The financial news that actually matters
About 7.5 million federal student loan borrowers are still technically enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan, a plan the U.S. Department of Education now calls “unlawful” and has moved to kill. Starting July 1, 2026, loan servicers will begin mailing notices that force a decision: choose a new repayment plan within 90 days of receiving…
A buyer who qualified for a $400,000 home last week just lost a little more ground. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.37%, up from 6.30% seven days earlier, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That is the second straight weekly increase and pushes borrowing costs further from the sub-6% territory…
A 15-gallon fill-up now runs about $68, roughly $23 more than it cost before U.S.-Iran tensions began disrupting oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in late March 2026. On Wednesday, the national average for regular gasoline hit $4.54 per gallon, according to AAA, a price American drivers have not faced since pump costs briefly…
A two-car family that spent about $38 to fill a sedan in January is now paying closer to $58 for the same tank. Do that eight times a month across both vehicles and the extra cost adds up to roughly $187, money that four months ago was covering a week of groceries or a childcare…
A two-pound package of steak now costs more than an hour of work at the federal minimum wage. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows the national average price for all uncooked beef steaks hit $12.74 per pound in May 2026, the highest level recorded since the agency began tracking the series. Five years earlier, the…
Tens of millions of Americans may be owed money back from the IRS for late-filing and late-payment penalties assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The problem: most of them don’t know it, and the window to claim that money is closing fast. The National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) published an analysis in April 2026 warning that “tens…
More than 100 million Americans carry a credit card balance from one month to the next. Each billing cycle, a growing share of their minimum payment disappears into interest charges while the principal barely moves. As of early 2025, the scale of that problem has reached a level the consumer credit market has never seen…
On a $6,600 credit card balance, the minimum payment each month is roughly $132. About $120 of that goes straight to interest. The remaining $12 chips away at what you actually owe. At that rate, it would take more than 20 years to pay off the card, and you would hand over thousands of dollars…
When Maria Delgado bought a three-bedroom house in Cape Coral, Florida, in early 2022, her agent told her she was lucky to get it. Multiple offers had pushed the price $40,000 above asking. Three years later, comparable homes on her street are listed for less than she paid, and some have sat on the market…
Every spring, the housing market is supposed to wake up. Tax refunds land, school calendars create urgency, and warmer weather pulls buyers off the sidelines. Spring 2026 has not followed the script. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate climbed to 6.50% in Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ending May 22, 2026,…