Personal finance

The Biden administration announced Friday it will extend the payment pause for federal student loan borrowers through January 2022. Since March 2020, borrowers have been given the option to press the pause button on their monthly bills, without interest accruing on their debt. Some 90% of borrowers have been doing so. The pause was scheduled

More than 11 million Americans continue to report being behind on their rent. How much renters owe varies greatly from one state and county to the next, according to data provided to CNBC by Surgo Ventures, a nonprofit organization focusing on health and data. Across the country, the average renter in arrears owes $3,700. The

Photo by Ariel Skelley via Getty Images Investors are piling into municipal bonds — also known as muni bonds or “munis” — ahead of President Joe Biden‘s proposed tax hikes. However, some retirees may be hit with a costly surprise: higher Social Security levies and Medicare premiums.  During the first six months of 2021, U.S.

It might be time, again, to protect your credit. An estimated 1 million U.S. and global credit cards were released by a Russian criminal organization on the so-called dark web, according to analysts at cybersecurity firm Q6. The group, which calls itself “All World Cards,” offers stolen credit card information to other criminals. Although there’s

FG Trade | E+ | Getty Images Sometimes, older Americans discover that retirement just isn’t a good fit. Whether due to needing more income or wanting personal fulfillment, many older Americans head back to work after calling it quits. Of workers age 65 or older, 40% had previously retired at some point, according to a

Job seekers speak with recruiters at a Job News USA career fair in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 23, 2021. Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images About half of U.S. states withdrew federal funds for the unemployed months early to encourage out-of-work residents to find a job. But mounting evidence shows that policy gambit hasn’t yet paid

kate_sept2004 | E+ | Getty Images Many Americans were financially squeezed even before the Covid-19 pandemic began. As of 2019, 41% of households ages 25 to 64 said they did not have enough saved to cover an unexpected $400 expense, according to Federal Reserve data. One reason they may have had trouble setting aside cash:

Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images Most states are re-imposing a requirement to look for work as a condition of getting unemployment benefits — and the holdouts may soon do the same. So-called “work search” rules have long been a condition for the jobless to receive income support from the government. It

mphillips007 | iStock Unreleased | Getty Images When it comes to the lottery, it’s been a good year so far for Uncle Sam. Winners of Powerball and Mega Millions jackpots — worth an advertised $2.9 billion in all — have collectively paid roughly $515 million to the IRS in 2021 taxes. And that won’t be

ArtMarie | E+ | Getty Images ‘Vaccine hesitancy’ has become a popular term as public officials urge unvaccinated Americans to protect themselves against the latest Covid-19 outbreak. Now it turns out there’s also another uncertainty — ‘tax hesitancy’ — that is taking hold among some parents over the expanded monthly child tax credit payments. The

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, left, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., speak at a July 28, 2021 news conference in Washington, D.C. Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images As U.S. Senators hammer out the $1 trillion bipartisan federal infrastructure bill, a provision in the measure seeks to raise funds with a crackdown on cryptocurrency tax reporting.

In this article AXP The South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images Summer travel is back, big time. That’s according to a survey released Tuesday by American Express Travel, where consumer travel bookings have reached 95% of May 2019 levels. But while affluent Americans are itching to

pcess609 If nothing changes, the federal government’s break from payments for student loan borrowers will come to an end next month. For the first time since March 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. and crippled the economy, millions of borrowers will have to resume paying their monthly bills. The typical federal student loan

Samuel Corum | Getty Images News | Getty Images States’ early withdrawals from federal unemployment programs in recent weeks are helping Senate lawmakers finance upgrades to the nation’s infrastructure, according to legislative text unveiled Sunday. Twenty-six states, largely Republican, have pulled out of pandemic-era programs since mid-June. The American Rescue Plan offered federal unemployment assistance

Los Angeles County Regional Food Bank workers help with food distribution in Willowbrook, California on April 29, 2021. FREDERIC J. BROWN | AFP | Getty Images Millions of jobless Americans are poised to lose Covid-era income support in about a month’s time. This impending “benefits cliff” appears different from others that loomed this past year,

Alexander Spatari | Moment | Getty Images You’ll probably have to use cryptocurrency to pay off that ransomware hacker who froze your laptop, but where else might you put all your bitcoin, ethereum and other digital coins to actual use? Tesla may still be unsure about accepting bitcoin for its electric vehicles again, yet cryptocurrency

As the delta variant drives new Covid cases across country, the pandemic’s economic impact continues to weigh heavily on college enrollment. Now, with another class of undergraduates set to start classes in the fall, families are once again struggling with the cost. Nearly two-thirds of parents, or 63%, said their child’s post-high school plans have

Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images The IRS began issuing another 1.5 million tax refunds this week to people who received unemployment benefits in 2020. That adds to the nearly 9 million refunds, worth about $10 billion, the agency sent since May. Funds delivered by direct deposit this week started hitting bank accounts on Wednesday, and

teekid | E+ | Getty Images Although the national ban on evictions that’s been in effect for almost a year will expire tomorrow, there’s still time for struggling renters to apply for federal aid. Congress has allocated more than $45 billion in rental assistance to address the crisis, and only a sliver of the money

d3sign | Moment | Getty Images Around 4 million children in low-income families are at risk of not getting a monthly payment of the expanded child tax credit this year, according to a report published Thursday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The IRS began issuing monthly payments of the tax credit on