As a general rule, the higher your credit score, the better off you are. However, a missed payment or default can quickly drag your score down, sometimes significantly. As many consumers know, your credit score plays a big role in daily life. It can determine the interest rate you’ll pay for credit cards, car loans […]
By the time most of us reach retirement age, we feel as if we don’t have enough money to live the life we envisioned. Our feelings aren’t wrong: a 2019 analysis from the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that over 40% of American households in which the official head is between their mid-30s and mid-60s are projected to run […]
Intuit wants to manage more of your financial data. The TurboTax developer has bought Credit Karma, best known for helping people track and control their credit, for $7.1 billion in cash and stock. It intends to use Credit Karma to craft a “personalized financial assistant” that provides insights into your money and helps you “find […]
Obamacare appears to have become more popular since Barack Obama left office. Some 55% of Americans support the ACA, a record high since the law went into effect a decade ago, according to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, while 37% of the 130,000 respondents in the nationally representative poll hold unfavorable views. […]
One of the first rules of entrepreneurship is you’re never supposed to mix your business and personal finances. But sometimes, business owners will go too far in the opposite direction, spending so much time running their business, working on their business, and investing profits back into their business that they end up not paying enough […]
As many Americans work to shore up their retirement savings, what to do with workplace accounts like a 401(k) can be a source of confusion when switching jobs. A 401(k) account is a tax-advantaged, company-sponsored savings plan, with defined contributions — typically not only made by employees but employers as well. In some cases, employers […]
Saving for retirement is unquestionably important. Without money socked away for your golden years, you might struggle to keep up with your senior living expenses once your paycheck from work goes away and you realize that Social Security alone won’t suffice in paying your bills. Now, you’ll often hear that it’s wise to save for […]
Whether you realize it or not, Americans’ reliance on Social Security is near an all-time high, at least according to national pollster Gallup. In April 2019, Gallup surveyed retired workers and found that 90% of them are at least somewhat reliant on their monthly benefit check to make ends meet. This ties an all-time high, […]
So it’s time to withdraw from your tax-protected retirement stash, usually an IRA. According to a new law, when you reach 72, you have to take out at least the amount that’s calculated under actuarial tables, using your expected lifespan. This move is called a required minimum withdrawal, or RMD. Those who turned 70½ last […]
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 Consumer Federation of America. “People are definitely going to jail,” […]
The rules for divvying up your assets are a bit different in retirement than during your working years. The reason? When you still have a paycheck coming in from work, you can afford to take on more risk in your investment portfolio. Once that steady paycheck goes away, you’ll want to minimize (though not eliminate) […]
If you spend any time on Facebook, Reddit or other online forums, you’ll notice a massive overlap between award travel enthusiasts and the personal finance communities. Not only do these groups share the belief that they can improve their own standing in life by thinking outside the box and making small but meaningful changes that […]
