The financial news that actually matters
Families who inherit a home without advance planning can spend months waiting for a court to release the property, paying filing fees and executor costs along the way. A living trust offers a direct alternative: when a residence is already titled in the trust’s name before the owner dies, the property passes to heirs outside…
Every American household now has the ability to check credit reports from all three major bureaus on a weekly basis at no cost, a level of access that did not exist before 2020. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each provide reports through a single federally authorized site, and the weekly option has remained in place well…
Taxpayers who paid failure-to-pay penalties on their 2020 or 2021 federal returns could be owed money back from the IRS, but a refund window tied to statutory claim deadlines is closing fast. The agency announced an automatic penalty relief program covering assessed balances under $100,000 for those two tax years, and it confirmed that credits…
Millions of Americans age 65 and older stand to save up to $6,000 on their 2025 federal tax returns, but only if they file a brand-new IRS form that does not appear anywhere on the standard 1040 by default. The IRS confirmed that the senior deduction, enacted under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, must be…
Wartime veterans who can no longer dress themselves, bathe without help, or safely move through their own homes may qualify for a monthly VA pension payment well above the standard rate. The Department of Veterans Affairs sets a higher maximum annual pension rate, known as the MAPR, for claimants who meet Aid and Attendance criteria,…
Americans who carry a balance on their credit cards are now paying a record-high annual percentage rate of 22.17%, according to the Federal Reserve’s own data on commercial bank card plans. That figure applies specifically to accounts assessed interest, meaning cardholders who revolve a balance from month to month rather than paying in full. The…
People turning 60, 61, 62, or 63 this year can put as much as $11,250 in additional catch-up contributions into their 401(k) plans, according to IRS limits for 2026. That figure replaces the standard $8,000 catch-up cap that applies to workers aged 50 and older, giving those in the narrow four-year window a 40 percent…
Every person with money in an American bank has a single number standing between their savings and a total loss during a bank failure: $250,000. That figure, set by federal statute, defines the maximum amount the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will cover per depositor at each insured institution, broken down further by ownership category. With…
American workers took home $37.53 an hour on average in May 2026, a 3.4 percent increase from a year earlier. That gain, however, fell short of the 4.2 percent rise in consumer prices over the same period, meaning the typical paycheck bought less than it did twelve months ago. The gap between what employers paid…
Parents of newborns born in 2025 are about to face a deadline that could cost their children $1,000. The U.S. Treasury and IRS have finalized the pathway for families to open initial Trump Accounts, a one-time government deposit authorized under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. The first deposits are set to land on July 5,…