Personal finance

FREDERIC J. BROWN | AFP | Getty Images The U.S. added 850,000 jobs in June, the most since summer 2020 — which may have some wondering if recent state cuts to unemployment benefits are getting people back to work. The short answer: It’s too soon to tell, according to labor economists. However, available evidence suggests

Tara Moore | Getty Images Most Americans are worried that Social Security will run out in their lifetimes, and those fears have only gotten worse amid the Covid-19 pandemic. That’s according to a survey from financial services company Nationwide, which found that 71% of adults felt that way. Fears about the benefits program were highest

Yamiesha Bell, 27, started a book club focused on personal financial literacy and mindfulness one year ago. Yamiesha Bell In the last year, Raeshanna Mcanuff, 27, a cosmetic chemist, asked for a raise at her job. Adam Sherif, 24, who works at a music talent agency, paid off the first $30,000 of his $60,000 in

Peter Cade | Getty Images While inheriting money is typically a good thing, newer individual retirement account rules may leave some heirs with a smaller windfall. Thanks to the Secure Act of 2019, certain heirs now have less time to take IRA withdrawals. The law stopped the so-called stretch IRA, which allowed non-spouse beneficiaries to

Getty Images There are signs that the U.S. is rebounding from the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic. In June, the country added 850,000 jobs, more than expected, and is now 7.13 million below the February 2020 level. The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that the economy is on track to recover all jobs lost

Shoppers in San Francisco. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Covid-19 vaccinations are increasing, states are dropping their pandemic restrictions and Americans are feeling good about going out and spending after a year and a half spent mostly inside. “We are now coming out of a cave, basically, and there’s a lot of

Allen Weisselberg, center, chief financial officer of Trump Organization, exits from criminal court in New York on July 1, 2021. David Dee Delgado | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty to tax crimes on Thursday. Experts say the illegal practices the government alleges occurred

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,

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

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

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

Oliver Rossi | Stone | Getty Images There is never a better time to start building wealth than the present. Yet how to go about it depends on your age. “The better job you do with creating your financial security, the more flexibility it provides you to make better choices in the future,” said certified

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