Personal finance

Dean Mitchell You don’t know where to start. You hardly have any money. You don’t know the financial terms. Lots of conditions may stop non-investors from becoming investors, says Bola Sokunbi, a financial education instructor and author of Clever Girl Finance. The intimidation people feel is real, and Sokunbi thinks it stems from a financial

The stock market is doing pretty well amid the coronavirus recession. You probably won’t benefit. MicroStockHub The stock market has proved freakishly immune to the economic suffering inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic, posting some of its largest gains in history even as members in 1 in 2 American households have lost income.    Yet the fact that the market

Matt Marfoglia, a waiter at the Tasting Kitchen in Los Angeles, was furloughed in March. Enhanced unemployment benefits are helping him make ends meet financially, but they may end after July. Matt Marfoglia Matt Marfoglia was living paycheck to paycheck before the coronavirus pandemic. Now, while unemployed, he’s barely scraping by.  The 51-year-old was furloughed

Image Source | Getty Images Many Americans are at risk of not receiving their $1,200 stimulus checks. Now, research estimates that as many as 12 million people could go without the payments due to them. That’s according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research and policy institute. The center based its

It won’t be long before that blissful reprieve from having to worry about filing taxes comes to a close — July 15 is Tax Day. While the process may be a headache, it doesn’t necessarily have to come with a cost, as well. If you haven’t yet filed your return, it’s worth checking to see

Students at the University of Washington in Seattle on campus for last day of in-person classes on March 6. Karen Ducey The coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic recession have many college students scrambling to reduce costs. Some may opt to go to a state college instead of a private one, or commute rather than live

JGI/Jamie Grill Chances are that the IRS has a check with your name on it — and you still haven’t picked it up. Taxpayers have about a month to file their 2019 income tax returns and pay any taxes owed to Uncle Sam. July 15 became the new Tax Day after the Treasury Department moved

Residents of Milford, Pennsylvania, and surrounding Pike County demonstrate against Governor Tom Wolf and ongoing business closures amid the coronavirus pandemic. Preston Ehrler | SOPA Images | Getty Images Americans who are eager for more help from the government could be waiting awhile. Additional stimulus legislation is coming, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said this week.

If you think Medicare is free, guess again. Depending on your specific coverage and your use of the health-care system, the amount you pay out-of-pocket could climb well into six-figure territory over the course of your retirement, according to a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “Some are surprised that, after working for decades

Residents of Fayetteville, Arkansas, wait in line to file for unemployment on April 6, 2020. Nick Oxford | Reuters The coronavirus pandemic prompted Congress to rush out emergency legislation to help Americans facing new financial challenges. But there’s a growing group of citizens opposed to one aspect of the federal aid effort — and some

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it will hold its benchmark interest rate near zero through 2022 to help the economy recover from the coronavirus crisis. “The Fed has cut interest rates as low as they are going to go without going into negative rates,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. The economic shock from Covid-19 may call for drastic measures,

Slowly but surely, small businesses are rehiring workers as plans to reopen from the coronavirus lockdown progress across the country. Employee headcount increased by 3.2% in May, although it remains below pre-pandemic levels overall, according to exclusive data compiled by human resource provider Gusto and based on more than 100,000 small businesses nationwide. In addition,

With 45 million borrowers owing $1.5 trillion, the student debt crisis in the United States has exploded in recent years. (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images) ROBYN BECK Unless Congress passes more relief measures for student loan borrowers, they will be required to resume their monthly payments on Oct. 1. And new graduates, entering one of

When it comes to hiring a diverse workforce, Wall Street could use a little help.  That’s what Troy Prince, founder and CEO of nonprofit organization Wall Street Bound, is trying to do.  “We know that talent and IQ is equally distributed,” he said in an interview Tuesday with Halftime Report. “Opportunity is not. “This demographic,

Around 71% of the 21 million unemployed people in May had been out of work between five and 14 weeks. About 19% have been unemployed for fewer than five weeks. “There aren’t many people who are long-term unemployed,” said Stephen Woodbury, an economist at Michigan State University. “There are gazillions of people that have lost

Hero Images | Hero Images | Getty Images One of the risks that comes with pension plans may be looming larger than usual. As many companies work to regain their financial footing in the midst of continuing economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a retiring worker’s decision to take either a lump sum or

Mixmike | Getty Images Gen Z may also be Gen DIY. “There’s an underlying assumption that almost any task can be taught or learned by yourself,” said Jonah Stillman, co-author of Gen Z @ Work. “I grew up with YouTube: I can log on and learn to play an instrument, write code or tile a

Audrey Saracco / EyeEm The U.S. government has sent 159 million stimulus checks to Americans. But there are still an estimated 30 million to 35 million payments yet to be issued, according to new data on the progress of the payments from the House Ways and Means Committee. The stimulus checks — up to $1,200

More than half of U.S. travelers planning to book trips will not insure their purchase, according to a survey of more than 1,200 Americans by ValuePenguin. That’s despite the near-shutdown of global tourism, the struggle to get refunds on canceled spring and summer travel plans, and lingering questions over how and when airlines, cruise lines,

Scammers gravitate to tightened finances like moths to a flame. To complicate matters, shelter-in-place restrictions have pushed people to make more online transactions. That means new opportunities for fraudsters to take advantage of seniors who may be new digital accountholders. Between financial worries and health fears about the novel coronavirus, it’s a time to be