Personal finance

T-Mobile Weeks after applying for public service loan forgiveness, a federal program that forgives student loan debt for eligible workers, Kathleen Young got a phone call. The woman on the other end said she could help Young forgive her student debt. Young, an elementary school teacher in Palo Alto, California, assumed it was the U.S.

Those who hire a lawn-care company will reap time and energy savings for a relatively small monthly cost. davidf | E+ | Getty Images During our working years, saving for the future is critical to one day achieving financial independence. At the same time, we are working to meet other financial goals, such as paying

With schools and parents divided on mask and vaccine requirements, many school districts are planning to be fully in person in the fall — and hoping for the best. “We are all in this together,” said Michael Lubelfeld, superintendent of North Shore School District, just north of Chicago.   Lubelfeld said he will follow Illinois

Sam Edwards | Getty Images One type of annuity may be poised to get a bit of a makeover. Under bipartisan retirement legislation pending in both the House and Senate, the rules applying to qualified longevity annuity contracts, or QLACs, would be changed. Although the two chambers’ provisions differ somewhat, both would remove the 25%

The Biden administration announced Friday it will extend the payment pause for federal student loan borrowers through January 2022. Since March 2020, borrowers have been given the option to press the pause button on their monthly bills, without interest accruing on their debt. Some 90% of borrowers have been doing so. The pause was scheduled

Tara Moore | Getty Images When the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic sent shock waves through the U.S. economy, its also prompted worries about how the ensuing downturn could affect Social Security. The program’s trust funds were already running low. At the same time, the Social Security Administration was faced with the unprecedented task of

Hunter Hastings / 500px | 500px | Getty Images Although everyone wants to leave the pandemic behind, the loss of the financial relief many families received because of the crisis will be less easy to part with. Stimulus checks, more generous jobless benefits, expanded money to feed children and other aid and protections kept the

It might be time, again, to protect your credit. An estimated 1 million U.S. and global credit cards were released by a Russian criminal organization on the so-called dark web, according to analysts at cybersecurity firm Q6. The group, which calls itself “All World Cards,” offers stolen credit card information to other criminals. Although there’s

Photo by Ariel Skelley via Getty Images Investors are piling into municipal bonds — also known as muni bonds or “munis” — ahead of President Joe Biden‘s proposed tax hikes. However, some retirees may be hit with a costly surprise: higher Social Security levies and Medicare premiums.  During the first six months of 2021, U.S.

Job seekers speak with recruiters at a Job News USA career fair in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 23, 2021. Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images About half of U.S. states withdrew federal funds for the unemployed months early to encourage out-of-work residents to find a job. But mounting evidence shows that policy gambit hasn’t yet paid

kate_sept2004 | E+ | Getty Images Many Americans were financially squeezed even before the Covid-19 pandemic began. As of 2019, 41% of households ages 25 to 64 said they did not have enough saved to cover an unexpected $400 expense, according to Federal Reserve data. One reason they may have had trouble setting aside cash:

Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images Most states are re-imposing a requirement to look for work as a condition of getting unemployment benefits — and the holdouts may soon do the same. So-called “work search” rules have long been a condition for the jobless to receive income support from the government. It

Marko Geber You’ve reached your emergency fund savings goal, and have the capacity to continue saving even more. Where should you put the money? For younger investors, it’s especially important that they’re putting some of their longer-term savings into the stock market. With years and even decades until they need that money, they stand to

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, left, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., speak at a July 28, 2021 news conference in Washington, D.C. Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images As U.S. Senators hammer out the $1 trillion bipartisan federal infrastructure bill, a provision in the measure seeks to raise funds with a crackdown on cryptocurrency tax reporting.

ArtMarie | E+ | Getty Images ‘Vaccine hesitancy’ has become a popular term as public officials urge unvaccinated Americans to protect themselves against the latest Covid-19 outbreak. Now it turns out there’s also another uncertainty — ‘tax hesitancy’ — that is taking hold among some parents over the expanded monthly child tax credit payments. The

In this article BTC.CB= DOGE.CM= DASH Eva-Katalin | E+ | Getty Images The incredible performance in the stock market following the coronavirus selloff has enticed new investors. For many, the gains have been just too good to pass up. Christian Nassif, 24, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is one such investor. Nassif, who drives for both

In this article AXP The South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images Summer travel is back, big time. That’s according to a survey released Tuesday by American Express Travel, where consumer travel bookings have reached 95% of May 2019 levels. But while affluent Americans are itching to

pcess609 If nothing changes, the federal government’s break from payments for student loan borrowers will come to an end next month. For the first time since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and crippled the economy, millions of borrowers will have to resume paying their monthly bills. The typical federal student loan

Los Angeles County Regional Food Bank workers help with food distribution in Willowbrook, California on April 29, 2021. FREDERIC J. BROWN | AFP | Getty Images Millions of jobless Americans are poised to lose Covid-era income support in about a month’s time. This impending “benefits cliff” appears different from others that loomed this past year,

Alexander Spatari | Moment | Getty Images You’ll probably have to use cryptocurrency to pay off that ransomware hacker who froze your laptop, but where else might you put all your bitcoin, ethereum and other digital coins to actual use? Tesla may still be unsure about accepting bitcoin for its electric vehicles again, yet cryptocurrency