Personal finance

Ramon Montiel-García, 18, a graduate of KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy in Colorado. Credit: Ramon Montiel-García Ramon Montiel-García, a newly minted high school graduate from KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy in Colorado, was accepted to his first-choice school, Wheaton College in Massachusetts.  However, with a sticker price of nearly $80,000 per year, including tuition, fees, and

Alexandra Pavlova | Getty Images The Biden administration’s efforts on student loan forgiveness have repeatedly been met with legal challenges. The Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s first attempt at wide-scale forgiveness last summer. Now, its new income-driven repayment plan (the Saving on a Valuable Education plan known as SAVE) is partially suspended after

97 / Getty Inflation has throttled back significantly since peaking two years ago. The U.S. economy is even seeing some prices deflate for consumers. Deflation measures how quickly prices are falling for a consumer good or service. It’s the opposite of inflation, which gauges how quickly prices are increasing. Physical goods have accounted for much

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump participate in the CNN Presidential Debate on June 27, 2024 in Atlanta. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images Inflation decelerated again in June, bringing further relief to consumers’ wallets. The consumer price index rose 3% in June 2024 from June 2023, down from a

Getty Images The share of people with medical debt in collections that shows up in their credit reports has fallen in the past decade. Yet unpaid balances due to health care costs continue to burden individuals and families. In 2013, 19.5% of Americans had medical debt in collections, while 10 years later, in 2023, that

Svetikd | E+ | Getty Images Roth individual retirement account conversions are a popular way to reduce future levies on pretax 401(k) or IRA withdrawals — and you can smooth out the upfront tax hit with a “Roth conversion ladder,” experts say. Roth conversions transfer pretax or nondeductible IRA money to a Roth IRA, which offers future tax-free

Grace Cary | Moment | Getty Images Whether you’re mid-career or nearing retirement, it’s important to know where you’re investing — and how those accounts could impact future taxes, experts say. Many workers are heavily concentrated in tax-deferred savings via a pretax 401(k) plan or traditional individual retirement accounts, which incur regular income taxes on

Ridvan_celik | E+ | Getty Images Employment scams surged last year, as criminals leveraged artificial intelligence to steal money and personal information from unsuspecting job seekers, experts said. Consumer reports of job scams jumped 118% in 2023 from the prior year, according to a recent report by the Identity Theft Resource Center. Thieves generally pose

Vanessa Acosta marries Sam Roberts in their backyard in Pasadena, California, on May 25, 2024. Courtesy: Vanessa Acosta Last year, Vanessa Acosta and Sam Roberts found their dream venue for a black-tie wedding. But a series of family events made the couple reconsider their plans: “We don’t need to do this big thing where we’re

Erin Collins, national taxpayer advocate at the Taxpayer Advocate Service, speaks at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 2021. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images There’s a pileup of tax identity theft cases at the IRS — but the agency is working on a “range of improvements” to speed up

Johner Images | Johner Images Royalty-free | Getty Images Many retirees don’t think about taxes until it’s time to withdraw funds from a pretax account, which can be a costly mistake, financial experts say. Only 3 in 10 Americans have a plan to reduce taxes on retirement savings, according to a Northwestern Mutual study from January

Tolgart | E+ | Getty Images Cybercriminals are targeting wealth accounts by tapping into a victim’s emotions. So-called romance scams involve building a relationship and trust with the victim so that the target willingly provides access to their accounts or transfers money to the criminal, explained Tracy Kitten, the director of fraud and security at