Personal finance

For close to a decade, the Honeycutts lived in the brick house with white shudders on Patterson Street in China Grove, North Carolina. Vicki Honeycutt and her husband, James, a disabled Gulf War veteran, loved to sit out on the front porch, drinking Pepsis or sweet tea. Vicki’s favorite space in the three-bedroom house was

Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images Millions of people who were eligible for $1,200 stimulus checks still may not have received their money. Now, the Government Accountability Office and a few Democratic members of Congress are calling for the IRS and Treasury Department to step up their efforts to get the relief to those

US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attends the “Getting America’s Children Safely Back to School” event in the State Room of the white House in Washington, DC, on August 12, 2020. NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced on Friday that the payment pause and interest waiver for student

Trevor Williams What goes up must come down and then usually goes back up again, at least in the case of the U.S. stock market. The market has been on a roller-coaster ride this year amid the coronavirus pandemic. The S&P 500 started the year strong, breaking the record for the longest-ever bull market. Then,

Michelle Lujan Grisham, the governor of New Mexico Toya Sarno Jordan | Getty Images News | Getty Images Some states and cities are forging ahead to provide relief to residents financially scarred by the Covid crisis, as negotiations for a federal rescue package continue on Capitol Hill. Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico and New York

A significant percentage of corporate chief financial officers are making 2021 spending and hiring plans around vaccine optimism, but the current case surge in the U.S. and Europe is making a dent in confidence. Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images Millions of Americans are still hoping for a second round of stimulus checks to

Medical staff examine a patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston on Nov. 16, 2020. Go Nakamura | Getty Images The coronavirus pandemic may be an extra stressful time for Medicare beneficiaries.  Not only are they generally in a high-risk group for Covid, most of them — about

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaks at a campaign event in Florence, Kentucky, U.S., October 28, 2020. Bryan Woolston | Reuters The latest Covid-19 relief proposal would give generous taxpayers a sweeter tax break for donating to charity. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued a proposal for pandemic relief on Tuesday afternoon –

The U.S. Capitol dome is reflected on an ambulance at sunset in Washington, November 10, 2020. Erin Scott | Reuters Talks of a new coronavirus stimulus bill are happening on Capitol Hill. As lawmakers renew their efforts to come to a compromise — including two new bipartisan and GOP packages — some question whether it

People wait in line as the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank distributes food outside a church during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., November 19, 2020. Mike Blake | Reuters As cases of coronavirus rise nationwide and millions remain unemployed, Americans are almost equally split on their financial standing.

Jordan Siemens | DigitalVision | Getty Images If you’re like many Americans, the end of 2020 can’t come fast enough. Yet before you ring in the New Year and hope for better times ahead, there are moves you should make first to set yourself up for financial success. “Use December to reflect on 2020 and

A display is seen as bipartisan members of the Senate and House gather to announce a framework for fresh coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief legislation at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2020. Kevin Lemarque | Reuters Washington lawmakers introduced a new $908 billion coronavirus stimulus package on Tuesday that aims

Getty Images Millions of student loan borrowers have just one month left to figure out how they’re going to resume monthly payments on their education debt while the coronavirus pandemic is still crushing the economy. Monthly payments for most federal student loans have been on pause since March, when the CARES Act gave 42 million

andresr | E+ | Getty Images You don’t have much time left to give your Medicare coverage a yearly checkup and make changes for 2021. The program’s annual enrollment period ends Dec. 7. If you take no action, you’ll automatically remain enrolled in your current plan. However, if you pass on the opportunity to see

SDI Productions | E+ | Getty Images Some taxpayers are just now receiving a scary letter from the IRS: a warning that the federal taxman will seize their state income tax refund. As recently as this fall, the IRS has issued a so-called “notice of intent to levy” to taxpayers with an outstanding balance. The

TommL | E+ | Getty Images With sustainable investing, you cannot only use your money to make the world a better place, you can also use your money’s voice. Such is the job of shareholder advocacy, a primary strategy under the umbrella of sustainable/socially responsible investing. A small, but dedicated number of financial advisors, along

Oliver Rossi When Kaitlin Stupka, 31, her husband and two children moved in with her parents in October 2019, the plan was to stay for six months while they built their dream house in the Dallas-Forth Worth area of Texas. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit. Now, it’s likely the length of their stay will triple,

Customers of mobile savings app Beam, some of whom complained that they had been unable to access their deposits for months, say they are finally getting their money back. The troubles, however, are far from over for the San Francisco-based startup behind the app. The Federal Trade Commission is seeking a court order against alleged

shapecharge | E+ | Getty Images With the number of deaths from the coronavirus continuing to mount, your own mortality may be more on your mind than usual. In fact, The Covid-19 pandemic has produced a rise in estate planning, according to certified financial planner Stacy Francis, president and CEO of Francis Financial.  Pandemic or

More than 40 million Americans have student loan debt, and outstanding student loans nationwide total more than $1.5 trillion. Soon, the government’s pause on federal student loan payments will expire, leaving millions of borrowers grappling with how they’ll pay what they owe in 2021. But Brandon Leake, a 28-year-old husband and father, figured out a