Personal Finance

Alistair Berg | Digitalvision | Getty Images Death and taxes are, as Benjamin Franklin famously declared, two of life’s certainties. Investment fees may be a worthy addition to that list in the modern era — though not all investors are aware of this near-universal fact. The fees financial services firms charge can be murky. One-fifth

Fg Trade Latin | E+ | Getty Images Families will soon find college acceptance letters in their mailboxes. As students weigh where to attend, making sure they won’t borrow too much is key, experts say. The consequences of taking on too much student debt can be severe. “If you borrow too much, you will have

Andrew Bret Wallis | The Image Bank | Getty Images For retirees, health-care costs can be among the most unpredictable expenses they face over the course of their golden years. While many of them worry about affording their monthly Medicare premiums, their bigger concern is their out-of-pocket costs, recent research from eHealth shows. Fully 75%

When it comes to the U.S. economy, confidence is key. But the banking crisis has threatened to upset how most people feel about their financial picture. “The bank problems are probably making a lot of people think twice,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, an economics professor at George Washington University and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of

The Good Brigade | DigitalVision | Getty Images A couple of Medicare enrollment periods are underway — and both end soon. First, if you didn’t enroll in Medicare when you should have and you don’t qualify for a special enrollment period, you can sign up until March 31. Second, if you are already on Medicare

Recent bank woes and rising interest rates have prompted higher levels of economic uncertainty. When it comes to the markets, that means more volatility may be in the forecast. Volatility happens when the value of an investment “fluctuates wildly in a short period of time,” according to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. “In the months

Digital artist FEWOCiOUS auctions five NFT works of art, along with five physical paintings and drawings at Christie’s on June 28, 2021 in New York. Noam Galai | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images The IRS said it plans to tax some non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, as collectibles akin to art or gems — an

Amid turmoil in the financial sector and uncertainty ahead, the Federal Reserve will likely approve a 0.25 percentage point increase at this week’s policy meeting.  That will mark one year since the central bank began the current rate-raising cycle.   Over the last 12 months, inflation spiked to a 40-year high and only recently started

Tetra Images | Tetra Images | Getty Images The recent banking crisis has fueled concern of a “credit crunch” and the resulting negative impact on households, businesses and the U.S. economy. But what is a credit crunch and how might you prepare? Loans would be tougher to get related investing news Demand for Fed help

PeopleImages | Getty Images Contemplating your own death may not be on the list of things you’re eager to do. Yet for your family or other loved ones who would find themselves trying to sort out your affairs while also dealing with the emotional fallout from losing you, your having a so-called estate plan is

In this article SBNY Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT A Silicon Valley Bank office is seen in Tempe, Arizona, on March 14, 2023. Rebecca Noble | AFP | Getty Images The panic-induced customer withdrawals that imploded Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — and sent shock waves through financial markets and the broader banking

A protest sign outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28, 2023. The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images There’s no precedent in recent history for the sweeping federal student loan forgiveness policy President Joe Biden is trying to carry out. A look at the math of the program shows

In this article SBNY EFX Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Some consumers who tried to deposit an Equifax settlement check in recent days got a surprise: It bounced. The checks, a result of a legal settlement over the credit-reporting firm’s 2017 data breach, were written against an account

Brandon Bell | Getty Images Timing is everything, especially when it comes to real estate. But finding the perfect time to sell your home — especially if it’s your first time — may be a challenge as the residential real estate market fluctuates. A recent survey from Zillow finds 84% of first-time home sellers wish

Viorel Kurnosov | Istock | Getty Images With roughly two more months before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ends the three-year Covid public health emergency, more than 5 million of the nation’s households remain behind on their rent. All together, tenants continued to owe nearly $11 billion in rental debt during the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Photo: Bloomberg / Getty Images) With an acceptance rate of just under 4%, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is considered the ultimate dream school, according to a new survey of college-bound students and their families. However, it’s not only one of the hardest schools to get into

miodrag ignjatovic | E+ | Getty Images Some Medicare beneficiaries will begin paying less next month for 27 prescription drugs whose prices have increased at a rate that outpaces inflation, government officials announced Wednesday. Depending on their individual coverage, beneficiaries could save between $2 and $390 per average dose for these drugs starting April 1,

A customer shops at a grocery store in Brooklyn on Feb. 14, 2023. Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images The annual inflation rate in February continued its gradual cooling trend, though it remained well above policymakers’ target. Inflation is a measure of how quickly prices are rising or falling in the U.S. economy. The consumer price

Damircudic | Getty Images One of the ground rules for individual retirement account contributions is you must have “earned income,” such as wages or salary from a job or self-employment earnings. But there’s a special exception, known as a spousal IRA, which allows you to contribute based on your spouse’s earnings if you file taxes

In this article SBNY Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT A man walks by the headquarters of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10, 2023 in Santa Clara, California. Liu Guanguan | Getty Images The unexpected shutdowns of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank have prompted new questions about the level of protection for bank deposits

Starting in community college and then transferring to a four-year school is a proven pathway to getting a degree for significantly less money. Yet fewer students are going this route. Transfer enrollment from two-year colleges to four-year schools dropped again in fall 2022 compared with the previous year, this time sinking nearly 8%. This continues

While the thought of funding your retirement adequately might be daunting, if you start planning now you’ll certainly be thankful later. It also might not be as difficult as you think. Retirement usually entails replacing your onetime annual salary from a workplace with other income sources to maintain your current lifestyle. While Social Security may

In this article WU Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT The author in Argentinian Patagonia in February 2023. Here, the Spegazzini Glacier cascades into Lago Argentino, the third largest lake in South America. Waiting in an hourlong line at a Western Union wasn’t on my initial itinerary when planning a recent trip to Argentina. Yet

gilaxia If you’re in the market for a new car, be prepared for the possibility of paying more than sticker price. The average new-car price in February was $45,296, compared with the average manufacturer’s suggested retail price, or MSRP, of $41,637, according to new research from iSeeCars.com. An estimated 31% of new vehicles were sold

Visualspace | E+ | Getty Images Small business owners today may feel they’re getting pulled in two directions: stuck between wanting to offer a retirement benefit to their workers but feeling unable to afford costs associated with a 401(k) plan. But entrepreneurs scared by the affordability of maintaining a 401(k) plan can instead consider an

In this article AUTO-GB LNC MSFT AMZN GOOGL AAPL META Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Several large companies have announced significant job cuts in recent months: Google, Microsoft, Amazon and other tech companies collectively laid off more than 70,000 employees in the last year and there are no signs of that trend slowing down.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks about his 2024 budget at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia on March 9, 2023. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters Days after introducing a new plan to shore up Medicare, President Joe Biden called for “protecting and strengthening” Social Security with the introduction of his fiscal 2024 budget on Thursday. With

Willie B. Thomas/Hinterhouse Productions | Getty Images When it comes to retirement security for women, marriage may not give them the leg up it once did. Women who have spent the majority of their adult life single — whether due to divorce or never marrying — are now generally as well prepared for retirement as

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters The fate of the Biden administration’s sweeping plan to cancel $400 billion in student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans may hinge on the newest conservative member of the Supreme Court: Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett was the conservative justice who

During the coronavirus pandemic, child reading and math competency rates plummeted across the country. The National Assessment of Educational Progress found two decades of improvements were wiped away. The declines were widespread, but were most pronounced among the students who had already been struggling well before 2020. In a race to overcome the Covid-19 learning