Personal finance

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

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images Being in the market for a new car right now is challenging, to say the least. Heading into the long Labor Day weekend, transaction prices remain elevated. While the three-day stretch normally marks when dealerships hold big sales events to clear their lots and make room for

Wide open spaces like national parks and beaches continue to be popular for long holiday weekend travel. Thomas Barwick | Stone | Getty Images A surge in Covid-19 infections due to the delta variant may be slowing the rebound from the pandemic, but Labor Day travelers looking for a last summer hurrah — and with

Tomas Rodriguez | Picture Press | Getty Images As millions of families care for aging relatives, many overlook tax breaks that may help ease the financial burden.  Roughly 19% of Americans provided unpaid care for an adult with health or functional needs in 2020, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving, and those numbers continue to

Photo: Image Source | Getty Images When you’re in your 20s, retirement saving may not be the first goal on your financial checklist — if you even have one. Yet starting to save for retirement as early as possible can set you up for success in the long-term. “It’s totally understandable, because it’s tough when

Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images Jobless workers will soon receive their last payment of pandemic-era unemployment benefits. Federal programs that have helped millions of unemployed Americans during the Covid health crisis end this weekend. These programs, created by the CARES Act in March 2020, issued benefits on a historic level, unrivaled since the unemployment system

David Lees | Stone | Getty Images Most Americans aren’t prepared for retirement. While most non-retired adults have some type of nest egg, only 36% think their retirement savings are on track, according to the Federal Reserve. A separate survey from the Insured Retirement Institute found that most workers don’t have sufficient retirement savings and

A Social Security Administration office in San Francisco. Getty Images Social Security’s latest report on the status of the trust funds on which it relies to pay benefits has both good and bad news. The good news is that the funds have not been as hard hit by the Covid-19 as was initially feared, due

Michael Lee | Moment | Getty Images There were fewer small businesses open and hourly employees working in August relative to July, indicating that the Covid-19 delta variant may be dampening the U.S. economic recovery, according to data from Homebase, which supplies employee scheduling software to employers. The number of employees working dropped 4% in