Personal finance

Tomasz Szulczewski | Moment | Getty Images Women continue to make great strides in the workforce, achieving increasing levels of education, and advancing into senior leadership positions. However, the gender pay gap — the difference between the earnings of men and women — has barely budged in recent years. In the U.S., women who work full

Tom Werner | Digitalvision | Getty Images As the calendar turns to a new year, you may be at risk for losing money if you have a flexible spending account. Many FSA owners have a Dec. 31 use-it-or-lose-it deadline to use the funds they have set aside for the year. The average forfeit of funds

Student loan forgiveness advocates rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., after the nation’s high court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program, June 30, 2023. Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images Nearly a year before federal student loan payments restarted, the U.S. Department of Education warned

Marco Bello | Reuters The price of bitcoin has surged in 2023 as investors await approval for the first U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which would be a milestone for cryptocurrency investors, experts say. In early December, the digital currency topped $44,000 for the first time since April 2022, and year-to-date gains were above 160%,

Grocery items are offered for sale at a supermarket on August 09, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois.  Scott Olson | Getty Images Heading into 2023, the predictions were nearly unanimous: a recession was coming. As the year comes to a close, the forecasted economic downturn did not arrive. So what’s in store for 2024? An economic

Blackcat | E+ | Getty Images Many student loan borrowers are struggling to resume their payments. When the bills restarted after a more than three-year-long reprieve, just 60% of people with federal education loans had made a payment by mid-November, U.S. Department of Education data shows. “The fact that so few borrowers have been able

Sdi Productions | E+ | Getty Images While tax breaks are not the main reason for charitable giving, some strategies can help investors optimize their donations. It’s too late to execute some strategies with the end of 2023 just days away. “We encourage people to start thinking about charitable giving in June,” said Julie Goodridge,

Artistgndphotography | E+ | Getty Images It’s never too early to start planning for the upcoming tax season. As the year-end approaches, it’s a good time to get paperwork organized and make a checklist of tax forms you’ll need before filing, experts say. “You really need to be your own advocate,” said certified financial planner

Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images Retirement savers who want a taste of bitcoin without owning the cryptocurrency coins directly could soon gain the access they’ve been craving. The Jan. 10 deadline is nearing for U.S. regulators to decide whether to allow a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, which would attempt to track the real-time

Clemens Porikys | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images If you’re in your 40s, you probably have seen articles on how much you should have saved by now to comfortably retire. One guideline from Fidelity Investments calls for having three times your starting salary saved by 40, with the aim of growing that to six

Andersen Ross Photography Inc | Digitalvision | Getty Images Some colleges offer and push financial products to students that can be exploitatively pricey, a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finds. “This analysis indicates that hundreds of colleges are paid by financial institutions to market certain products to students,” the bureau writes. “This

Betsie Van der Meer | Getty If you’re a last-minute holiday shopper still checking off the remaining gifts on your list, beware: You could be putting yourself at risk for fraud. “Procrastination is, quite frankly, one of the keys to success for crooks,” Paul Fabara, chief risk officer at Visa, recently told CNBC. “They assume that

The Good Brigade | DigitalVision | Getty Images After a two-year hiatus on automated collection notices, the IRS said it will soon resume sending such letters — and experts have tips if you receive one.  In February 2022, the agency suspended automated collection notices to devote resources to its backlog of unprocessed correspondence and returns.

A shopper carries several bags in the Magnificent Mile shopping district of Chicago on Dec. 2, 2023. Taylor Glascock | Bloomberg | Getty Images The U.S. economy has remained remarkably strong but affordability is worse than it has ever been, some social media users say, even when compared to The Great Depression. One of TikTok’s

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel testifies before the House Small Business Committee on July 17, 2013. James Lawler Duggan | Reuters The IRS has unveiled a “voluntary disclosure program” for businesses that claimed a pandemic-era tax credit in error and want to pay the money back. Worth thousands per employee, the employee retention tax credit, or

Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images Both new and used car purchases were expensive for drivers this year, as limited inventory and high borrowing costs affected affordability. “Interest rates have taken such a toll on purchasing power,” said Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds. Yet, consumers might begin to see lower prices in 2024,

10’000 Hours | Digitalvision | Getty Images Consumers pumped record money into annuities in 2023, on the back of higher interest rates and anxiety about the stock market and U.S. economy, experts said. Americans bought about $360 billion of annuities this year, according to an estimate by Limra, an insurance industry group. That would handily

Medianews Group | Getty Images The Powerball jackpot has soared to an estimated $572 million — and the big winner may wonder when the best time is to claim their prize. It’s the fourth Powerball jackpot to exceed $500 million in 2023, and there have been 29 consecutive drawings without a winner. The next Powerball

GlobalStock | Getty Images Workers who turn 62 years old might be tempted to increase their income by claiming Social Security retirement benefits. But those claimants should understand that their Social Security benefits may be temporarily reduced due to the income they earn. That Social Security rule — the retirement earnings test — is “poorly

Demonstrators gather during a protest against the expiration of the eviction moratorium outside of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Aug. 1, 2021. Stefanie Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images Renters burdened by unaffordable housing costs may be at a higher risk of dying sooner, according to a new study published in