The financial news that actually matters
American borrowers lost roughly 1.73 million vehicles to repossession in 2024, the highest annual total since 2009 and a 16 percent jump from the prior year. The estimate, produced by Cox Automotive, signals that the financial strain from pandemic-era vehicle purchases is now hitting households hard enough to cost them their cars. Behind the numbers…
Lower-income workers who put money into a retirement account can claim a federal tax credit worth up to $1,000 per person, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly. The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, commonly called the Saver’s Credit, applies a percentage of 50%, 20%, or 10% to qualified contributions capped at $2,000 per eligible individual….
American households are carrying more credit card debt than at any point on record, with the average balance reaching $6,580. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau documented this milestone in its 2025 Consumer Credit Card Market report, formally published in the Federal Register on January 7, 2026. The figure lands at a time when fewer consumers…
Workers who receive a bonus this year will see the IRS take a flat 22 percent cut before the money reaches their bank accounts. That withholding rate, applied automatically by most employers, often exceeds what an employee actually owes in federal income tax, shrinking the check and leaving the difference locked up until tax-filing season…
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…