If you beat the odds stacked against hitting the Powerball jackpot, there’s an estimated $277 million waiting for you in Saturday night’s drawing. The top prize has been climbing for more than two months of twice weekly drawings with no ticket matching all six numbers. And while the chance of winning the jackpot is about
Personal finance
Florida, Fort Myers, Publix, supermarket Gift Card Display. Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images Did you receive a gift card from someone over the holidays? Well, it’s time to go shopping. That sounds like the right move. Many people, however, let the dollars on their plastic go to waste: Each year, up
Peter Cade | Getty Images It’s the challenge many retirees face: How to turn lifetime savings into a steady income stream and not run out of money. To solve that dilemma, some financial experts suggest annuities, financial products that provide regular payments in return for one upfront lump sum. But the problem is that many
Michelle and Donald McCulloch bought a house using their ABLE savings. Michelle and Donald McCulloch Most people take being able to save money for granted. But for people with a disability, whether developmental or physical, a previous $2,000 limit meant not being able to plan and save for a house, a car or a vacation.
katleho Seisa The new year is just over a week old, but it’s almost time to get cracking on those 2019 tax returns. Proactive taxpayers can start submitting last year’s tax returns to the IRS as early as Jan. 27. As always, you have until April 15 to file your 2019 tax return. While you
Whether you have a side hustle or you’re running your own business, you’re a week away from a major tax deadline. Individuals who pay their estimated taxes every quarter — including independent contractors and members of partnerships — are expected to make their fourth and final payment for 2019 on Jan. 15. The quarterly deadlines
Fstop123 | E+ | Getty Images There are more ways than ever to buy things you shouldn’t. Described as the “new layaway,” companies like Affirm, Quadpay and Afterpay allow consumers to spread out their payments on a purchase over weeks or months. The offers are hard to refuse. That $140 plaid tunic from Anthropology could
Do you have your eyes on that $258 million Powerball jackpot? So does Uncle Sam. If you’re lucky enough to win the top prize in Wednesday night’s drawing, remember that the IRS gets an up-front piece of big lottery wins. And that tax withholding wouldn’t be the end of it. “There is still a sizable
Jamie Grill | Getty Images When do you plan to retire? Many individuals have an age at which they want to call it quits. And then there’s the age when you really stop working. If you’re lucky, those ages are one and the same. But research shows that they’re likely not. Transamerica Center for Retirement
Consumers would face fewer hurdles in trying to discharge debt through bankruptcy under a new plan from one of the Democratic presidential hopefuls. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., released a proposal Tuesday that aims to undo parts of a 2005 law, such as higher fees and more paperwork, that she says made it harder for individuals
Collectively, Americans owe more than $1 trillion in credit card debt. After the holiday season, however, individual balances bumped up another notch. Americans, on average, racked up about $1,325 in holiday debt last month alone, according to MagnifyMoney’s annual post-holiday debt survey. Further, more than three-quarters of those polled said they won’t pay off their balances
Put investing on the bottom of your things-to-panic-about list. Investing isn’t difficult. You don’t have to be a math genius to understand where to put your money or be afraid of scary terms like “stock market volatility.” (That just means the prices of companies in the stock market are changing rapidly.) The more you know,
lovelyday12 | Getty Social Security benefits are helping to narrow the gap between the haves and have-nots who are approaching retirement. But they don’t go far enough. That’s according to new research from The New School Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis in New York. The analysis took a look at one age group in
Hero Images | Getty Images New parents will have one new source to tap for money — their retirement savings. The Secure Act, which was passed by Congress in December, is ushering in some of the biggest changes to retirement savings since the Pension Protection Act of 2006. But experts warn that tapping your retirement
Prasert Krainukul If you think that Republicans and Democrats can’t see eye to eye these days, try sitting in a room with financial professionals who are for and against annuities. The inability to agree is real. And both sides hold steadfast to their positions. Annuities are insurance or investment contracts that give investors regular payments
For older Americans, required minimum distributions from retirement accounts are undergoing a bit of a makeover. On top of the age rising to 72 from 70½ for when those annual withdrawals must begin — effective this year, due to congressional approval of the Secure Act — updated life expectancy tables proposed by the IRS for
kate_sept2004 It’s about to get a little easier for you to figure out how to break even or get a bigger tax refund from Uncle Sam. The IRS kicked off the new year with a revamp of its tax withholding estimator tool, a calculator that helps you fine-tune the amount of federal income taxes that
Should you stay or should you go? Deciding whether you should renovate your current home or buy a new house isn’t easy. It comes down to asking yourself three big questions, according to Drew and Jonathan Scott, the stars of HGTV’s “Property Brothers” and “Property Brothers: Forever Home.” “Am I in the right location? Can
Thomas Jackson Treat money with respect. Don’t crumple it. Think of it as an ally and a force for good, not evil. Your beliefs can affect your finances. If you don’t believe it, check out the experiences of personal finance bloggers who started with nothing (or very little) and now have hundreds of thousands of
Jamie Grill | Blend Images | Getty Images A new retirement law could soon put annuities in front of more 401(k) investors — and some financial experts question whether that’s a good thing. The Secure Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month, eases rules for employers offering a 401(k) plan around how