Personal finance

New York schoolchildren study at home during the coronavirus lockdown on April 6, 2020. Peter Titmuss | Education Images | Getty Images Parents without bank accounts, take note: The IRS will not send any of the upcoming enhanced child tax credit payments via debit cards, according to a Treasury spokesperson. The payments, which are set

Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwards Rising consumer costs have helped push the latest estimate for next year’s Social Security cost-of-living adjustment to 5.3%. Whether that will actually be the bump retirees see to their monthly checks in 2022 depends a lot on the economy, including whether the Federal Reserve decides to raise interest rates. The

In this article DFS Fifty-six percent of travelers told Discover they’ll use contactless payment methods more often while on trips this year. martin-dm | E+ | Getty Images Most news about travel may have focused on health and safety since the pandemic hit over a year ago. However, cost and booking flexibility are now even

maybefalse | E+ | Getty Images You probably can come up with many things you’d rather do than spend time planning for your own death. However, there’s part of creating an estate plan that experts say deserves thoughtful consideration: choosing the individuals who will carry out the wishes in your will and who will make

Ariel Skelley | DigitalVision | Getty Many consider 529 college savings plans to be for education, but these accounts also offer a flexible way to transfer wealth.  There’s currently an estate tax exemption of $11.7 million per person. Although President Joe Biden campaigned on slashing the write-off to $3.5 million, it hasn’t been part of

shapecharge | E+ | Getty Images For workers who lose track of their 401(k) savings accounts, help may be on the way. Proposed retirement legislation that’s pending in Congress would create an online “lost and found” database to help locate those accounts, among a variety of other provisions. While lawmakers are in the early stages

Personal finance expert Suze Orman likes bitcoin. Not as a currency, but as a long-term investment, the best-selling author told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” Monday. Back in April, she said she told listeners of her podcast, Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen), “Any money that you can afford to lose, then I don’t

Jose Luis Pelaez, Inc. | Getty Images Almost half of Americans may leave the workforce earlier than expected. While white workers may have the means to retire early, Black workers are more likely to depart sooner due to health issues. That’s according to an Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research survey focusing on the

Miami Beach, Florida Artur Debat | Moment | Getty Images Interest in travel is picking up as the pandemic winds down, and cooped-up Americans are itching to hit the road again, two recent surveys have found. Travelers are thinking about booking trips to warm and sunny domestic climes — be they Sun Belt cities or

Erik Isakson | Tetra images | Getty Images Americans want their summer vacations. After a year of being pent up during the pandemic, 80% said they are ready to travel, according to a recent survey by tourism market research firm Destination Analysts. However, with that demand comes higher prices. Airline tickets are up 7% for

In this article IRSA3-AR Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images Jeff Lavigne plans to use a tax refund this year for long-delayed medical help. Yet his refund, almost $2,700, has been in limbo since mid-March, when Lavigne filed his tax return, records show. The IRS flagged the return for potential identity theft — as it did

The beach at Wildwood, New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore on May 27, 2021. Spencer Platt | Getty Images Certified public accountants have a message for New Jersey-based clients: It’s time to move to a lower-cost state. That’s according to a recent survey from the New Jersey Society of CPAs, which found that 70% of

Icicles hang off the State Highway 195 sign on Feb. 18, 2021 in Killeen, Texas. Joe Raedle | Getty Images The threat of climate change is shifting some older Americans’ retirement plans. Extreme weather such as hurricanes, flooding, freezing temperatures and wildfires has prompted some to rethink where they will spend their golden years. “Clients

nortonrsx | iStock | Getty Images Not all debt is the same. So how should you decide which to repay first? Amid the coronavirus pandemic last year and ensuing economic recession, debt grew for many Americans. In 2020, consumer debt ballooned to a new high of $14.88 trillion, a 6% increase from the previous year,

NASA There’s a new potential risk investors need to watch out for, and it’s out of this world. Exchange-traded fund provider ProcureAM this week submitted a regulatory filing with the SEC citing a new unprecedented risk: unidentified aerial phenomena. ProcureAM — which provides a space-themed ETF that trades under the ticker symbol UFO — added

Jack Taylor | Getty Images News | Getty Images Cryptocurrency is known for volatility and some experts say crashes tend to happen on weekends. “This has been a phenomenon in crypto for several years,” said Stephen McKeon, associate professor of finance at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, and partner at Collab+Currency, a cryptocurrency-focused

Women would be among the biggest winners of student loan forgivness. Ines Fraile | iStock | Getty Images Certain critics of student loan forgiveness have argued that the policy would largely benefit the relatively well-off, pointing out that college degrees lead to higher earnings. However, new research finds that the biggest benefits of cancelling student

Image Source | DigitalVision | Getty Images More than 2.3 million new stimulus checks have been sent, representing over $4.2 billion in payments to Americans, the government announced on Wednesday. In total, more than 169 million payments worth about $395 billion have been issued since Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in March. That

Samuel Corum | Getty Images News | Getty Images The top 1% would see their federal taxes rise by more than $213,000, on average, next year as a result of President Joe Biden’s tax plan, according to an analysis published Wednesday by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Such households, which earn about $800,000 or more

nortonrsx | iStock | Getty Images Americans are ready to start spending money to treat themselves — and 44% are willing to go into debt to do it, a report from CreditCards.com finds. Millennials, ages 24-40, are most likely to take on more debt (59%) followed by Gen Zers, ages 18-24, coming in at 56%.