If you went to college, there’s a good chance you still have student loans to tackle. It takes Americans with student debt an average of 21 years to completely pay off their education, and the average student loan payment is $393 a month. With that kind of weight on your wallet, you might wonder whether you should [...]
Luckily, there's plenty of time for you to recover from these all-too-common financial blunders. It might not come as news that we Millennials receive little respect for our financial skills. Having grown up in an era where the focus regularly fell on protecting individuals’ self-esteem (e.g., participation trophies), I can attest we often received reminders [...]
One wrong move can increase your retirement tax bill. RETIREES WHO PLAN carefully can often pay a lower tax bill in retirement. However, tax mistakes can have a dramatic effect on your finances when you're on a fixed income. Poor or haphazard tax planning might actually move you into a higher tax bracket or result in [...]
Everyone’s heard the stories of celebrities who died without a proper estate plan in place. It’s been a hot topic in the last few years with Prince and Aretha Franklin serving as unfortunate faces of the phenomenon. But it’s not just freewheeling entertainers. Abraham Lincoln – a lawyer by trade – didn’t have one either, which leads me [...]
For years, I have filed my own taxes. As a child I watched my mom with stacks of receipts spread across the kitchen table, typing in numbers to file taxes for the interior painting business that she and my dad owned. When I began filing my own taxes, it made sense to follow her lead [...]
You can't just target a $1 million or $2 million goal, because if you're a big spender or a penny pincher, that figure could be way off what you really need. People frequently ask me how much money they’ll need to retire, as if there’s a one-size-fits-all dollar amount. They tell me $1 million is [...]
SCAMS TRYING TO STEAL your Social Security information are on the rise. More than 35,000 people reported Social Security imposter scams to the Federal Trade Commission in 2018, up from 3,200 in 2017. As a result of this crime, consumers lost more than $10 million in 2018. RELATED CONTENT Social Security Benefit Questions If you receive a call [...]
TAX IRS CANCELS POSTCARD-SIZED INCOME TAX RETURN IRS Cancels Postcard-Sized Income Tax Return The IRS won’t be getting any postcards from taxpayers this year. It’s not like the nation’s tax collection agency was expecting pictures of scenic views of mountains and oceans or tourist attractions. But plans to provide taxpayers with a postcard-sized Form 1040 have been officially scrapped. The IRS is now working [...]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. economic growth slowed less than expected in the second quarter as a surge in consumer spending blunted some of the drag from declining exports and a smaller inventory build, which could further allay concerns about the economy’s health. But the fairly upbeat report from the Commerce Department on Friday had some [...]
Scam callers are now using stolen personal information to tailor calls to specific consumers, posing as trusted companies to swindle money, according to a new report that analyzed 40 billion calls made this year. Criminals are leveraging the massive data breaches that have rocked major companies by using the exposed customer information to target consumers [...]