The financial news that actually matters
Millions of dollars in federal tax refunds go unclaimed every year, and the clock is always ticking. Under IRC Section 6511, taxpayers generally have three years from the date they filed a return, or two years from the date they paid the tax, whichever comes later, to claim a refund. Once that window closes, the…
Tyson Foods and Cargill have agreed to pay a combined $87.5 million to settle allegations that they conspired to inflate wholesale beef prices between 2014 and 2019. Shoppers in 27 states who purchased beef during that window can file claims for a share of the payout, but the deadline is June 30. Neither company has…
Credit cardholders who fall more than 60 days behind on a minimum payment can see their annual percentage rate spike to nearly 30 percent, and that elevated rate can stick for at least six consecutive billing cycles even after they resume paying on time. The penalty hits fast, but the path back to a normal…
Homeowners who file joint tax returns and sell a primary residence stand to keep up to $500,000 of profit free from federal income tax, provided they clear a two-year ownership and use threshold spelled out in federal statute. The rule, codified under Section 121 of the Internal Revenue Code, has not changed since Treasury finalized…
Homeowners locked into mortgage rates above 6% who come into a lump sum of cash now have a practical alternative to refinancing: the mortgage recast. By making a large principal payment and asking the servicer to recalculate the remaining balance over the original loan term, borrowers can reduce their monthly payment while keeping the same…
Tens of millions of Social Security recipients could see their monthly checks jump by the largest amount in years if current inflation trends hold through the summer. Forecasters tracking the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, the specific price gauge that determines annual benefit adjustments, now project the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment…
People searching online for Medicare enrollment or health insurance quotes are landing on sites designed to harvest their personal data, and federal regulators are treating the problem as an industry-wide pattern rather than a string of one-off scams. The Federal Trade Commission sent warning letters to healthcare plan marketers and lead generators in December 2024…
Fraudsters who break into a beneficiary’s my Social Security account can swap the direct deposit routing in minutes, sending monthly payments to bank accounts they control. Between January 2013 and May 2018, $33.5 million in Social Security benefits was successfully redirected from 20,878 beneficiaries through unauthorized online changes, while another $23.9 million was caught and…
Homebuyers hoping for relief on borrowing costs this summer face another week of waiting. The Federal Open Market Committee opens a two-day meeting on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, with its policy decision set for Wednesday, June 17. The 30-year fixed mortgage average sits at 6.52 percent, and nothing in the Fed’s recent posture suggests a…
American grocery shoppers are getting relief at the egg case. The average price of a dozen Grade A large eggs has dropped 7.9% over the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics average-price series tracked on the Federal Reserve Economic Data platform. The BLS May 2026 Consumer Price Index release, published today, places…