Before the Crisis: How You and Your Relatives Can Prepare for Financial Caregiving
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how to make sure you can manage your parents' or other relatives' finances if necessary, and how someone could do the same for you. That and more on this Saturday personal finance edition of Motley Fool Money. I'm Robert Brokamp, and this week I speak with certified financial planner and author Beth Pinsker about the challenges of being a financial caregiver and how being prepared beforehand makes a world of difference. But first, let's look at some money-related headlines, starting with some somber news from the employment front. On November 20th, the Department of Labor released the delayed employment report for September, showing that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, the highest level since 2021.
According to Bloomberg's Matthew Boesler, the jobs report showed that except for health care and leisure, U.S. private sector employment has declined in each of the last five months, something that's never happened in the past 35 years outside of a recession. Then this week, payroll processing firm ADP announced that private companies laid off 32,000 workers in November, the hardest hit being small businesses with 50 or fewer employees. Year-over-year pay increases for those who remained on the jobs also slightly declined to 4.4% from 4.5% in October. And then on Thursday, consulting firm Challenger Gray and Christmas reported that employers announced plans to lay off more than 70,000 employees in November.
That was on top of the 150,000 cuts announced in October, which was the highest total for that month in 22 years. The total number of announced layoffs for 2025 is 1.17 million, which is 54% higher than the same 11-month period last year and the highest level since 2020, the year of the pandemic. This softness in the labor market is the biggest reason the Federal Reserve has cut rates twice this year and is very likely to do so again this week. Which brings us to our second item from the news, and that is the performance of bonds in 2025. As rates go down, bond prices go up, resulting in a more than 7% total return from bonds so far this year, as measured by the performance of the Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF.
Bonds are on pace to have their third best year of the past two decades. Of course, you have other options for your non-stock money, which brings us to the number of the week, and that is $8 trillion. That's the total amount held in money market funds, which is the highest level ever, according to Crane data. As the Fed lowers rates, the amount you earn on your cash also decreases, but money market funds are still offering higher yields than what you can get from the bank. According to the Crane 100 Money Fund Index, which tracks the 100 largest funds, the average yield is 3.8% compared to a paltry 0.6% for the average savings account, according to Bankrate. That said, money market funds are not FDIC insured, unlike money market accounts and savings accounts from banks.
While money market funds are considered very, very safe, you should look under the hood so that you choose a fund that aligns with your risk and tax preferences. Some invest in short-term corporate debt, which offers slightly higher yields, but with slightly more potential risk. Other funds invest exclusively in treasuries. which makes them even safer and free of state income taxes. And then there are funds that invest in municipal debt, which are mostly or completely tax-free. Up next, what you and your family need to do in order to take care of each other financially when Motley Fool Money continues.
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