Personal finance

Fstop123 | E+ | Getty Images As the cost of everyday goods swell, retirees living on a fixed income are likely feeling especially squeezed. The recent cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security checks of around 6% this year isn’t enough of a shield for many with grocery and energy, including gasoline, prices seeing their biggest jump

Tom Werner | DigitalVision | Getty Images If you haven’t filed your taxes, there are four weeks until the federal deadline, which is April 18 for most Americans.   Some 63.5 million payers have sent returns through March 11, according to the latest IRS filing data, with an average refund of $3,352. However, millions of Americans have

A man walks past a bitcoin symbol in the window of a company that offers blockchain application services on Dec. 21, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. Bitcoin and other virtual currencies rose strongly in value in 2021. Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images Financial advisors have been reluctant to integrate cryptocurrency into client

In this article TREE Tetra Images | Getty Images Many Americans are planning to use any refunds they get from the IRS to grow their personal wealth. Some 46% of people plan to save their refunds, according to a LendingTree survey of more than 1,000 taxpayers conducted online Feb. 7 through Feb. 10. That figure

Allison Greenwald, senior product manager at The Alley Group, spent five weeks in Alaska while working a flexible schedule. Courtesy: Allison Greenwald Millions of Americans are quitting their jobs and rethinking what they want when it comes to work and work-life balance. Companies are responding, meeting their employees’ needs in areas like remote work, flexible

Eakgrunge | Istock | Getty Images Ageism is one of the most unfair paradoxes in the labor market: People put in decades of hard work and then find themselves penalized for having done so. And the problem is only worsening: Nearly 80% of older workers say they’ve seen or experienced age discrimination in the workplace,

Brauns | E+ | Getty Images Siraba Keita survived New York’s deadliest fire in decades — only to see her bank freeze the savings she needed to pick up the pieces. Her story reflects the hardship of many low-income Americans in a system that seems to prioritize debt collectors over a bank’s customers, according to

Erin M. Collins Source: Erin M. Collins If you’re one of the millions of Americans grappling with IRS issues, you may not realize there’s another option for your unresolved problems. The Taxpayer Advocate Service, known as TAS, is an independent organization within the agency, providing one-on-one guidance and fighting for systemic changes. Erin Collins, the

In this article TRU EXPN-GB EFX A medical worker walks past a row of ambulances parked outside of Houston Methodist Hospital amid the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). in Houston, Texas, U.S., June 22, 2020. Callaghan O’Hare | Reuters A large number of U.S. consumers will have their medical debt wiped from their

IRS commissioner Charles Rettig testifies during the Senate Finance Committee hearing on June 8, 2021. Tom Williams | Pool | Reuters The IRS is still digging through tens of millions of unprocessed tax returns with roughly four weeks until the 2021 filing deadline. But Commissioner Charles Rettig expects the backlog to clear by year-end. The

Fg Trade | E+ | Getty Images If you’re planning a wedding this year, you’re in good company. A record number of weddings — about 2.5 million — are expected in 2022, the most since 1984, according to wedding market research firm The Wedding Report. That’s up from 1.9 million in 2021 and 1.3 million

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images After spending decades as your parents’ child, becoming the caregiver for Mom or Dad can be a jarring role reversal. Yet for an estimated 42 million Americans, providing care for a parent or other adult relative age 50 or older is a daily reality, according to a recent study

Alexanderford | E+ | Getty Images Americans are paying more for a broad swath of household goods these days. Even items without a higher sticker price may still cost more — it’s just hard to notice at first glance. That’s because some companies have reduced the contents of their packaging. A cannister that used to

Westend61 | Getty Images The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is degrading Americans’ financial outlook, sparking the desire to save more and postpone investing, according to a survey from MassMutual. But steering clear of stock market volatility may be a mistake, financial experts say. Two-thirds of Americans worry the conflict will hurt their wallets, with nearly half

Nine-year-old student Roberto Nieves Fernandez studies personal finance topics on his laptop using online resource center SmartPath. SMARTPATH More states are requiring students to take personal finance education courses before they graduate high school. There are currently 23 states that mandate a personal finance course for students, according to the 2022 Survey of the States

skynesher Bond investors are watching as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates for the first time since 2018 to combat surging prices. Annual inflation rose by 7.9% in February, a new 40-year high, affecting everyday costs like groceries, housing and gasoline. The central bank’s quarter-point increase on Wednesday may set the stage for future hikes,

Forty-eight percent of respondents told Kind Traveler their greatest challenge in traveling sustainably is finding accommodations that are both “sustainable and socially conscious.” Klaus Vedfelt | Digitalvision | Getty Images Everyone likes a bargain when it comes to booking travel, but many also want the money they spend to do some good where they’re headed,

A woman wearing a protective mask walks past the New York Stock Exchange on March 12, 2020 in New York City. Pablo Monsalve | VIEWpress | Corbis via Getty Images Two years ago, on March 16, 2020, stock markets suffered a one-day 12% drop. From Feb. 19 to March 23 of that year, when the

Yongyuan | E+ | Getty Images Workers who save in a 401(k) plan offered by a small business pay fees that are twice as high as those paid by employees who work at the largest companies in the U.S. The smallest workplace retirement plans (those with less than $25 million in aggregate savings) charge total

In this article AVD Pixelfit | E+ | Getty Images Vanguard Group and its executives created big tax bills for some investors in its target-date funds, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in aggregate, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. The lawsuit, filed in a Pennsylvania federal court by three investors, claims the investment