Personal finance

If you’re nervous about the stock market’s nosedive and are considering moving to cash until you think the worst is past, you might want to think twice. Although it’s impossible to predict what stocks will do next, research shows that missing out on the best-performing days of the market — regardless of when the bad

Kenneth Montgomery is the head team physician with the New York Jets, as well as the president and co-founder of OrthoNations, a nonprofit aimed at training surgeons in developing nations around the world. Each year, Montgomery and his group travel to countries like Vietnam, where they’re headed next, to teach medical professionals a range of

Woman figuring out her finances. stefanamer If there’s any silver lining to the interest accumulating on your student debt, it’s that it can knock down your tax bill. The IRS allows certain borrowers to deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest each year from their taxable income, and it can come from payments to

A woman with a facial mask passes the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 3, 2020 at Wall Street in New York City. Johannes Eisele | AFP | Getty Images It’s no secret that coronavirus fears have infected the market and prompted concerns about a potential global economic downturn. Yet even amid scary headlines

Democratic presidential candidate, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg speaks to supporters at a rally on February 20, 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah. George Frey | Getty Images Billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s income tax return might not tell us much. It depends on how much of it he releases. If returns are heavily redacted,

MartinPrescott When market volatility is high, financial advisors often suggest investors review — and possibly re-balance — their portfolios rather than make an emotional or impulsive move. Yet as the stock market plunged at the beginning of this week, trading activity in 401(k) plans skyrocketed. And, data show that many investors moved money out of

In the face of a global health emergency, thousands of U.S. college students studying abroad are scrambling. As the coronavirus spreads through northern Italy, some schools, including Syracuse University and New York University, announced they were closing their campuses in Florence immediately. “We have urged students to leave Florence for this period,“ NYU Spokesman John

Massachusetts Commonwealth Secretary William Francis Galvin Steven Senne | AP Massachusetts investors are slated to get an extra dose of regulatory protection. But not everyone agrees that’s a good thing. Last week, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin put the finishing touches on a new fiduciary standard for broker-dealers and broker-dealer agents operating

John Fedele The annual income of older Americans could drop significantly from one year to the next for a variety of reasons. It might be retirement or the death of a spouse, perhaps, or the sale of a business. Yet it might take Medicare — which charges higher earners more for premiums — a couple

It goes without saying that death and taxes are two of life’s certainties. But what many people don’t know is that their Social Security retirement benefits might be taxed. And that means that they haven’t been using strategies proactively to reduce those levies and extend their income over their retirement years. William Meyer, founder of

Jamie Grill | Getty Images If you don’t contribute to your 401(k) plan, you may be missing out on a big wad of cash from your employer. Most companies that offer these workplace retirement plans will match your contributions up to a certain amount. Depending on your salary and the matching formula used, that could

An Austrian train was halted in Munich, Germany, after carrying two women with suspected coronavirus from Venice, Italy. picture alliance Global markets are suffering. On Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite all traded sharply lower. Don’t hit the panic button just yet. Within six months, stocks are usually on

Oliver Furrer | Cultura | Getty Images The spread of the coronavirus helped to sink the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 900 points when the market opened on Monday. And if that decline goes past 1,000 points, it could be the biggest one-day drop since 2018. If you’re like many investors, you may be

Daniel Grill | Getty Images When it comes to retirement, it’s no secret that women face an uphill battle financially. And while women’s retirement readiness is improving, there’s room for much more, according to new research from the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement. Women around the world share the same three career challenges: a

Swell Media Who among us has suffered an airline delay or cancellation, or even been bumped from a flight? Plenty. Who’s been compensated for the inconvenience? Probably not very many. One Berlin-based firm, AirHelp, is trying to rectify that, educating flyers around the world of their rights to compensation — and, for a fee, helping

Payday Loan Store (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images) Interim Archives You’ll find the words in Utah’s constitution: “No imprisonment for debt.” And yet more than 3,000 people in the state were served arrest warrants arising from an unpaid loan between September 2017 and September 2018, according to a new report on payday loans by the

Sally Anscombe Don’t bet the house on a proposed tax incentive from the White House for investing — at least not yet. As campaigning around the 2020 presidential election heats up, President Donald Trump is weighing a round of tax ideas, including a plan to encourage American households to invest in the stock market. One

Millions of households that hustled to get their tax returns to the IRS early could be waiting until March for their refunds. If you’re claiming the additional child tax credit or the earned income tax credit, the IRS cannot issue your refund before mid-February. An anti-fraud law requires the agency to use that additional time

Democratic presidential candidate former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg speaks during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Paris Las Vegas on February 19, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mario Tama | Getty Images Michael Bloomberg, billionaire and former mayor of New York, is the latest Democratic presidential candidate to turn his attention to the

If you want to improve your financial know-how, there are plenty of opportunities to do so. From short online tutorials to extensive in-person bootcamps, the number of “Money 101” classes has ballooned since the Great Recession. And yet, when it comes to financial literacy, Americans are still falling far short. According to a survey by