Personal finance

Westend61 | Getty More than 72.5 million Americans will see a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment in their Social Security and Supplemental Security Income checks in 2025. Before then, beneficiaries can expect to receive a notice detailing how their monthly checks will change. In December, the notices will be available online for beneficiaries who have My Social

Maskot | Digitalvision | Getty Images Prospective car buyers considering an electric vehicle may need to act fast to get a Biden-era EV tax credit worth up to $7,500, due to the likelihood that President-elect Donald Trump and Republicans on Capitol Hill will axe those savings in tax negotiations next year, according to auto and

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13, 2024. Allison Robbert | Via Reuters Congressional lawmakers will soon debate expiring tax breaks and new promises from President-elect Donald Trump. Agreeing on cuts and spending, however, could be a challenge. With a

Boogich | E+ | Getty Images Lenders often encourage federal student loan borrowers to enroll in automatic payments. It can seem like a good idea to do so: Borrowers don’t need to worry about missing a payment and often get a slightly lower interest rate in exchange. However, the decision can backfire in a lending

Inflation is cooling and wages are rising. Yet, few Americans — including millionaires — feel confident about their financial standing. Across all income and asset levels, 89% of Americans said they do not consider themselves wealthy, according to Fidelity Investments’ State of Wealth Mobility study. Fidelity polled 1,900 adults in August. “Only one-tenth of Americans consider themselves

Karl-Josef Hildenbrand/Picture Alliance via Getty Images The number of older Americans who report losing more than $100,000 to fraud in a given year has more than tripled since 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission, a trend that experts say represents a grave and growing threat to older adults’ financial security. In 2023, about 4,600

If you still haven’t booked your holiday travel plans, take note: Prices tend to rise the closer you get to the days you’re looking to travel.  To afford holiday trips, about 50% of respondents are cutting back on other expenses while 49% are picking up discounts and deals, according to the 2024 Holiday Travel Outlook

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump arrives on November 13, 2024 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.  Andrew Harnik | Getty Images President-elect Donald Trump‘s return to the White House is poised to have big impacts on consumer health care. Republicans may face few legislative roadblocks with their goals of reshaping health insurance in the U.S., experts said,

Baona | E+ | Getty Images Americans are determined to travel this holiday season — and certain workarounds are helping them take those trips.  The ability to work remotely is a major leg up when planning out itineraries. About 49% of employed travelers are “laptop luggers” — those who plan to work at some point

A customer visits Macy’s Herald Square store in New York City during early morning Black Friday sales, Nov. 24, 2023. Kena Betancur | Getty Images Typically, the five days beginning Thanksgiving Day and ending Cyber Monday are some of the busiest shopping days of the year. This year, the number of people shopping in stores

Voters line up to cast their ballots at a voting location in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 5, 2024. Samuel Corum | Afp | Getty Images When asked, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” the answer for many older voters ages 50 and over was “no,” according to a new post-election

Izusek | E+ | Getty Images Despite a strong year for the stock market, you could still be sitting on portfolio losses. But you can leverage down assets to score a tax break, experts say. The tactic, known as “tax-loss harvesting,” involves selling losing brokerage account assets to claim a loss. When you file your

A customer walks by a display of fresh eggs at a grocery store on Sept. 25, 2024 in San Anselmo, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images Progress in the fight to tame pandemic-era inflation appears to have stalled out in October, despite lower prices at the gasoline pump and a moderation in other consumer staples

97 | E+ | Getty Images As inflation has throttled back from pandemic-era highs, consumers have seen prices decline outright for many household items. This dynamic, known as deflation, generally doesn’t occur on a broad, sustained scale in the U.S. economy: With limited exceptions, businesses are generally loath to lower prices once they’ve increased, economists

Thomas Jefferson, 1848/1879. Artist George Peter Alexander Healy. Heritage Images | Hulton Fine Art Collection | Getty Images In “All The Presidents’ Money,” author Megan Gorman takes readers into a side of U.S. presidents that is often overlooked: how they managed their own money. Gorman writes about commanders in chief who were obsessively frugal, and

Collectively, Americans now owe a record $1.17 trillion on their credit cards, according to a new report on household debt from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Credit card balances rose by $24 billion in the third quarter of 2024 and are 8.1% higher than a year ago. Despite that increase, credit card delinquency

A student student sits in a lecture hall while class is being dismissed at the University of Texas at Austin on February 22, 2024 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell | Getty Images Nearly a third, 30%, of federal student loan borrowers say they’ve gone without food or medicine because of their monthly bills. That grim

Maskot | Getty Images A bipartisan bill to change Social Security benefit rules for pensioners passed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, with 327 lawmakers voting to support the measure. Now, the proposal heads to the Senate, where the chamber’s version of the bill has 62 co-sponsors, “surpassing the majority needed to pass the

Jamie Grill | Tetra Images | Getty Images For investors who want income, dividends may provide an answer. Dividends are corporate profits that companies pay to shareholders in the form of either cash or stock. In comparison to other income-paying investments — such as certificates of deposit, bonds or Treasurys — dividends may provide the

Americans tend to overspend during the holiday season. In fact, some borrowers are still paying off debt from last year’s purchases. To that point, 28% of shoppers who used credit cards have not paid off the presents they bought for their loved ones last year, according to a holiday spending report by NerdWallet. The site polled more