Personal finance

Flashpop | Stone | Getty Images Getting impatient waiting to hear if your student loans will be forgiven? Millions of other borrowers are in the same spot. The topic of loan cancellation has been floated for years now. On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden promised to forgive at least $10,000 of the debt for

Gaviota Azul beach in Cancun, Mexico. Getty Images Just as countries have started to lift pandemic travel bans and Americans begin to at least think about booking vacations abroad, the spread of the delta and omicron variants of Covid-19 has thrown the tourism industry’s fortunes to the wind again. That said, hope springs eternal and

MilosStankovic | E+ | Getty Images People have the best of intentions. At the start of a new year, millions make resolutions — goals they want to reach throughout the upcoming months. Getting a handle on money issues is usually near the top of many such lists. The most financial popular goals are paying down

One thing is for sure: 2022 is going to cost you. Between inflation and ongoing supply chain issues, prices are rising on consumer goods nearly across the board. “I really don’t think there’s any way to escape,” said Julie Ramhold, a consumer analyst with DealNews.com. But that doesn’t mean you can’t shop smarter for the

A young woman walks past a Bitcoin symbol in the window of a company that offers blockchain application services. Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images Bitcoin took a beating in December — but that price plunge opens a tax loophole for investors. The cryptocurrency lost about 18% this month through Thursday, with

Ariel Skelley | DigitalVision | Getty Images Looking to be happier with your life and finances in 2022? The answer may be finding professional help. People who worked with a financial advisor were found to be nearly three times happier than those who didn’t, according to a study by Herbers & Company. Predictors of happiness

Phynart Studio | E+ | Getty Images When the calendar flips to 2022, certain Medicare costs will creep higher. For the program’s 63.6 million beneficiaries — most of whom are 65 or older — annual adjustments can affect premiums, deductibles and other cost-sharing aspects of Medicare. While each change doesn’t necessarily involve a huge dollar

valentinrussanov | E+ | Getty Images If you’re among the many workers who are headed for the door, be sure not to forget about the retirement savings account you’re leaving behind. While there have been signs that the so-called “Great Resignation” has slowed — the rate of workers quitting their jobs declined in October, according

Marko Geber If you couldn’t max out your individual retirement account in 2021, don’t despair. There’s still time to make a contribution to traditional and Roth IRAs. The deadline for putting money into IRAs for this year is April 15, 2022, giving savers an additional four months to contribute. For 2021, the maximum contribution to

Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images New Year’s Day luck could end up making a Powerball player a few hundred million dollars richer.  No ticket matched all six numbers drawn Wednesday, which means the jackpot has climbed higher: It’s an advertised $483 million for Saturday night’s drawing, up from $441 million. The top prize

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg Democrats seem to have nixed the idea of taxing returns on unsold stock and other assets, favoring other ways to raise revenue as part of a nearly $2 trillion social and climate bill. Scrapping that tax on “unrealized capital gains” would primarily benefit the richest Americans, who hold the bulk of the country’s

Jose Luis Pelaez Inc | DigitalVision | Getty Images Coming off several years of outsized gains in the stock market, investors may be hoping 2022 is like deja vu again. Don’t count on it. While future performance is impossible to predict with certainty, many financial advisors expect returns will come back down to Earth. “We

FG Trade | E+ | Getty Images Vanguard investors have been grappling with partial website outages over the past several days that have blocked some customers from trade confirmations, certain statements and forms. These interruptions may cause problems for those making year-end transactions, such as required minimum distributions, as there’s a 50% penalty for missing the

Brendan McDermid | Reuters Almost as predictable as the big jolly elf himself, the Santa Claus rally in the stock market comes around in late December. That is, the markets tend to rise over a stretch of time right before and after the calendar flips to the new year. Specifically, the rally involves the last

FatCamera | E+ | Getty Images Open enrollment for the public health insurance marketplace lasts a month longer than usual this year — which means there’s still time to get coverage. Through Jan. 15 — unless your state has a different closing date — you and your family can sign up for a plan through

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images After making payments on her student loans since 2005, Karen Tongson is finally free of her debt. In November, Tongson, an English and gender studies professor, signed into her loan account and discovered her balance had fallen from $47,000 to $0, thanks to

Holiday shopping returned with a vengeance this year. But going into debt is one gift you can’t return. After Americans paid off a record $83 billion in credit card debt in 2020, helped by government stimulus checks and fewer opportunities for discretionary purchases, credit card balances are heading higher once again.  Overall, credit card balances rose by $17

Victoria Popova | iStock | Getty Images Student loan borrowers got some happy news this holiday season: They’ll have an additional three months before they have to start making their payments again. The payment pause, which has been in effect since March 2020, was scheduled to expire Jan. 31, but the Biden administration announced it

Integrity Pictures Inc | The Image Bank | Getty Images The share of employers allowing Roth 401(k) savings surged last year, giving more workers access to the financial benefits that accompany such contributions. A Roth is a type of after-tax account. Workers pay taxes up front on 401(k) savings, but investment growth and account withdrawals

Whenever Anne Helen Petersen and her partner Charlie Warzel, both journalists, were on a trip, they’d find themselves talking about moving to wherever they were visiting. “It would happen when we went to Santa Fe and to the Catskills,” Petersen said. “It was every single place.” That told them that they weren’t happy in New