Personal finance

Washington, D.C.-area residents Cara Baldari and her 9-month-old daughter Evie (left) and Sarah Orrin-Vipond and her 8-month-old son Otto (right), join a rally in front of the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2021. Alex Wong | Getty Images Bringing back the enhanced child tax credit with monthly checks would help lift millions of children out…

Elena Kurkutova | Istock | Getty Images Older Americans may have a number of different goals with their retirement savings. But usually their main goal is the same: to make it last. Unfortunately, many younger baby boomers and members of subsequent generations who don’t have access to a traditional pension could outlive the funds in…

Fg Trade | Istock | Getty Images For consumers in search of an affordable new car, there’s little relief on the horizon. The monthly costs to finance a vehicle purchase have hit record highs. Consumers face monthly payments averaging $656 for a new car, financed at 5.1% over 70.5 months (nearly six years), according to…

Ciydemimages | E+ | Getty Images For Denise Diaz, the benefits of pandemic-era stimulus checks went beyond everyday dollars and cents. They rewired how she thinks about money. Diaz, a mother of three who lives outside Orlando, Florida, received more than $10,000 from three rounds of “economic impact payments.” They were among the 472 million…

Nosystem Images | E+ | Getty Images A college education was supposed to help close the wealth gap for Black Americans. Yet, researchers are finding the opposite is true, thanks to student loan debt. Black families’ median wealth is less than 15% of that of white families, according to the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of…

Thomas Barwick Finding a broker or financial advisor you can trust may, at times, seem a daunting task. That’s especially true when investors see sensational stories of brokers fleeing the police in an underwater getaway or faking their death in an airplane crash. Then there are the high-profile fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff, who masterminded…

Students participate in the Global Climate Strike march in New York City. Johannes Eisele | Afp | Getty Images As the bull market flourished in 2021, many investors took a shine to investments that reflected their values. Environmental, social and corporate governance — or ESG — investments attracted record levels of new assets. Last year,…

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer addresses the state during a speech in Lansing, Michigan on Oct. 8, 2020. Michigan Office of the Governor via AP Michigan is now officially the 14th state in the U.S. to guarantee that its students have access to a personal finance education course before high school graduation. On Thursday, Gov. Gretchen…

Nosystem Images | E+ | Getty Images The latest stock market decline may be troublesome if you’re relying on a now-smaller 529 plan balance to cover college tuition this fall. But crafting a multi-year tax strategy may be one way to lighten the burden, experts say. The major stock market indexes have seen double-digit losses…

MStudioImages | E+ | Getty Images For many older Americans, record high prices are jeopardizing their financial security just as they approach or live in retirement, according to a recent survey from The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan senior group. The online survey was conducted online in the first quarter and included 3,056 participants, 96%…

Getty Images The first half of 2022 has been a whirlwind for investors and financial advisors amid high market volatility. As they brace themselves for the second half of the year, a key way for them to succeed will be rebalancing, Omar Aguilar, CEO and CIO at Schwab Asset Management said at the CNBC Financial…

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, D.C. Sarah Silbiger | Reuters The Federal Reserve on Wednesday hiked its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage points, the largest increase in nearly three decades. It’s the latest move from the U.S. central bank to combat the highest inflation in roughly 40 years, which…