Personal finance

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

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

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

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

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

The Good Brigade | DigitalVision | Getty Images After a two-year hiatus on automated collection notices, the IRS said it will soon resume sending such letters — and experts have tips if you receive one.  In February 2022, the agency suspended automated collection notices to devote resources to its backlog of unprocessed correspondence and returns.

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,

10’000 Hours | Digitalvision | Getty Images Consumers pumped record money into annuities in 2023, on the back of higher interest rates and anxiety about the stock market and U.S. economy, experts said. Americans bought about $360 billion of annuities this year, according to an estimate by Limra, an insurance industry group. That would handily

Medianews Group | Getty Images The Powerball jackpot has soared to an estimated $572 million — and the big winner may wonder when the best time is to claim their prize. It’s the fourth Powerball jackpot to exceed $500 million in 2023, and there have been 29 consecutive drawings without a winner. The next Powerball

GlobalStock | Getty Images Workers who turn 62 years old might be tempted to increase their income by claiming Social Security retirement benefits. But those claimants should understand that their Social Security benefits may be temporarily reduced due to the income they earn. That Social Security rule — the retirement earnings test — is “poorly

Srdjanpav | E+ | Getty Images When it comes to the holidays, there’s one thing most workers don’t want to receive: a pink slip. But that’s exactly what some employees are getting this year. Citigroup is in the midst of layoffs as part of a corporate overhaul. Other companies to recently shed workers include e-commerce

Catherine Falls Commercial | Moment | Getty Images The page has almost turned on 2023 — and that means time is running out to make certain tax moves by year’s end, or else risk missing out on their benefits. Here are some tax strategies to consider before ringing in the new year, according to advisors

Morsa Images | Getty Images Inflation has given millions of people new access to certain investments earmarked for the wealthy — and consumer advocates argue that’s not a good thing. Americans must generally be “accredited” to invest in private companies and investments such as private equity and hedge funds. That accredited status is a consumer

Scott Olson | Getty The Powerball jackpot has jumped to an estimated $543 million without a winner from Saturday night’s drawing. It’s the fourth Powerball jackpot to rise above half a billion dollars in 2023, and there are two grand prize options: a lump sum payout of $272.2 million or an annuitized payout of $543

Bymuratdeniz | E+ | Getty Images In October, the pandemic-era pause on student loan payments expired, and the bills resumed for some 22 million people. Just 60% of those borrowers had made a payment by mid-November, new U.S. Department of Education data shows. In a recent blog post on the findings, U.S. Department of Education

A patient waiting for an appointment at a medical clinic. Drs Producoes | E+ | Getty Images Most employees sign up for the workplace health-care plan during open enrollment, and then don’t think much about it afterward. But there are steps you can take at the start of the new year to get the most