Personal finance

The student debt crisis has hit a new milestone — soaring to $1.7 trillion in outstanding loans at the end of last year. As more than 44 million Americans grapple with this burden, the disparity in the amount of that debt held by Black and White borrowers is also growing. Studies show that young Black

THOUSAND OAKS, CA – AUGUST 18: Offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth #77 of the Los Angeles Rams enters the field for training camp on August 18, 2020. Jayne Kamin-Oncea | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images Long before Andrew Whitworth made it to the National Football League, he knew he wanted to help others. When he

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Brandon Bell | Reuters The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and other Democratic legislators on Thursday, introduced a resolution again calling on the White House to forgive $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers by executive action. “During a

Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images Americans have it worse than all other developed nations when it comes to benefits for workers, according to a new ranking. The U.S. places last relative to its national policies around healthcare, unemployment, retirement, parental leave, and paid vacation and sick days, according to Zenefits, a

DEA / M. BORCHI | De Agostini | Getty Images Unemployment benefits aren’t reaching most jobless Americans — suggesting that lawmakers who wish to target aid to the unemployed would likely need to use stimulus checks or other relief measures. At most, 30% of jobless individuals are currently being reached by the unemployment system, according

People gather together to ask the McDonald’s corporation to raise workers wages to a $15 minimum wage as well as demanding the right to a union on May 23, 2019 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images Millions of workers in the U.S. could be in for a pay raise as Democrats move

A Poudre Valley Hospital ICU Nurse shows off her vaccination card after getting the first round of Covid-19 vaccines at UC Health Poudre Valley Hospital on December 14, 2020 in Fort Collins, Colorado. Helen H. Richardson | The Denver Post | Getty Images It’s tempting to tell the world as soon as you receive a

SolStock | E+ | Getty Images When Tim Maurer’s two teenagers burst into his home office last week, excitedly talking about how a bunch of kids had taken on Wall Street, the Charleston, South Carolina, certified financial planner knew it presented a great opportunity to teach his boys about investing. Lecturing doesn’t usually work, Maurer

Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg | Getty Images GameStop, AMC Entertainment, BlackBerry, Dogecoin and silver – all have been subject to epic rallies and falls in recent days, spurred by droves of retail investors driving up prices and then selling. While it may be tempting to pile into an asset that’s seen such rapid growth, financial

Protestors call for a $15 minimum wage outside of McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Chicago on Jan. 15, 2021. Scott Olson | Getty Images A $15 per hour federal minimum wage may be closer than ever, as Democrats in Congress push to pass legislation that includes the pay boost through a sped-up process that doesn’t require

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Reddit users and other retail investors who piled into GameStop stock aimed to take down Wall Street. Pension funds, which support ordinary Americans in retirement, may be an unintended casualty. Some hedge funds have sustained big losses as a result of bets against GameStop stock. Melvin Capital, for example, lost

Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images It can be hard to look away from the constant stream of financial success stories and tips on TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and other social media platforms. Users on WallStreetBets and other forums brag about the tens of thousands of dollars they’ve made over short periods of time by

Home ownership has long been considered a staple of the American dream. During the pandemic, it has also become a dividing line between the haves and have-nots. As the coronavirus outbreak and rise of remote work pushed Americans to move from the city to the suburbs, those who could afford a single-family home have been

Juanmonino | E+ | Getty Images If you are counting on a tax refund, you could be sorely disappointed this filing season. A new W-4 form and a pandemic-dominated 2020 may have millions of Americans receiving smaller refunds, or even owing money to the government, this year. “I’ve already seen people upset that they owe

Stimulus checks printed at the Philadelphia Financial Center in Philadelphia. Jeff Fusco | Getty Images Many Americans are waiting for their second stimulus check and others want to know when they could possibly get a third payment.  The $1.9 trillion Covid relief plan pushed by President Joe Biden includes a third round of  $1,400 stimulus

The headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, D.C. JHVEPhoto | iStock Editorial | Getty Images The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to become a more aggressive consumer watchdog under the Biden administration and while the coronavirus pandemic hurls financial challenges at millions of Americans. Consumer advocates say the bureau was almost

Serhii Shleihel | iStock | Getty Images Here’s what you probably shouldn’t do with that extra money now that you don’t have to pay your student loan bill until October: Sink it all into shares of GameStop. But there are financially sound actions you can take with the additional cash, and you’ll likely thank yourself

Aimee Dilger | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images Maybe you’ve heard by now that an army of retail investors has managed to use one of hedge funds’ common investment strategies against them. That is, short-selling. It generally involves selling borrowed shares of a stock with the belief that the price will drop, at

Not wanting to touch anything is having a dramatic impact on consumer habits. Amid the coronavirus crisis, Americans are abandoning cash almost entirely in favor of “tap and go” transactions and have finally embraced contactless and digital payment methods after years of reluctance.  Fewer and fewer adults use printed or minted U.S. currency at all any more.

martin-dm | E+ | Getty Images Vacations may be back on Americans’ calendars later this year — especially if vaccines help suppress the Covid-19 pandemic — but business travel won’t bounce back for quite some time, according to a forecast from the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Fifty-six percent of Americans say they are likely