Personal finance

Sporrer/Rupp | Image Source | Getty Images Millions of Social Security beneficiaries have now received their first benefit checks for 2025. The new 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment — which adds $50 per month to retirement benefits on average — marks the lowest increase since 2021, when inflation spiked shortly thereafter. With prices still high, many beneficiaries

Eleganza | E+ | Getty Images It’s exciting to find a new place to rent in your neighborhood or in a new city. That is, of course, unless you get duped. In so-called rental listing scams, scammers will make up listings that aren’t available for rent or simply do not exist in order to fraudulently

Miniseries | E+ | Getty Images As President Donald Trump kicks off a second term, many older investors are focused on how shifting policy could affect their wallets. But some key changes for near-retirees were already enacted for 2025. These updates could have a big impact on your finances — and may easily be missed,

Hispanolistic | E+ | Getty Images Many young adults have financial stress, and experts say there’s a simple safety net that could help. About 61% of surveyed Americans of ages 18 to 35 are financially stressed, according to a new Intuit survey. About 21% of respondents say their stress has gotten worse over the past year.

Jose Luis Pelaez | Getty Images For roughly the past five years, federal student loan borrowers who fell behind on their bills didn’t need to worry about the usual consequences, including the garnishment of their wages and retirement benefits. That will soon change. In a U.S. Department of Education memo obtained by CNBC, dated Jan.

The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady at the end of its two-day meeting next week, despite President Donald Trump’s comments on Thursday that he’ll “demand that interest rates drop immediately.” So far, the central bank has moved slowly to recalibrate policy after hiking its key benchmark 5.25 percentage points between 2022 and 2023 in an

Damircudic | E+ | Getty Images By now, you’ve probably seen the green badges splashed all over LinkedIn, advertising that person is #opentowork. Whether unemployed and actively seeking a new position, or quiet quitting in their current role, more people are choosing to make their job-seeking status known on the career site. Globally, more than

Justin Paget | Digitalvision | Getty Images Many workers hate the prospect of returning to the office five days a week — so much so that they’d quit their jobs if told to come in full-time. To that point, 46% of workers who currently work from home at least sometimes would be somewhat or very

The rich are getting richer. The combined wealth of the world’s most wealthy rose to $15 trillion from $13 trillion in just 12 months, according to Oxfam’s latest annual inequality report — notching the second largest annual increase in billionaire wealth since the global charity began tracking this data. Last year alone, roughly 204 new

Hispanolistic | E+ | Getty Images When it comes to retirement savings, surveys often point to a big magic number you will need to have set aside to live well. Yet retirement experts say to focus on another number — your personal savings rate — to make sure you achieve your retirement savings goals. “Early

Greg Hinsdale | The Image Bank | Getty Images Inheriting an individual retirement account is a windfall for many investors. However, a lesser-known change for 2025 could trigger a costly surprise penalty, financial experts say. Starting in 2025, certain heirs with inherited IRAs must take yearly required withdrawals while emptying accounts over 10 years, known

Rockaa | E+ | Getty Images This season, the IRS expects more than 140 million individual tax returns — and most qualify for a lesser-known free tax filing option.  The program, IRS Free File, is a public-private partnership between the agency and the Free File Alliance, a nonprofit coalition of tax software companies. “Over the

US President Donald Trump holds up outgoing President Joe Biden’s letter as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the WHite House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025. Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images With President Donald Trump back in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress, experts worry

The Good Brigade | Digitalvision | Getty Images Mortgage rates have risen in recent months, even as the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates. While those opposing movements may seem counterintuitive, they’re due to market forces that seem unlikely to ease much in the near term, according to economists and other finance experts. That may

Cofotoisme | E+ | Getty Images How long it takes you to save for a 20% down payment on a home depends in part on where you live.  In a pricey area such as New York City, it could take the typical buyer roughly 10.85 years to save $173,000, which is 20% of the median

After a prolonged period of job gains and wage increases, employers capped off the year by giving their employees bigger year-end bonuses, a new report found. The average bonus awarded in December was $2,503, on average, up from $2,447 in 2023 — an increase of just over 2%, according to an exclusive look at data

Osaka, Japan. Jiale Tan | Moment | Getty Images The new year has many travelers thinking ahead to 2025 vacation plans — and how much those trips may cost. About half — 51% — of Americans say flight cost will determine their destination choices this year, according to Skyscanner. And 50% said hotel costs are

Sweeping changes may be in store once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Among them could be the closure of numerous federal agencies and regulators. Trump will be sworn in for a second nonconsecutive term in the White House on Jan. 20. Already, he has suggested major cuts to federal spending. To that end, Trump named Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy co-chairs of

sturti | E+ | Getty Images As tax filing season starts, 1 million taxpayers are already set to receive automatic payments from the IRS. That has many people asking, “Will I receive an IRS stimulus check in 2025?” “IRS automatic stimulus payments” is a breakout search, with rising queries related to eligibility, Google Trends data

Hirurg | E+ | Getty Images With the start of tax season approaching, Democratic and Republican lawmakers are split on the future of Direct File, the IRS’ free tax filing program. Direct File, which recently expanded to limited taxpayers in 25 states, processed roughly 140,000 returns in 2024 during the pilot that launched mid-season. The