Personal Finance
This 79-year-old lost home to California wildfires, hopes to rebuild
Remains of Karen Bagnard’s Altadena, California, house after it burned in the January 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Courtesy: Chelsea
On the night of Jan. 7, Karen Bagnard sat in her Altadena, California, house in the dark.
Forceful winds had caused her home to lose power, and she also had no running water, save for one bathroom.
“My daughter called and said, ‘Mom, do you realize there’s a fire?'” said Bagnard, who is 79 years old and legally blind. “I had no idea there was a fire.”
At that point, the evacuation zone for the Eaton Fire was far enough away for her to feel safe.
“I thought, ‘Oh, they’ll never get to my house,'” Bagnard said.
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About 30 minutes later, her daughter Chelsea Bagnard called back. With the fire spreading quickly, Bagnard’s home was now near the border of the evacuation zone.
After Bagnard’s grandson, Dalton Sargent, who is 32 and also lives in her home, came back from work, the two decided to leave for the night.
In the more than 50 years she lived in the house, Bagnard had been close to evacuating before but had never actually left.
“I thought, ‘Okay, we’ll evacuate this time, but we’ll be back,'” she said.
That was the last time she stepped foot in her home.
The next day, Bagnard’s daughter and grandson returned to the neighborhood to check on the home before authorities sealed off the area. What they found was a “smoldering pile of debris,” her daughter wrote on Facebook, with only larger appliances such as the refrigerator and stove recognizable.
It was Jan. 22 before Bagnard was able to return to her neighborhood to see the devastation for herself.
“They brought a chair for me, and I sat in the driveway, and what I could see was just the land,” Bagnard said of the surreal scene. “I started looking at it in terms of, ‘How would we rebuild?'”
Karen Bagnard, 79, sits in the ruins of her Altadena, California, home, after it burned in the Los Angeles-area wildfires of January 2025. “I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt,” she said.
Courtesy: Chelsea Bagnard
Older adults especially vulnerable to natural disasters
The Los Angeles-area wildfires destroyed tens of thousands of acres, ruining homes and entire neighborhoods. Insured losses could climb to $50 billion, according to estimates from JP Morgan.
Additionally, an unknown number of residents have been left homeless.
For older individuals, the catastrophe comes at a vulnerable time in their lives, when relocating and coping with physically difficult conditions can be more challenging.
By 2034, we’ll have more people over 65 than under 18 in our country, according to Danielle Arigoni, an urban planning and community resilience expert and author of the book “Climate Resilience for an Aging Nation.”
Yet those demographics are not used as a lens for climate resilience planning in most cases, she said.
“In two decades, we have not seen any improvement in the fatality rate of older adults in these kinds of disasters,” Arigoni said. “When you see that kind of trend line, to me that just screams for a different approach.”
The LA-area wildfires forced some assisted living facilities to evacuate, and some burned down, according to Joyce Robertson, CEO and executive director of Foundation for Senior Services.
In the aftermath of the fire, the public charity is focusing on providing supplies, including wheelchairs, and is working with nursing and assisted living facilities to help fill gaps for services and resources.
“You can imagine the stress for all those seniors having to evacuate,” Robertson said.
For older individuals who live on their own, the risk is that they will not be able to leave their homes, said Carolyn Ross, co-executive director of the Village Movement California, a coalition of 50 neighborhood-based community organizations that provide community programming and expertise to help older residents age in place.
“In natural disasters, they are disproportionately affected, more likely to be the ones found in their homes because they couldn’t evacuate,” Ross said.
The hardest hit of the Village Movement’s communities — Pasadena Village — had around 60 members displaced by the fires, and 19 lost their homes entirely, including Bagnard.
“It’s been heartbreaking,” said Katie Brandon, executive director at Pasadena Village.
“But it’s also been really beautiful to see the older adults really support each other, be there for each other, and see the communities of support that they’ve built over the last months and years really work for them,” Brandon said.
As Bagnard searched for a new residence, one of the Pasadena Village members stepped up to offer her a six-month temporary lease to live with her in her home, though the two women had not previously met.
Bagnard has been a valued member of the Pasadena Village for many years, according to Brandon, having hosted many events and programs at her “beautiful house, outside on her patio.”
As Bagnard regroups, the Pasadena Village is replacing the computer she lost with the accessibility features she needs due to her vision loss. The community organization is working with other affected area residents to help provide the equipment they need, such as air purifiers and computer printers. Where possible, it’s also encouraging older residents to continue to gather socially.
“The insurance companies seem to be pretty good at reacting and seeing what they can replace, but sometimes it’s quite a process,” Brandon said. “The sooner we can get our older adults the resources and equipment that they need, the better off they’ll be in this recovery period.”
Older victims face greater health, financial risks
Experts emphasize that older individuals may face a prolonged recovery.
In the aftermath of a disaster, there tends to be a lot of people helping, providing donations and other support, said Joan Casey, associate professor at the University of Washington’s School of Public Health.
Yet in the rebuilding period that follows, there’s often a lull, where volunteer efforts and donations dry up, she said.
Yet more than a year from now, those same disaster victims may still be displaced from their homes, she said.
“It’s that medium-term disaster period where we still want to check in on people,” Casey said.
They may be more susceptible to certain health and financial risks, particularly if they do not have a community safety net.
Nearly 80% of older adults have two or more chronic conditions, according to research from the National Council on Aging. If that includes respiratory or heart disease, the worsened air quality may be even more harmful to their health.
Older adults may also have paid off their homes, which means they may not be required to have homeowners’ insurance. Consequently, some may be completely uninsured, while others may be underinsured in an effort to keep their monthly expenses down, Arigoni said.
Scientific literature on how disasters affect older adults is “pretty mixed,” especially with regard to mental health, according to Casey. Some neurologists have found natural disasters may be a tipping point in cognitive function for older adults, she said.
Yet there’s also evidence that older individuals may be more resilient because they have developed better strategies to deal with stress over time, Casey said. They may have already experienced a disaster before, and therefore may be better prepared to handle another event.
‘I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt’
Remains of Karen Bagnard’s Altadena, California, house after it burned in the January 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires.
Courtesy: yesterday, my mom saw her home of over 50 years for the first time since it burned
Prior to losing her home in the wildfire, Bagnard, a professional visual artist, had recently gone through a big life adjustment as she dealt with her vision loss.
In early 2024, she held a show of her work at Pasadena Village, where she talked about coming to terms with blindness. Her favorite piece — of a sphere falling — played on darkness and light amid a color scheme of blue, teal and black, a symbol of her own journey.
“Knowing that you’re going blind is like a free fall into the darkness, and then at some point you realize that you bring the light with you, so it isn’t really dark,” Bagnard said. “You have a different kind of light; the light is inside.”
That piece was destroyed and is now among her home’s ashes, along with most of her other artwork.
For most of her life, Bagnard did pen-and-ink drawings with watercolor washes. Since the onset of her vision loss, she has transitioned to other methods, using decoupage and handmade papers as well as writing haikus.
The process of coping with her vision loss has helped her to keep the more recent loss of her home in perspective, she said, though she admits she still has moments of frustration.
To help rebuild, she has applied for a Small Business Administration loan, and her daughter started a GoFundMe account.
Other community organizations, in addition to Pasadena Village, have also stepped in to offer support.
A local nonprofit organization, Better Angels, has provided grant money to Bagnard and her grandson. And Journey House, a provider of foster care services, has promised to help Bagnard’s grandson, a former foster youth, who also lost everything in the fire.
Amid her home’s rubble, Bagnard said she has also seen signs of hope. A Danish plate with a mermaid, which Bagnard considers an art muse, survived the fire, as well as cement stairs she had painted with images of the four seasons.
She has told her two daughters and grandson it is up to them to decide what to do with the property they will eventually inherit.
“I’m going to be 80 next month, and I hope to live long enough to see it rebuilt,” Bagnard said.
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Wednesday.
In what could be Jerome Powell’s last as chair before President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed nominee Kevin Warsh takes the helm, central bankers maintained the federal funds rate in a target range of 3.5% to 3.75%.
Inflation has surged since the war with Iran began, leaving policymakers with limited room to act, according to Sean Snaith, the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Economic Forecasting. “We’re in a kind of suspended animation — between Iran and the Fed transition,” Snaith said.
Before the oil shock, inflation was holding above the Fed’s 2% target but not worsening. Now the jump in energy costs could have longer-term inflationary effects, economists say.
For Americans struggling in the face of higher gas prices and overall affordability challenges, the central bank’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged does little to ease budgetary pressures. “The cavalry isn’t coming anytime soon,” Snaith said.
How the Fed decision impacts you
The Fed’s benchmark sets what banks charge each other for overnight lending, but also has a trickle-down effect on many consumer borrowing and savings rates.
Short-term rates are more closely pegged to the prime rate, which is typically 3 percentage points above the federal funds rate. Longer-term rates, such as home loans, are more influenced by inflation and other economic factors.
Credit cards
Most credit cards have a short-term rate, so they track the Fed’s benchmark.
After the Fed cut rates three times in the second half of 2025, the average annual percentage rate has stayed just under 20%, according to Bankrate.
“Without Fed rate cuts, there’s not much reason to expect meaningful declines anytime soon, so carrying a balance will remain very expensive,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
Mortgage rates
Fixed mortgage rates, on the other hand, don’t directly track the Fed but typically follow the lead of long-term Treasury rates.
Concerns about how the Iran war will impact the U.S. economy have already pushed the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage up to 6.38% as of Tuesday, from 5.99% at the end of February, according to Mortgage News Daily.
That leaves homeowners with existing low mortgage rates “feeling stuck,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion. “Mortgages, more than any other credit type, work on a churn,” she said, referring to how a dip in rates can boost borrowing activity.
Student loans
Federal student loan rates are also fixed and based in part on the 10-year Treasury note, so most borrowers are somewhat shielded from Fed moves and recent economic uncertainty.
Current interest rates on undergraduate federal student loans made through June 30 are 6.39%, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Interest rates for the upcoming school year will be based in part on the May auction of the 10-year note.
Car loans
Auto loan rates are tied to several factors, including the Fed’s benchmark. Because financing costs remain elevated, new car buyers are taking on longer loans to keep their monthly payments manageable, according to the latest data from Edmunds.
Even so, with the rate on a five-year new car loan near 7%, the average monthly payment on a new car rose to $773 in the first quarter of 2026, an all-time high.
“Car buyers are in a tough spot right now because they’re getting squeezed from both ends: high sticker prices and high interest rates, with neither showing any signs of letting up,” said Joseph Yoon, consumer insights analyst at Edmunds.
“Until the rate picture shifts, buyers will keep stretching loan terms to make payments work, which only adds to the total cost of ownership down the road,” Yoon said.
Savings rates
While the Fed has no direct influence on deposit rates, the yields tend to be correlated with changes in the target federal funds rate. So, although rates on certificates of deposit and high-yield savings accounts have fallen from recent highs, they are holding above the annual rate of inflation.
For now, top-yielding online savings accounts and one-year CD rates pay around 4%, according to Bankrate.
“Yields on high-yield savings accounts and certificates of deposit are down from their peaks of a few years ago, but they’re still strong compared to what we’ve seen for most of the past decade,” Schulz said.
Milan Markovic | E+ | Getty Images
The average tax refund is 11.2% higher this season, compared with about the same period in 2025, according to the latest IRS filing data.
As of April 10, the average refund amount for individual filers was $3,397, up from $3,055 about one year ago, the IRS reported on Friday.
The IRS data reflects about 114 million individual returns received, out of about 164 million expected through Tax Day. Next week’s filing update is expected to include data through the April 15 deadline.
President Donald Trump‘s 2025 legislation, rebranded to the “working families tax cuts,” was a key talking point for Republicans on Tax Day.
With the November midterm elections approaching and Republicans defending slim majorities in Congress, many GOP lawmakers have highlighted Trump’s tax breaks and higher average refunds.
Meanwhile, affordability has been top of mind for many Americans amid rising costs of gas, electricity, food and other living expenses.
For filers who expected a refund this season, nearly one-quarter, or 23%, planned to use the funds to pay down credit card debt, and the same share said they would save the payment, according to the CNBC and SurveyMonkey Quarterly Money Survey, released in April. It polled 3,494 U.S. adults at the end of March.
Who benefited from Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’
“It’s been a great tax season for the American people,” many of whom have benefited from Trump’s tax breaks, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said during a White House press briefing on Wednesday.
More than 53 million filers claimed at least one of Trump’s “signature new tax cuts” — the deductions for tip income, overtime earnings, seniors and auto loan interest — the Department of the Treasury also announced on Wednesday.
Those filers, who claimed the deductions on Schedule 1-A, have seen an average tax cut of over $800, according to the Treasury. Tax cuts can trigger a higher refund or reduce taxes owed, depending on the filer’s situation.
Some filers who itemize tax breaks have also seen benefits from the bigger federal deduction limit for state and local taxes, known as SALT. Trump’s legislation raised that cap to $40,000, up from $10,000, for 2025.
The latest SALT deduction limit change is expected to primarily benefit higher earners, according to a May 2025 analysis of various proposals from the Tax Foundation.
The Treasury has not released data on how many filers have claimed the SALT deduction during the 2026 filing season.
Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on April 16, 2026.
NYSE
U.S. stocks climbed to record highs on Thursday against a backdrop of war, an oil supply shock and economic forecasts warning of stunted growth amid a protracted conflict.
Many investors may be thinking: Why?
Largely, it’s because the stock market is a barometer of what investors think will happen in the future, rather than an assessment of the present day, according to economists and market analysts.
Investors are essentially shrugging off the Middle East conflict as a blip that will be resolved relatively quickly, they said.
“The stock market isn’t trying to price what’s happening today,” said Joe Seydl, a senior markets economist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “The stock market is always trying to price what the world is going to look like six to 12 months from now.”
Why stocks have been ‘resilient’
The S&P 500, a U.S. stock index, fell about 8% in the initial weeks of the Iran war, from the start of the conflict on Feb. 28 to a recent low on March 30.
But stocks have rebounded since then, erasing all losses since the beginning of the war. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time high on Thursday — about 11% higher than its nadir at the end of March. That followed a record close on Wednesday.
“The market has remained very resilient in the face of the war and has rallied strongly on the prospect that it will be resolved,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.
A ship waits to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following the two-week temporary ceasefire between the US and Iran, which is conditional on the opening of the strait, in Oman on April 8, 2026.
Shady Alassar | Anadolu | Getty Images
And while investors cheered the possibility of a diplomatic off-ramp to the conflict, the temporary ceasefire has appeared tenuous, with the U.S. and Iran each accusing the other of breaking the agreement.
Nations haven’t been able to reach a peace deal ahead of the ceasefire’s end. Vice President JD Vance said U.S. officials left peace talks in Pakistan over the weekend after the Iranian delegation refused to agree to American demands not to develop a nuclear weapon.
The markets ‘have memory’
Ultimately, the stock market is signaling a collective belief that tensions will ratchet down, the war will end in the near term and oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz will normalize, economists said.
That’s largely because investors have been conditioned to believe that President Donald Trump will back off if the economic pain becomes too intense, economists said — the so-called “TACO” trade, shorthand for “Trump always chickens out.”
“Investors strongly believe — and have been conditioned to believe — he’s going to stand down, find a way to pivot, declare victory and move on,” Zandi said.
Trump has pushed back on the notion of backing down, framing his brinkmanship as a savvy negotiating tactic.
Economists pointed to a recent example of this dynamic: in April 2025 during so-called liberation day, when the Trump administration levied a host of tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
Within days — after the stock market had cratered more than 12% — Trump announced a 90-day pause on those tariffs. Stocks then saw one of their biggest daily rallies in history following Trump’s reversal.
Investors remember that Trump often de-escalates geopolitical shocks — which is why they’ve seized on positive headlines that hint at progress in peace talks, for example, Seydl said.
“The markets have memory,” Seydl said.
AI stocks and the ‘tech boom’
Traders celebrating at the New York Stock Exchange on April 15, 2026, as the S&P 500 closed above the 7,000 level for the first time.
NYSE
There are other factors underpinning market resilience during wartime, economists said.
One is the investors’ enthusiasm for artificial intelligence and technology stocks, which account for almost half of the S&P 500’s market capitalization, Zandi said.
“Those stocks run on their own dynamic independent of anything, including the war in Iran,” Zandi said. “I think we would have been down a lot more and it would have been harder for us to recover had it not been for the very, very optimistic perspectives on AI.”
We’re in the middle of a “tech boom” — and investors are likely to remain optimistic until they think the tech cycle has run its course, Seydl said.
More broadly, stock investors are essentially making a bet on the future earnings growth of a company — and the earnings backdrop has been “pretty solid,” Seydl said.
Consumer spending appears to be stable, for example, economists said. And companies are getting a boost to their after-tax earnings from the GOP’s so-called “big beautiful bill,” which, among other things, made it easier to write off investments upfront and therefore reduce their tax liability, Zandi said.
Going forward
Experts said there will be an economic hit from the Iran war, though.
“Despite the recent news of a temporary ceasefire, some damage is already done, and the downside risks remain elevated,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, director of research at the International Monetary Fund, wrote Tuesday.
A protracted conflict risks deep and global economic pain, he wrote.
Even if the conflict is short-lived — as the broad market expects — stocks are unlikely to march much higher until it’s clear the U.S. is on the other side of the war and its economic fallout, Zandi said.
If investors are incorrect, and President Trump doesn’t back down or quickly extricate the U.S. from the war, the stock market may see a “full-blown correction” or worse, Zandi said. A stock market correction is a decline of at least 10% from recent highs.
“Everyone thinks they know what the script is,” Zandi said. “Now they just need to follow the script. If they don’t, the market will have some real problems.”
The uncertainty provides yet another example of why the average investor with a long time horizon should stick to their investment plan and ignore the noise, experts said.
“Trying to time the market is very difficult if not impossible for the average investor,” Seydl said. “It’s better to take a long-term perspective and ride out bouts of volatility.”
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