Personal finance

Young woman counting money. Jose Luis Pelaez Inc As the calendar turns to a new year, many Americans are vowing to change their money habits. To that point, 48% of investors recently surveyed by Allianz Life Insurance Company say they are more likely to make and keep a financial resolution in 2024 to either save

mphillips007 | iStock Unreleased | Getty Images The Powerball jackpot has ballooned to an estimated $760 million — the sixth-largest prize in the game’s history — and experts have tips on what the lucky winner should do first. If you score the winning ticket, you’ll pick between one of two payouts: annual payments worth $760 million or a

Up until now, 529 savings plans were widely considered the best way to save for college. But there was always a major sticking point, according to financial experts and plan investors. The funds had to be used for qualified education expenses such as tuition, fees, books and room and board. Even though the restrictions had loosened in recent

Praetorianphoto | E+ | Getty Images The $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles will be easier for many consumers to claim in 2024, but it may be more difficult for others. These opposing dynamics are due to federal policies taking effect at the same time. One policy kicking in Jan. 1 will allow car

Xavier Lorenzo | Moment | Getty Images If you’re looking for a new job, get ready for more competition in the new year. “We see many more job seekers come and use our site in mid- to late-January,” said Scott Dobroski, career trends expert at Indeed. “It aligns to that new year, new you mentality,”

Tomasz Szulczewski | Moment | Getty Images Women continue to make great strides in the workforce, achieving increasing levels of education, and advancing into senior leadership positions. However, the gender pay gap — the difference between the earnings of men and women — has barely budged in recent years. In the U.S., women who work full

Student loan forgiveness advocates rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., after the nation’s high court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program, June 30, 2023. Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images Nearly a year before federal student loan payments restarted, the U.S. Department of Education warned

Tom Werner | Digitalvision | Getty Images As the calendar turns to a new year, you may be at risk for losing money if you have a flexible spending account. Many FSA owners have a Dec. 31 use-it-or-lose-it deadline to use the funds they have set aside for the year. The average forfeit of funds

Marco Bello | Reuters The price of bitcoin has surged in 2023 as investors await approval for the first U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which would be a milestone for cryptocurrency investors, experts say. In early December, the digital currency topped $44,000 for the first time since April 2022, and year-to-date gains were above 160%,

Blackcat | E+ | Getty Images Many student loan borrowers are struggling to resume their payments. When the bills restarted after a more than three-year-long reprieve, just 60% of people with federal education loans had made a payment by mid-November, U.S. Department of Education data shows. “The fact that so few borrowers have been able

Grocery items are offered for sale at a supermarket on August 09, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.  Scott Olson | Getty Images Heading into 2023, the predictions were nearly unanimous: a recession was coming. As the year comes to a close, the forecasted economic downturn did not arrive. So what’s in store for 2024? An economic

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images As we stand on the cusp of the new year, one trend on the investment landscape that has brought significant changes in past years appears unshakeable: exchange-traded funds. The ongoing popularity of ETFs is no coincidence. Historically speaking, stock portfolio and asset management were much like exclusive clubs, since

Sdi Productions | E+ | Getty Images While tax breaks are not the main reason for charitable giving, some strategies can help investors optimize their donations. It’s too late to execute some strategies with the end of 2023 just days away. “We encourage people to start thinking about charitable giving in June,” said Julie Goodridge,

Artistgndphotography | E+ | Getty Images It’s never too early to start planning for the upcoming tax season. As the year-end approaches, it’s a good time to get paperwork organized and make a checklist of tax forms you’ll need before filing, experts say. “You really need to be your own advocate,” said certified financial planner

Clemens Porikys | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images If you’re in your 40s, you probably have seen articles on how much you should have saved by now to comfortably retire. One guideline from Fidelity Investments calls for having three times your starting salary saved by 40, with the aim of growing that to six

Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images Retirement savers who want a taste of bitcoin without owning the cryptocurrency coins directly could soon gain the access they’ve been craving. The Jan. 10 deadline is nearing for U.S. regulators to decide whether to allow a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which would attempt to track the real-time

Andersen Ross Photography Inc | Digitalvision | Getty Images Some colleges offer and push financial products to students that can be exploitatively pricey, a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finds. “This analysis indicates that hundreds of colleges are paid by financial institutions to market certain products to students,” the bureau writes. “This

Betsie Van der Meer | Getty If you’re a last-minute holiday shopper still checking off the remaining gifts on your list, beware: You could be putting yourself at risk for fraud. “Procrastination is, quite frankly, one of the keys to success for crooks,” Paul Fabara, chief risk officer at Visa, recently told CNBC. “They assume that

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Brendan McDermid | Reuters More than a year after single-stock exchange-traded funds hit the U.S. market, risk-seeking investors continue to dive in. Single-stock ETFs were first introduced in Europe in 2018. There are now nearly four dozen single-stock ETFs in the U.S., many of

Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images Both new and used car purchases were expensive for drivers this year, as limited inventory and high borrowing costs affected affordability. “Interest rates have taken such a toll on purchasing power,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds. Yet, consumers might begin to see lower prices in 2024,