On today's episode of Wealth!, Host Brad Smith breaks down some of the top tips for everything from positioning your portfolio to planning your holiday shopping.

As the third quarter earnings season kicks off, Keith Buchanan, GLOBALT Investments senior portfolio manager, breaks down what investors can expect. "The expectations for earnings have started to accelerate from mid-single digits to next year to mid-double digits. And coming into this fourth quarter is a real transition quarter from that lower healthy growth to robust growth," he tells Yahoo Finance. Thus, he expects areas like financials (XLF), industrials (XLI), and consumer discretionary (XLY) to be poised for growth heading into 2025, explaining, "Those valuations are miles away from where they traditionally trade on a relative to the broader S&P 500 (^GSPC)."

The AI race is just getting started, and Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood is betting big. Asking for a Trend Host Josh Lipton dives into Cathie Wood's OpenAI investment and why she's so bullish on the company.

Black, Hispanic, and Latina women are newer to investing and focused on building generational wealth, a recent J.P. Morgan Wealth Management report found. JPMorgan Wealth Management head of communications Verónica Navarro Espinosa explains that education, accessibility, and confidence are helping break down barriers. “Investing is overwhelming. There is so much information everywhere that is hard to decide where you're going to go. But we're starting to see that there is a path forward. We're seeing people are starting to be more comfortable. Also, the tools to invest are becoming more accessible," she says.

Despite cooling inflation, many American household budgets remain under pressure — particularly those of retirees. However, some relief may be on the way as Social Security's cost of living adjustment (COLA) is expected to increase benefits by 2.5%. Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Kerry Hannon breaks down the details, examining how this benefit adjustment is calculated, its impact on Social Security beneficiaries, and the broader challenges Americans face when saving for retirement.

A Missouri federal judge placed an injunction on President Biden's SAVE student loan forgiveness plan, which features a clause to eliminate 100% of remaining interest for loan borrowers. As the plan sits in legal purgatory, Edvisors director of corporate communications Elaine Rubin breaks down the Biden administration's biggest hurdles in pushing forward its student loan forgiveness agenda. "So in this election year, we know that the Kamala [Harris] administration, they are aiming to continue some of the plans that the Biden administration has already started. So defending the SAVE Plan and going towards that broad forgiveness," Rubin explains.