Personal finance

The age at which you claim Social Security helps determine how big your monthly retirement benefit checks will be for life. If you wait until your full retirement age — generally 66 or 67 — to claim, you will get 100% of what you earned based on your contributions to the program. And if you

Jeffrey Coolidge | Getty Images Rising inflation is a concern for Kevin Linehan, 68, a retiree in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. After a heart attack at age 44, Linehan left his career with the Postal Service early, opting for reduced disability retirement income. “It wasn’t the best financial thing to do,” he said. “But at the time,

skynesher As Covid-19 restrictions lift and summer kicks off, it may be tempting to get distracted by vacations, concerts, barbecues and camping. But financial experts say it’s also the perfect opportunity for a midyear tax progress report. A tax checkup shows if you’re on track and may uncover ways to save over the next six

RealPeopleGroup | E+ | Getty Images If you’re one of the millions of Americans who have quit their job in recent months, you may be eager to move on to whatever is next for you. Yet because our work and the rest of our lives are often interwoven in a number of important ways, you’ll

Twenty/20 We may not know what stocks in the S&P 500 will do next month, or in two years, but over the decades, we have a pretty good hunch that they’ll go up. Most of us also know what a stock is, and that definition hasn’t changed in centuries. None of that is true, of

blackCAT | E+ | Getty Images If you invest through Robinhood, you may get early access to shares when the company goes public. The online brokerage is reserving 20% to 35% of shares to be sold in an initial public offering for its customers, according to its most recent regulatory filing. While it’s uncertain exactly

Three sun-and-sand spots — California, Florida and Hawaii — account for a quarter or more of all flights and car rentals this weekend. Erik Isakson | Tetra images | Getty Images As people head into the long July 4 weekend, travel bookings are at last nearing pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis from TripIt

CHUYN | iStock | Getty Images Figures from the IRS show who has received money from the third stimulus checks for up to $1,400 per person — and there are some surprises. In fact, some people with adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 received a cut. The IRS reports 127,751 payments went to taxpayers in that

In this article DNUT Biden administration says it will fall short of its Fourth of July vaccination goal All the free beer, doughnuts and baseball tickets won’t be enough to keep up the pace of vaccinations. President Joe Biden’s goal of getting at least one shot in the arms of 70% of U.S. adults before the

Brothers91 | E+ | Getty Images Anyone who is receiving — or already received — unemployment benefits in 2021 could discover they now qualify for no-cost or low-cost private health insurance. As of Thursday, zero-premium health plans that come with minimal or no cost-sharing — i.e., deductibles and copays — are available through the Affordable

Tourists visit the Wall Street bull statue in the Financial District, New York City. Drew Angerer | Getty Images Americans are feeling less comfortable about investing in the stock market long-term, even though it’s one of the best ways to get ahead. In 2021, 28% of Americans said that real estate was their preferred way

Anchiy | E+ | Getty Images Many people have hired a tax professional to make sure they do not run afoul of the IRS. But who is regulating those tax preparers? You may be surprised to find out there are few government controls in place. Now, a bill that was just reintroduced in Congress last

kate_sept2004 | E+ | Getty Images If you haven’t gotten your 2020 tax refund, you are in good company. At the end of the 2021 filing season in May, the IRS had a backlog of 35 million tax returns that still needed to be manually processed, according to a report released Wednesday by the National

Yuriko Nakao | Getty Images When it comes to investing in the new and highly volatile asset class of cryptocurrencies, most financial advisors have at least one piece of wisdom: Don’t put in more than you can afford to lose. But while that rule of thumb is helpful, it’s pretty general. And so advisors are

In this article DOGE.CM= Germany-based travel site GetYourGuide has debuted U.S. offerings and the ability to pay with dogecoin. GetYourGuide German travel booking site GetYourGuide marked its expansion into the U.S. market Tuesday with the announcement that it now accepts dogecoin for payment. The Berlin-based firm, which says it’s booked 45 million-plus tours in 170

Jose Luis Pelaez | Getty Images Investors who want to capitalize on emerging trends — i.e., electric vehicles or remote work — may want to check out “thematic” exchange-traded funds. These ETFs provide a way for investors to engage in so-called thematic investing, which generally means buying stocks or other investments that may benefit from

Jason York | Getty Images State lawmakers around the country are increasingly tackling the retirement-savings gap head on. Maine has become the latest jurisdiction to enact a law to require most employers that don’t offer a retirement plan to automatically enroll their workers in an individual retirement account through a state-administered program. The New York

Oxford | Getty Images Your emergency savings could be in danger of losing value due to one thing: inflation. Costs are rising on everything from gasoline, which has jumped 20% during the pandemic, to bacon, which is up 18.7%. Meanwhile, persistently low interest rates mean it’s tougher to earn a return on your cash and

Getty Images Some part-time workers who stay on the job may get faster access to their company’s 401(k) plan. As part of retirement legislation pending in Congress, workers who book between 500 and 999 hours for two consecutive years would generally be eligible for their employer’s plan. That would be a reduction from the current

The Covid-19 pandemic and economic shock that followed has made it more difficult for many parents and students to afford college. Yet even fewer families applied for financial aid this year. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, serves as the gateway to all federal aid money, including loans, work-study and grants, which are the most