Personal finance

Alicia Silverstone stars in the 1995 film “Clueless.” Stringer | Array | Reuters Her character Cher Horowitz may have been best known for her shopping habit, but in real life, ”Clueless” star Alicia Silverstone said she never buys retail if she can help it. “Cher, she is such a consumer. We are actual opposites,” the sustainability advocate

Getty Images If you’re a higher earner and looking to boost tax-free retirement savings, there’s a lesser-known strategy that could be worth considering. While Roth individual retirement accounts offer tax-free growth and other benefits, some investors earn too much for direct contributions. For 2024, the adjusted gross income limits for Roth IRA contributions are $161,000 for

Azmanjaka | E+ | Getty Images Many companies are pivoting to a new form of hiring, one that emphasizes applicants’ skills over more traditional metrics like education or years of experience. The share of U.S. online job postings that list a specific requirement for employment tenure has fallen by 10 percentage points, to 30%, in

Blackcat | E+ | Getty Images Many consumers are finding it hard to keep up with their bills. To that point, 37% of Americans have been charged a late fee on a bill in the last 12 months, according to a new report by NerdWallet. Credit card late fees were the most common, with 21%

Pixelseffect | E+ | Getty Images For lower-earning Americans, the pace of hiring remains strong, holding steady above its pre-pandemic baseline even as the demand for higher-income workers has waned slightly, according to new data from Vanguard. The hire rate for the bottom one-third of workers by income, those who earn less than $55,000 a

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel testifies before the House Appropriations Committee on May 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images The IRS will expand Direct File, its free tax filing program, nationwide starting in 2025, the agency and the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced on Thursday. “After a successful pilot, we are

Jose Luis Pelaez | Stone | Getty Images For many people, retirement planning is all about money: how to invest, how much to save, when to claim Social Security, how to best withdraw from accounts. Finances in retirement are an acute fear. About 2 in 3 people worry more about running out of money than

Goodboy Picture Company | E+ | Getty Images For most Americans, living well in retirement depends on how much they can save in their working years. But for millions of older individuals, unpaid student loan debts may put that goal out of reach, according to new research from the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis

Delaware College of Art and Design in Wilmington, Delaware. Google Earth The Delaware College of Art and Design announced on May 23 that it’s set to close, citing low enrollment numbers for the upcoming school year, due in part to issues with the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Experts have continuously warned that ongoing

Noam Galai / Noamgalai.com | Moment | Getty Images Roth individual retirement account conversions are up in 2024 — but there are key things to know before converting funds, experts say. There was a 44% year-over-year increase in the number of Roth conversions during the first quarter of 2024, according to data from Fidelity Investments. 

Alessandro Biascioli | Istock | Getty Images When it comes to claiming Social Security retirement benefits, experts agree it’s generally best to delay. Yet many people still claim early — either at the earliest possible age of 62 or before their full retirement age. Those early claims result in reduced Social Security benefits for life.

March 12 is generally considered equal pay day, the mark of just how far into the new year women have to keep working to make what their male counterparts typically made in just the previous year. That difference is known as the gender pay gap. However, for some groups that date comes much later. For Asian

Ryanjlane | E+ | Getty Images Sometimes, it pays to pay with cash.   More merchants are offering a lower price to customers who use cash rather than credit card for a purchase. That means opting for paper over plastic may save you money in some cases. Just how much? Typically, cash discounts run about

Fatcamera | E+ | Getty Images To understand why women are still fighting to catch up to men economically, author Josie Cox turns to the past. She doesn’t have to look too far back. The Women’s Business Ownership Act, which allowed women to obtain business financing without a male co-signer, didn’t pass until 1988, Cox,

Phynart Studio | E+ | Getty Images Coming up with the down payment as an aspiring homeowner can be daunting, but many have already begun working toward that goal. About 77% of future homebuyers have started putting money aside for a down payment, according to a new survey by Clever.com, a housing and real estate

Elena Perova | Istock | Getty Images High inflation is subsiding, but many Americans have yet to see relief from elevated prices at the grocery store. “Grocery prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, and in many cases, they’ve kept going up, even though the pandemic is over,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said at a Wednesday Senate

Aleksandarnakic | E+ | Getty Images You may be saving more money for retirement — and not even know it. An increasing share of employers are automating how people save in their company 401(k) plans, in a bid to overcome the inertia that often keeps us from building a nest egg. “Automatic escalation” — or

Sturti | E+ | Getty Images If your kids are working summer jobs, it’s a prime opportunity to help them open a retirement account and start saving for the future, experts say. Roth individual retirement accounts can be “triple-tax efficient” for teenagers, according to certified financial planner Carol Fabbri, managing partner of Fair Advisors in

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) faces reporters during a break in a bipartisan Artificial Intelligence (AI) Insight Forum for all U.S. senators at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, September 13, 2023. Julia Nikhinson | Reuters Elizabeth Warren wants more student loan borrowers to know that it is now easier to part with their debt in

Between the six-figure price tag and hefty student loan tab, more students are questioning whether a four-year degree is worth it — and deciding the answer is no. Since the pandemic, a growing number have opted out. Although college enrollment declines leveled off in fall 2023, there were 900,000 fewer undergraduates enrolled in college in the spring 2024 term compared