Americans’ 401(k) balances reached a record high in the second quarter of 2026, new data shows.

The average 401(k) balance climbed to a record $155,800 in the second quarter of 2026, up 10.5% from the previous quarter and 13.1% from a year earlier, according to Fidelity Investments’ Q2 2026 Building Financial Futures report.

“After a slight drop in the first quarter of 2026, the average 401(k) and 403(b) account balances rebounded to record levels in Q2 2026,” the report noted.

Jade Warshaw, co-host of “The Ramsey Show,” told FOX Business that the gains reflect years of strong market performance, increased participation from younger workers and a growing desire among Americans to build financial security amid ongoing economic uncertainty.

AMERICANS’ 401(K) BALANCES HIT RECORD LEVELS IN 2025

The average 401(k) balance climbed to $155,800 in the second quarter of 2026, up 10.5% from the previous quarter and 13.1% from a year earlier. (iStock)

“I think it’s a combination,” she said. “… I’ve seen a trend with Gen Z, who is really investing more.”

Heightened economic uncertainty has played a role, prompting some Americans to focus on the aspects of their finances that they can control, according to Warshaw.

“Depending on the generation that we’re talking about and whose account we’re talking about, different things are driving it,” Warshaw said. “I think right now, there’s just a want and a need for security.”

She added, “You can look at the worldview, and it can just feel a little bit anxiety-ridden, and a lot of us find peace in controlling a controllable.”

MOST 401(K) SAVERS MAY BE SHORT-CHANGING THEMSELVES, DATA SHOWS

Warshaw also credited years of strong market returns with encouraging more workers to continue investing. (iStock)

Warshaw also credited years of strong market gains with encouraging more workers to continue investing.

“I think a lot of people are wanting to capitalize on that,” she said.

However, Warshaw cautioned against prioritizing retirement investing before building a financial foundation. 

She encouraged Americans to follow Ramsey Solutions’ “7 Baby Steps,” beginning with a $1,000 emergency fund, paying off consumer debt and building three to six months of living expenses before investing 15% of gross income for retirement.

For workers whose retirement accounts have reached record balances, Warshaw said the biggest mistake is trying to outsmart the market.

BEWARE THE TICKING TIME BOMB HIDING IN YOUR 401(K)

Jade Warshaw, co-host of “The Ramsey Show,” cautioned against prioritizing retirement investing before building a financial foundation.  (FOX Business)

“What I suggest for people to do is invest in the most boring way possible,” she said.

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Rather than reacting to market swings, Warshaw recommends consistently investing through payroll deductions using dollar-cost averaging. 

“You set it and forget it and let it run,” she said, comparing the approach to “the tortoise and the hare” and arguing that steady investing gives savers the best chance to build long-term wealth.

US President Donald Trump announced he will lift all tariffs on Irish whiskey at the end of his two-day visit to Ireland.

He made the announcement before handing over the winner’s trophy at the Trump International golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare, to Irish Open winner Shane Lowry.

Whiskey distilled in the Republic of Ireland faces the standard 15% tariff which applies to EU goods entering the US, while whiskey made in Northern Ireland or elsewhere in the UK has no tariff.

It comes after Trump doubled down on his support for a united Ireland and said joining Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland was “one of the naturals of all time”.

He spent day two of his visit to Ireland watching the final day of the Irish Open.

On Saturday, Trump was in Dublin where he met with Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin and Irish President Catherine Connolly.

Addressing the crowd before the trophy presentation, Trump said he had discussed whiskey tariffs with Martin and with golfer Lowry.

“Everybody’s been bugging me,” he said.

“They are saying would you do me a favour? It’s so unfair what’s going on.

“Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey and I said, on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off Irish whiskey.”

The presentation ceremony marked the end of Trump’s two-day trip to Ireland before boarding Air Force One at Shannon Airport and departing for Washington.

Richard Alvin is the founder and group managing director of Capital Business Media, the company behind Business Matters. The group publishes across business, travel, automotive, property, renewable energy and institutional finance, runs three awards programmes and has just launched Nourish, a recipe-led food magazine. He tells Jamie Young what the group is building.

What do you currently do?

I am the founder and group managing director of Capital Business Media (CBM), the company that owns the Business Matters brand of magazine, website and digital output.

The group also publishes Not Ltd for the self-employed, Travelling For Business, the executive lifestyle title Optimum, the property title Property Portfolio Investor, EV Powered, which covers everything electric from e-scooters to electric plant machinery, and Electric Home, our renewable energy title. Our New York office is responsible for Fund Manager Today, which serves the global fund management community, and we have a third office in Florida.

The newest addition is Nourish, our recipe-led food magazine, which will publish quarterly in print from 2027 and runs a website that is updated constantly.

CBM also has a contract publishing division and a live events and awards division that runs the Travelling For Business Awards, the Business Champion Awards and the Rural Business Awards.

I am also chairman of the specialist business research company Trends Research, which started life as a partnership between the Telegraph Media Group and Capital Business Media. We acquired the whole company in 2006 and now specialise in research of the UK SME community for a whole host of clients, from government departments to telecommunications companies and some of the largest PR firms.

I have also been an advisor to entrepreneur Peter Jones on the US business support programme Save Our Business, and subsequently replaced Jones as the on-screen host of the show, broadcast on HBO and TNT.

Like other business owners, I love the actual doing side of the business, so I often find myself involved in all areas of the company. I am also a people person, so you can guarantee I will grab any opportunity to arrange a call with someone, whether a client or an associate. Casual conversations often provide great insight.

What was the inspiration behind your business?

I was lucky enough to sell the two media companies I had founded and grown to large national media groups for large multiples. It was always the intention to stay involved in media, and I saw that the global media group EMAP was selling two of its then underperforming business to business magazines, Business Matters and European Fund Manager. Offers were made, and once accepted a company was needed to purchase the brands. CBM was born.

Through hard work and a dedicated team we took Business Matters, first published in 1986, to be the UK’s leading business title within 10 years, and it was appointed the official business magazine of the London 2012 Olympics, which was a huge honour. The multi-platform approach has kept working. Business Matters, which has just unveiled it’s largest web refresh, now reaches more than 1.5m readers a month, and across the group we reach more than 2.5m digital readers a month with 230,000 newsletter subscribers.

Tell us about Nourish

Nourish is a recipe-led food magazine, quarterly in print with a website that never stands still. There are more than 10,000 tested recipes on it, organised by ingredient, by cuisine and by diet or occasion, alongside skills guides, features and honest product reviews.

There is no paywall and no login. A free weekly email carries the recipes our food team is actually cooking, the seasonal picks and the skills worth learning. At the moment that means autumn.

What is happening with the travel awards?

The Travelling For Business Awards take place on 22 October 2026 at 88 Wood Street in London, as a black-tie gala dinner for around 300 senior guests. There are 24 categories, from Best Long-Haul Airline and Best Business Class Experience to Best MICE Venue UK, the Accessibility Award, the Sustainability Award and Lifetime Achievement, with 231 finalists across 23 of them. Uber for Business is our headline partner.

What matters to me is that the selection is editorially led and independent. This is not another awards night.

Why Race Against Dementia?

Race Against Dementia is our chosen charity for 2026 and 2027, through the CBM Foundation. Sir Jackie Stewart OBE founded it after his wife, Lady Helen, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, and it funds early-career dementia researchers around the world, applying the discipline of Formula 1 to the science. Having had family members and colleagues in the wider company family suffer from this disease, supporting Sir Jackie was an obvious choice.

The foundation works to a 1-1-1 model: 1 per cent of the group’s time, 1 per cent of its product and 1 per cent of its profit committed to charity every year. I first came across that model at Dreamforce in 2011 and it stuck. The partnership covers all our bends internally as well as the Travelling For Business Awards, and widens to the full live events programme from 2027.

What defines your way of doing business?

I firmly believe that business should be, and is, about relationships. Whether it is a relationship with your clients, suppliers, team members or anyone else, people buy from people. If you employ a team with shared values, that is what makes you stand out, especially in a deadline driven organisation like ours. With the right people, the best technology available and strong processes in place, you cannot go far wrong.

The same applies to the commitments you make. We have held carbon neutral certification for more than a decade because sustainability is a policy we live and breathe, not a statement.

What do you admire?

Determination and hard work. And I am lucky to be surrounded by people who possess those qualities.

Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?

In the past I have invested in a number of start-up and growing businesses. Sometimes those investments were on a business angel basis, others saw me taking a seat on their board. I made an investment in the loss prevention company CrimeDeter through a direct approach, did not do the same level of due diligence that you would normally do, and ended up writing off my whole six figure investment. The moral of that story is that regardless of whatever business you are going to buy, take a role in, or make an investment into, you must do your homework.

What advice would you give to someone starting out?

Collaborate. Do not try to do everything yourself. Be prepared to make mistakes, they are going to happen, just make sure you learn from them, and learn fast.

Reward and recognise your employees, as they are the key to a successful future. Define your values early on so that you can remain true to yourself throughout your entrepreneurial journey, and embrace technology so that your team have the very best weapons at their disposal to carry out their roles.

Richard Alvin writes regularly for Business Matters.

A limited number of Revolut customers had sensitive information disclosed in a scam involving an unauthorised third party that used a legitimate government email domain, the financial technology firm said yesterday.

The London-based firm said it blocked the address after detecting the scheme and alerted the “relevant government agency”, law enforcement, data-protection officials and financial regulators.

“Revolut systems and customer funds are unaffected,” a Revolut spokesperson said yesterday by email. “We have contacted the limited number of impacted individuals directly to inform them and provide support.”

TechCrunch earlier reported the breach yesterday.

Revolut did not identify the government email domain involved, the number of customers affected or the type of information disclosed. It did not say when it detected the scheme or over what period the disclosure took place.

Reporting rules

Guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office states that organisations must report a personal data breach to the regulator as soon as possible, and where feasible within 72 hours, if there is a likely risk to people’s rights and freedoms. Where the risk to people is high, the ICO says those affected must also be told without undue delay.

The disclosure comes as Revolut expands its banking operations beyond Europe.

The company says it has more than 80 million customers globally and is targeting 100 million. It was valued at $115bn in a share sale in July.

Revolut has identified the United States as a key growth market. It received conditional approval in early September to operate as a national bank there, having applied for a US charter in March.

It has committed $500m to the US over three to five years and has stepped up its marketing in the country, including offering free subway rides to New Yorkers. In February, Revolut began its first major banking operations outside Europe, in Mexico.

UK banking operations

In the UK, Revolut launched its bank after approval from the Prudential Regulation Authority in March, allowing it to offer current accounts to its 13 million UK customers with deposits protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000 per person. The company said at the time that it would invest £3bn in the UK economy and create about 1,000 jobs.

Co-founder Nik Storonsky said then that launching the UK bank “has been a long-term strategic priority for Revolut and marks a significant moment” for the company.

The incident is the latest in which customer details held by a financial services provider have been exposed through activity outside a bank’s own systems.

In September 2025, HSBC warned UK business banking customers that passport details, identity documents, images and contact information submitted during account applications had been compromised through unauthorised access to a third-party platform. The bank said its own systems “are separate and have not been impacted” and offered affected customers a free 12-month identity monitoring subscription.

The same month, Harrods told customers that names and contact information had been taken after hackers accessed data held by a third-party provider, and said payment details and passwords were not exposed.

Revolut did not name the regulators it has informed or set out what support it is providing to the customers affected.

About the author

Amy Ingham

Amy Ingham is a reporter at Business Matters, covering UK business news with a focus on breaking news, business policy, late payments and insolvency. She joined the magazine in 2026 after completing the NCTJ Diploma in Journalism at Harlow College’s journalism school. Her recent reporting includes British Steel’s nationalisation and its impact on SME suppliers, the decline in late payments by large firms, and Insolvency Service director disqualifications. Reach her at aingham@cbmeg.co.uk.

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The UK needs a “culture shift” in how it does business, Andy Burnham has said ahead of a meeting with some of the UK’s biggest bosses.

The prime minister said those who take risks in business should be backed by government and local leaders should have the power to work with businesses.

The current Labour government has been criticised for increasing costs for businesses, such as with the employer national insurance and minimum wage changes under Burnham’s predecessor Sir Keir Starmer.

Downing Street said Burnham will meet with the chief executives of BP, Shell, HSBC, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, BT, Vodafone, Rolls-Royce, and several others at Number 10.

Ahead of the meeting, Burnham said he would give people “the confidence that if they have a great idea, they’ll get all the support they need to bring it to life”.

“When local leaders have the tools to get things done and government works in partnership with business, you can pull in investment, create jobs and transform communities,” he said.

He added the government would be “a partner for growth to make every part of Britain better off”.

Burnham will host a reception for the business community where local leaders are invited before a private engagement with senior chief executives at Downing Street on Monday evening.

The meeting comes as higher borrowing costs in the UK and other countries present problems for governments looking to spend money on business support or investment.

Official data revealed a surprise boost in the economy in July partly driven by artificial intelligence (AI) investment, though experts expect growth to slow in the months ahead due to high energy prices.

The US-Israel war with Iran has led to a sharp jump in oil prices, which has fed through to higher energy and fuel prices, affecting households and businesses.

This rise in energy costs has led to fears that inflation will remain high, and increase the chance that central banks will hike interest rates to keep price rises under control.

The expectation of higher interest rates, as well as competition for debt from AI firms looking to spend money on development, has driven up the cost of government borrowing in many countries.

However, many argue the UK has a particular problem with high government debt. The UK yield for 10-year bonds, a key measure of government debt costs, is higher than countries such as the US, France, and Japan.

Experts say this is due to several factors affecting investor confidence in the UK, such as multiple prime ministers, chancellors and policy U-turns over a short period.

In an interview with the BBC last week, Chancellor John Healey called for a restoration of “confidence about Britain” despite acknowledging the challenge of “historic high” borrowing costs.

Others have argued that the Labour government has created its own problems by increasing costs for businesses.

Conservative shadow business secretary Julia Lopez said: “The way for the prime minister to get businesses thriving, delivering jobs and driving growth is to cut their taxes.

“Labour’s jobs tax and employer red tape have been devastating for businesses. The consequence has been a drying-up of the jobs market, weaker investment and businesses facing ever greater costs.”

Thailand is fast-tracking regulatory approval for $3.66 billion (121 billion baht) in strategic industrial investment. The move is part of a broader overhaul of the national investment regime, aimed at anchoring high-value global supply chains and boosting capital-market listings.

The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) approved the pivot at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas. It is concentrating resources on advanced manufacturing, technology transfer, and domestic vendor integration, phasing out tax breaks for low-margin operations along the way.

BOI is also changing how it measures success, shifting from application volume to realized outcomes. New strategic indicators will track domestic value added, SME integration into supply chains, high-skill job creation, research and development, technology transfer, capital-market linkages, and realized investment. Operational indicators will track how many approved projects convert into actual investment and how quickly approvals are granted. At the same time, the BOI will integrate its investment promotion tools with the measures and mechanisms of relevant agencies to ensure comprehensive investment support and deliver tangible results.

“Our focus has decisively shifted toward the realized quality and tangible domestic value of every investment committed,” said Mr. Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Secretary General of the Thailand Board of Investment. “We are deploying targeted, proactive measures for strategic sectors. This will lift national investment to 30% of GDP, drive annual economic growth above 3%, and support Thailand’s push to reach the top 20 in global competitiveness and become a high-income nation within 12 years.”

BOI also cleared its third batch of Thailand FastPass projects: 17 investments from 15 companies worth $3.66 billion (121 billion baht), expected to create more than 14,000 jobs. Electronics and electrical component manufacturers dominated the intake, securing 10 projects valued at $2.54 billion (83.92 billion baht) — nearly 70% of the batch. The remaining seven projects span high-grade processed foods at $735.4 million (24.34 billion baht), pet nutrition at $265.9 million (8.80 billion baht), and precision machinery and automotive parts at $131.8 million (4.36 billion baht).

Source : ○ BOI : The Board of Investment of Thailand