Personal finance

Chloe Wohlforth, pictured with her father Martin, who died in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, said she still feels his presence in her life today. Courtesy: Chloe Wohlforth For Chloe Wohlforth, Sept. 11, 2001 started out like an ordinary day. That began to change as she was sitting

courtneyk | E+ | Getty Images The end of eviction protections combined with the snail-paced distribution of federal rental assistance means that the struggles for renters aren’t going away anytime soon. More than 6 million households remain behind on rent payments, a figure that has only worsened of late, despite an unprecedented allocation of funding

Money and mental health are connected. Financial problems can make you stressed, anxious or depressed, and those feelings, in turn, can have a big impact on your finances. In fact, anxious or stressed adults are more likely to engage in costly financial behaviors, including withdrawing cash from retirement accounts and borrowing from high-cost financial services

Drew Angerer | Getty Images News | Getty Images Democrats may scuttle tactics used by the rich to pass wealth to heirs with little to no tax, part of a broader plan to raise money for an expansion of the U.S. safety net. Specifically, the party is considering disallowing some complex trust-planning techniques used by

Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images Federal unemployment benefits lapsed on Labor Day. But there’s good news for Americans who’ve been waiting weeks or months for that aid to arrive: They can still collect back pay past the cutoff date. Workers who haven’t yet applied for the federal assistance can still do

Trevor Williams | DigitalVision | Getty Images If you’re like most people, you probably assume you know more than you think you do, even if you don’t realize it. That false sense of security allows us to be decisive in the face of great uncertainties. But when it comes to investing, that can backfire, according

Signage outside the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters in Washington, D.C. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The top 1% of Americans may be dodging as much as $163 billion in annual taxes, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  This estimate widens the so-called tax gap — the shortfall between

shapecharge | E+ | Getty Images Good news for those struggling to save for retirement may be on the way. House Democrats are including measures to help people prepare for the long term in their $3.5 trillion federal budget plan. The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday released legislative proposals for portions of the

Thomas Barwick When it comes to income in retirement, one looming question confronts most individuals: How much money is enough? While the answer to that question in never black-and-white, recent headlines about the solvency of Social Security could be injecting more fear into that dilemma. Last week, the Social Security Administration released its annual trustees

Towfiqu Photography If you inherit a retirement account, you may want to pause before making any decisions on when and how to access the money. Basically, the rules that apply depend on your relationship to the person who died. Mistakes can be made, and depending on the specifics, they can be hard to undo. The

Tim Robbins | Getty Images The U.S. is one of the few industrialized countries without a national paid family leave policy. Democratic lawmakers are expected to get a long-awaited chance to address that when budget reconciliation legislation comes up on Capitol Hill this month. Now, a new survey from the Bipartisan Policy Center and Morning

U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., questions IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig at a June 8, 2021 Senate Finance Committee hearing. Tom Williams | Pool | Reuters Congressional Democrats are floating a slew of taxes to help cover their $3.5 trillion budget plan, including new levies on the wealthy.   Senate Finance Committee Chairman

Getty Images Saving for retirement is an important part of a long-term financial plan, even if you don’t get help with a 401(k) through work. In 2020, some 33% of private industry workers didn’t have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Part-time workers, those in service

Tim Robberts | Stone | Getty Images While Americans know they need to save for retirement, many are still coming up short. More than half of U.S. workers between the ages of 40 and 73 have less than $50,000 set aside for their golden years, a survey from the Insured Retirement Institute found. Nearly 6

People wait in line in Louisville, Kentucky, as Kentucky Labor Cabinet reopened 13 regional Career Centers for in-person unemployment insurance services on April 15, 2021. Amira Karaoud | Reuters Enhanced federal unemployment insurance put in place during the coronavirus pandemic ended this weekend, after nearly a year and a half. That means some 9 million

In this article GME Getty Images Teenagers have mixed feelings about the stock market after GameStop‘s trading frenzy, according to a survey from nonprofit youth organization Junior Achievement USA and tax, accounting and consulting firm RSM examining their beliefs about investing.  Following GameStop’s rises and falls, 39% of teens see the stock market as an

Before the pandemic, college was a given for many high school students. Now, more are finding there are affordable alternatives that might make sense. Kate Lillemoen, 21, recently completed a coding bootcamp instead of finishing her four-year degree. Armed with a certification from Tech Elevator, Lillemoen now works as a software engineer in Columbus, Ohio.

kool99 | iStock | Getty Images Life without student loan payments has come to feel normal for many. Borrowers, after all, haven’t needed to make a payment on their debt since March 2020, or for nearly a year and a half. But when the White House announced its most recent extension of the break last

A woman waits in a line outside a temporary unemployment office in Frankfort, Kentucky in June. Bryan Woolston | Reuters Misty Todd has used unemployment benefits to pay bills since losing her convenience-store job in March last year.  But the 37-year-old Las Vegas resident is unsure how she’ll afford rent, groceries and essentials for her

Tippapatt | iStock | Getty Images It’s yet another example of how the pandemic’s economic recovery has been uneven: While overall credit card debt is on the decline, others are seeing their balances mushroom into huge figures. Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counseling agency, recently analyzed the credit card balances of renters who sought