The financial news that actually matters
Anyone who hit a jackpot, cashed a winning sports bet, or walked away from a poker table with more than they started now faces a tax obligation that federal law treats exactly like wage income. The IRS requires every dollar of gambling winnings to be reported on Schedule 1 of Form 1040, regardless of whether…
A cardholder sitting on a $5,000 credit card balance who sends in only the minimum each month can spend more than a decade paying it off, according to the federal formulas that issuers are required to use when printing repayment estimates on monthly statements. That estimate assumes no new purchases are added to the card….
Anyone who collected $5,000 or more through PayPal, Venmo, or similar payment apps during 2024 should expect a Form 1099-K in their mailbox or inbox, and the IRS will have a copy of the same document. That $5,000 figure was set as a phase-in threshold after the agency delayed the $600 reporting floor enacted by…
Vincent Camarda, a Long Island investment adviser who ran A.G. Morgan Financial Advisors, pleaded guilty in federal court to securities fraud and investment adviser fraud tied to a scheme that bilked at least 431 investors out of roughly $160 million. The guilty plea, entered in Central Islip, New York, carries restitution of at least $160,022,836.81…
Every federal agency that fields fraud complaints agrees on one point: a caller who demands payment by gift card, cryptocurrency, or wire transfer is not a government official. The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General stated on July 17, 2025, that “The United States government will never request you send money via gift…
American households face a stark test of the 50-30-20 budgeting rule right now. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau teaches the formula as a classroom exercise for young adults, and Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi built the framework from bankruptcy research conducted at Harvard Law School. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Consumer…
Homeowners, car buyers, and small-business borrowers hoping for cheaper credit in 2026 will have to keep waiting. The Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously on June 17 to hold the federal funds rate at 3-1/2 to 3-3/4 percent, the fourth consecutive meeting without a change. With inflation still running above the Fed’s 2 percent target…
A federal law that took effect on September 21, 2018, eliminated fees for credit freezes across all three major consumer reporting agencies, giving every American a free tool to block identity thieves from opening new accounts. The Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau both confirm that when a freeze is active, lenders…
Jeremy Grantham, co-founder of the asset management firm GMO, has described the current U.S. equity market as the most expensive in recorded history and warned that a future decline could reach as deep as 70 percent. His assessment rests on long-run valuation data stretching back more than a century, including the ratio of stock market…
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion have permanently extended a program that lets any consumer pull a free credit report from each bureau once a week through AnnualCreditReport.com. The change, which began as a temporary pandemic-era measure, means households no longer need to wait 12 months between free checks or pay third-party services to keep tabs on…