Personal finance

Before the pandemic, college was a given for many high school students. Now, more are finding there are affordable alternatives that might make sense. Kate Lillemoen, 21, recently completed a coding bootcamp instead of finishing her four-year degree. Armed with a certification from Tech Elevator, Lillemoen now works as a software engineer in Columbus, Ohio.

kool99 | iStock | Getty Images Life without student loan payments has come to feel normal for many. Borrowers, after all, haven’t needed to make a payment on their debt since March 2020, or for nearly a year and a half. But when the White House announced its most recent extension of the break last

Wide open spaces like national parks and beaches continue to be popular for long holiday weekend travel. Thomas Barwick | Stone | Getty Images A surge in Covid-19 infections due to the delta variant may be slowing the rebound from the pandemic, but Labor Day travelers looking for a last summer hurrah — and with

A woman waits in a line outside a temporary unemployment office in Frankfort, Kentucky in June. Bryan Woolston | Reuters Misty Todd has used unemployment benefits to pay bills since losing her convenience-store job in March last year.  But the 37-year-old Las Vegas resident is unsure how she’ll afford rent, groceries and essentials for her

Tippapatt | iStock | Getty Images It’s yet another example of how the pandemic’s economic recovery has been uneven: While overall credit card debt is on the decline, others are seeing their balances mushroom into huge figures. Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counseling agency, recently analyzed the credit card balances of renters who sought

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Being in the market for a new car right now is challenging, to say the least. Heading into the long Labor Day weekend, transaction prices remain elevated. While the three-day stretch normally marks when dealerships hold big sales events to clear their lots and make room for

OLIVIER DOULIERY | AFP | Getty Images More than a third of jobless Americans in August were long-term unemployed as benefits for these workers are set to expire. About 3.2 million people — or 37.4% of the total unemployed — have been out of work for at least six months, the official barometer for long-term

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images Jobless workers will soon receive their last payment of pandemic-era unemployment benefits. Federal programs that have helped millions of unemployed Americans during the Covid health crisis end this weekend. These programs, created by the CARES Act in March 2020, issued benefits on a historic level, unrivaled since the unemployment system

Photo: Image Source | Getty Images When you’re in your 20s, retirement saving may not be the first goal on your financial checklist — if you even have one. Yet starting to save for retirement as early as possible can set you up for success in the long-term. “It’s totally understandable, because it’s tough when

Tomas Rodriguez | Picture Press | Getty Images As millions of families care for aging relatives, many overlook tax breaks that may help ease the financial burden.  Roughly 19% of Americans provided unpaid care for an adult with health or functional needs in 2020, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving, and those numbers continue to

David Lees | Stone | Getty Images Most Americans aren’t prepared for retirement. While most non-retired adults have some type of nest egg, only 36% think their retirement savings are on track, according to the Federal Reserve. A separate survey from the Insured Retirement Institute found that most workers don’t have sufficient retirement savings and

A Social Security Administration office in San Francisco. Getty Images Social Security’s latest report on the status of the trust funds on which it relies to pay benefits has both good and bad news. The good news is that the funds have not been as hard hit by the Covid-19 as was initially feared, due

vitapix | E+ | Getty Images Tax breaks for retirement plans, such as 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts, may reward workers for saving more money, but these write-offs may also be widening the racial wealth gap. That’s according to a new analysis from the Tax Policy Center that is based on the Federal Reserve’s latest Survey

Dartanian Stovall looks at the house that collapsed with him inside during the height of Hurricane Ida in New Orleans. Michael DeMocker | USA TODAY Network via Reuters If you’ve winced at the destruction caused by Hurricane Ida along the Gulf Coast, you may want to consider whether you’re prepared in case the next big

zimmytws | iStock | Getty Images A new report released by the Social Security Administration on Tuesday reveals new estimates of just how much the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the program’s already ailing trust funds. The results show the funds from which the program pays benefits have been “significantly affected” by both the pandemic and

Visoot Uthairam | Moment | Getty Images Scammers have bilked Americans out of $545 million in Covid-related fraud since the beginning of 2020 in a range of schemes from online shopping to travel, according to the FTC. The agency received almost 589,000 consumer complaints associated with the pandemic from Jan. 1, 2020 to Aug. 30,

Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images Even as the delta variant of Covid-19 upends return to work and school plans, many parents who are now sidelined are plotting a return to work. About 81% of parents who are looking for job openings are planning to do so for financial reasons, according to a new survey conducted

SDI Productions Expecting an enhanced write-off for charitable gifts in 2021? The deduction won’t look the same as it did in 2020, according to tax experts.  As the pandemic ravaged American lives, Congress added a provision to the CARES Act to spark more charitable giving: an improved tax deduction for cash gifts up to $300

Financial schemes and scams were most frequently reported to have stemmed from a phone call. sturti | Getty Images If you get an email, letter or call about student loan debt forgiveness, pause before you send along any of your personal information. It could be a scam. Amid a rise in calls for broad-based student

Michele Treacy and family with her late father Col. Lester Marlon Romine Courtesy of: Michele Treacy Michele Treacy lost her father at the beginning of the pandemic. However, a delayed tax refund has prolonged the grief she and her family are feeling and prevented them from finding closure. Treacy’s father, Col. Lester Romine, 91, passed