The financial news that actually matters
Borrowers carrying high-interest credit card debt can freeze their finance charges for as long as 21 months by opening a 0% balance-transfer card, but the tradeoff is an upfront fee of 3% to 5% of the amount moved. That fee structure is not uniform across the industry. Wells Fargo’s Reflect card, for example, charges $5…
Consumers who cancel a long-held credit card to simplify their finances risk a score drop that hits harder than many expect, even if the card has been sitting unused in a drawer for years. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns that closing a credit card can decrease a credit score by reducing total available credit…
Taxpayers who fall short on their quarterly estimated payments face an IRS-imposed addition to tax that has been running at roughly 8% per year, a rate high enough to rival some credit card interest charges. The penalty hits individuals, estates, and trusts that either pay too little or pay late during the tax year, and…
GameStop Corp. cut 727 stores from its U.S. footprint in a single fiscal year, dropping from 2,325 locations to 1,598 between February 1, 2025, and January 31, 2026. The scale of the reduction, disclosed in the company’s annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, amounts to a loss of roughly one in every three…
Millions of workers with access to a 401(k) plan never contribute enough to collect the full employer match, effectively turning down additional compensation they have already earned the right to claim. A matching contribution formula provides additional employer contributions only to employees who make elective deferrals, which means a worker who defers nothing receives nothing…
Millions of workers earning modest wages can cut their federal tax bill by saving even a small amount for retirement, thanks to a provision that rewards contributions with a dollar-for-dollar credit rather than a simple deduction. The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, commonly called the Saver’s Credit, is worth up to $1,000 for an individual filer…
A missing debit card can drain a checking account in hours, but federal law draws a sharp line: consumers who notify their bank within two business days of discovering the loss or theft face a maximum liability of $50 for unauthorized transactions. Wait longer, and that cap jumps to $500. The difference between those two…
Millions of Californians have money sitting in state vaults that they have never tried to collect. The California Legislature designated February 2026 as Unclaimed Property Month through HR 79, a resolution that explicitly encourages residents to search for forgotten assets using the State Controller’s free claim tool. The state holds roughly $15 billion in unclaimed…
A federal jury found Bradley Heppner guilty of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and making false statements to auditors after a three-week trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Heppner, identified as the former chairman of GWG Holdings and founder of Beneficient, was convicted of running a scheme…
A worker who saves steadily for 30 years in a low-cost index fund can end up tens of thousands of dollars richer than a colleague who picks a nearly identical fund that charges a higher annual fee. The gap between a 0.03 percent expense ratio and a 1 percent expense ratio sounds trivial in any…