: This scam might pick up again as the tax season approaches. But please don’t be fooled.

3. Pension insurance program running out of money. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. reported a $58.8 billion shortfall in covering multiemployer pension plans that are expected to fall short themselves within 10 years.

Lesson: More evidence that you need to save.

2. Wells Fargo was fined $100 million for — unbeknownst to its customers — opening hundreds of thousands of unauthorized bank and credit-card accounts.

Lesson: Calls to roll back regulation of major financial institutions are insane. There’s need for increased consumer protection.

1. Andrew Puzder picked by Donald Trump for Labor secretary. Puzder, who runs the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., has opposed rules to expand overtime eligibility and criticized efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Lesson: We need to double down in the fight for a living wage for workers.

Here’s hoping 2017 will bring better personal finance news.

— Washington Post Writers Group