Squaredpixels | Getty Images It’s the bane of some older Americans. Once they hit a certain age, the government makes them take money out of their retirement accounts, even if they don’t need the cash. That is changing, albeit slowly. The recently passed Secure Act raises the age for when those required minimum withdrawals must
Personal finance
Tetra Images | Getty Images In a world where much of consumer banking has gone high-tech, the most costly scams involve an old-school tool: checks. At about $2,000 a pop, fake-check scams cheated consumers out of more than $28 million in 2019, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That per-instance amount is more than six
As taxpayers roll into the second tax-filing season under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one question remains: “Will I come out ahead in 2019?” The IRS began accepting 2019 tax returns on Jan. 27 and anticipates it will receive more than 150 million individual returns this year. Thus far, the agency has delivered 4.3
A Social Security Administration office in San Francisco. Getty Images President Donald Trump has publicly vowed to protect Social Security. Yet advocates for the program fear that his just released budget proposal would hit individuals hard when it comes to disability benefits, as it includes cuts to the tune of $71 billion, according to one
About 115 pages into President Trump’s proposed 2021 budget are two line items that Medicare beneficiaries might want to take note of. While the president’s proposals pertaining to Medicare are largely aimed at behind-the-scenes shifts — i.e., lowering reimbursement rates to providers and rooting out waste or fraud — the budget also includes changes that
Sandy Nurse doesn’t see why she needs to be $120,000 in debt “just for trying to improve my understanding of the world.” And so, after a decade of struggling to repay her student loans, she plans to stop trying. She hopes others will join her, too, in a national strike against the country’s outstanding student
Catherine Delahaye If you want a tax credit for paying your nanny, you’ll have to get right with the IRS first. Hiring a caregiver for one infant child costs an average of $596 per week, according to data from Care.com. On a monthly basis, the payment is on par with many mortgages: $2,384. Moreover, in
Most workers have an age in mind for when they would be willing to call it quits. But the traditional retirement age — 65 — could be changing. Research by Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement looked at what age workers around the world expect to retire from
Once you reach age 65 and are eligible for Medicare, sorting through your options can be tricky. Add in any layer of complexity to the maze — i.e., jumping in and out of the workforce, dropping and picking up coverage — and look out. The program comes with rules — lots of them. And if
NICHOLAS KAMM As student debt continues to climb, President Donald Trump released a budget for 2021 on Monday that would slash many of the programs aimed at helping borrowers. Student loan spending would be cut by $170 billion in Trump’s plan, titled “A Budget for America’s Future.” The cuts include “sensible annual and lifetime loan
Donald Trump Carlo Allegri | Reuters Whether you love or hate the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, President Donald Trump wants to keep the tax overhaul going. The president released his proposed budget for 2021 on Monday. In the spending plan, the President is calling for an extension of the individual tax cuts set to
Guido Mieth | DigitalVision | Getty Images About 40% of older Americans rely exclusively on Social Security for retirement income, according to recent research from the National Institute on Retirement Security. It’s an attention-grabbing statistic. And one expert in particular, Andrew Biggs, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, finds it hard to believe. Much of
Ryan Reed became a technical support specialist at IBM after graduating last year from the tech firm’s apprenticeship program. Photo credit: IBM. Ryan Reed was having a tough time. The 38-year-old, a resident of Raleigh, North Carolina, had been trying for months to land a job in technology, a passion dating to his days as
You probably know that most experts caution against trying to time the stock market. Yet, if you think there’s trouble ahead, could moving entirely to cash ever be a good idea? Financial advisors typically offer an emphatic no. Some, though, offer a caveat. “If you have all the money you’ll ever need, and don’t need
When financial advisor Liz Miller took on a client whose spouse had recently died, she realized a piece of the survivor’s financial life needed more attention than her wealth management services would provide. That is, the client needed help with the basics of managing money because her late husband had handled everything. “She hadn’t been
Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex watch a flypast to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force from the balcony of Buckingham Palace on July 10, 2018 in London, England. Max Mumby | Indigo | Getty Images Royals aren’t the only ones leaning on family. As Prince
Getty | Westend61 Everyone has to save for retirement. If you have a job with a company that offers retirement savings, you are in luck. You sign up (or you might be enrolled automatically) and then contribute through your paycheck. You don’t have to do a thing. But when you’re an independent entrepreneur, you have
Aimstock | Getty Images It’s the gift that everybody wants: the ability to get a do-over when you make a mistake. In golf, it’s called a mulligan, or the chance to redo a stroke. With Social Security, it’s called a withdrawal of application. However, the circumstances under which you can exercise this option are limited.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) (R) participate in the Democratic presidential primary debate at Drake University on January 14, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa. Scott Olson | Getty Images Social Security policy has already prompted some presidential contenders to resort to fighting words. But for many
A pedestrian wears a face mask while pushing a stroller past the Tiffany & Co. luxury goods store at Times Square in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020. Bloomberg Here’s a comforting fact as the market grapples with the coronavirus: Your 401(k) plan is pretty resilient. The alarming