Personal finance

Juan Algar | Moment | Getty Images Student loan payments are restarting in October after a pause of more than three years — and scammers are trying to take advantage, the Federal Trade Commission warned Thursday. Fraudsters may try mislead borrowers by offering assistance and asking them to pay for it, Ari Lazarus, consumer education

Peopleimages | Istock | Getty Images Unable to come up with the cash for steep college tuition bills all at once, many families opt to pay the tab over time. However, a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns of a number of risks associated with these payment plans, including snowballing charges and

Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images A federal program that provides monthly income to elderly, blind and disabled Americans to provide for their basic needs has not been updated in about 40 years. On Tuesday, Washington lawmakers renewed a push to update rules associated with the program known as Supplemental Security Income, or SSI.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel speaks at a Senate Finance Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on April 19, 2023. Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel on Thursday ordered the agency to immediately stop processing new claims for a pandemic-era small business tax break to protect filers from a “surge of questionable claims.”

Tipping 20% at a sit-down restaurant is still the standard in the U.S., according to most etiquette experts. Diners disagree. After holding steady for years, tipping at full-service restaurants fell to 19.4% in the second quarter of 2023, according to online restaurant platform Toast‘s most recent restaurant trends report, notching the lowest average since the start of the pandemic.

Gasoline was priced from $4.29 a gallon at a fuel station in Virginia on Aug. 16, 2023. Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images Inflation jumped in August on the back of higher gasoline prices, according to the consumer price index. But there’s good news for Americans: That increase is likely temporary, economists said.

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images Thanks to a law passed four years ago, borrowers with outstanding federal student debt are able to tap into any remaining 529 college savings plan funds they have to pay down up to $10,000 of what they owe. That may now be a particularly appealing option, given that federal

Squaredpixels | Getty Images When it comes to saving and investing, many investors tend to think of two key goals — funding emergencies that could crop up in the short term or retirement that may be years away. But as many individuals continue to reconsider their goals following the Covid-19 pandemic, experts say that that

Wendee Goles Courtesy: Wendy Goles In July, Wendee Goles saw headlines that the Biden administration planned to cancel the student loans of more than 800,000 people. Even though she seemed to fit the description of eligible borrowers — those who had made payments for decades through an income-driven repayment plan — she didn’t get her hopes

Lauren Rosenberg, right, of Portland, Maine, and her nanny, left, play set out toys for Rosenberg’s children. Portland Press Herald | Portland Press Herald | Getty Images Child care is already scarce and expensive — and the stakes are about to get higher. The federal government provided states with nearly $24 billion in stabilization funds

Mason King Courtesy: Mason King More than a year of recessionary forecasts have created “a highly unusual market,” said Mason King, a principal of Luther King Capital Management in Fort Worth, Texas, which ranked No. 1 on CNBC’s list of the top 100 financial advisors in the U.S. for 2023. As a whole, the current climate has created

MoMo Productions The following is an excerpt from “This week, your wallet,” an audio program produced by CNBC’s Personal Finance team. Listen to the latest episode here. Social Security is the largest federal program in the U.S. The vast majority of older Americans get Social Security benefits, which either partially or even fully fund their

Artistgndphotography | E+ | Getty Images Sept. 15 is fast approaching — and if you’re not withholding taxes from your income, it’s time to send a payment to the IRS. Many employers withhold taxes from every paycheck, but freelancers, self-employed workers, small business owners, investors and others pay on their own via quarterly estimated tax

Xavier Lorenzo | Moment | Getty Images Not long ago, it was common to earn low returns on cash — less than 1%. But after the Federal Reserve embarked on a series of interest rate increases to tamp down inflation, that has changed. Now, investors may get as much as 5% or more interest on

Odilon Dimier | PhotoAlto | Getty Images Even though more students feel priced out of college entirely, there are efforts to improve access to higher education that seem to be working. In 2011, San Francisco made headlines when it became the first city in the nation to kick off a college savings account with $50

Getty Images There are two kinds of risk that investors should understand when building a portfolio: risk tolerance and risk capacity. They describe different aspects of a person’s risk profile — and ignoring them can put investors “in a really bad situation,” said Charlie Fitzgerald III, a certified financial planner based in Orlando, Florida. Asset

In this article AVD Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Bluecinema Picture this: You come home after a long day. As you approach your front door, you reach for your keys — but don’t feel them in your pocket. You quickly realize you’re locked out of your home. Luckily, on-call locksmiths are available to help.

Luke Chan | E+ | Getty Images Almost half — 46% — of 401(k) investors don’t know what investments are in their workplace retirement plan, according to a new CNBC Your Money Survey. But that’s not necessarily bad news, financial advisors said. That’s because most employers that offer a 401(k) plan automatically enroll workers into

Many Americans are house-rich, at least on paper. Thanks to skyrocketing housing prices, homeowners are now sitting on nearly $30 trillion in home equity, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve — just shy of the 2022 peak. That’s roughly $200,000 cash per homeowner in equity that can be tapped, which is the amount most lenders

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis laughs during a press conference in Auburndale, Florida, Jan. 30, 2023. Paul Hennessy | Lightrocket | Getty Images During a campaign event in Iowa in early August, Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis made it clear that he was against student loan forgiveness. Given broad criticism on the issue from Republicans, the