The financial news that actually matters
Homeowners in disaster-prone parts of the country are absorbing premium increases of 25% or more, according to a federal audit, and several states are now locked into scheduled rate hikes that will push bills higher through 2026. North Carolina approved a 7.5% base-rate increase effective June 1, 2025, with a second 7.5% jump set for…
More than 400 Americans, most of them in their eighties, lost a combined $5 million to a phone scam run out of the Dominican Republic. The operation, which federal prosecutors describe as a “grandparent scam,” relied on callers who impersonated relatives in crisis and pressured elderly victims into handing cash to couriers. Sixteen defendants were…
Nearly half a million people who paid for credit-repair services that turned out to be a pyramid scheme are about to get some of their money back. The Federal Trade Commission announced in March 2026 that it is mailing more than $10.9 million in refund checks to 443,048 consumers who were charged by an operation…
Older homeowners in Florida are losing a staggering share of their fixed incomes to property insurance. A calculation pairing federal retirement-income data with state regulatory filings puts the figure at 34 percent of mean retirement income for residents 65 and older, a ratio that reflects years of hurricane-driven premium increases colliding with stagnant pension and…
Reinaldo Miralles Gonzalez, a 52-year-old resident of Doral, Florida, will spend 30 months in federal prison after admitting he conspired with others to impersonate FBI agents and extort money from elderly victims. A federal judge also ordered Gonzalez to pay $123,000 in restitution. The case, filed as number 22-20456 in the U.S. District Court for…
American households are paying roughly 25 percent more for groceries than they did in 2019, a cumulative price increase that continues to strain budgets even as the annual rate of increase has slowed closer to historical norms. The food-at-home component of the Consumer Price Index rose 2.7 percent in the twelve months ending June 2026,…
Buyers who finance a car assembled in the United States can now write off up to $10,000 a year in loan interest on their federal tax returns, whether they itemize deductions or claim the standard deduction. The Treasury Department and the IRS issued proposed regulations for the new break, which was enacted as part of…
Older homeowners who took out federally insured reverse mortgages are at the center of a proposed class action alleging that loan servicers tacked on inspection, preservation, and administrative fees that federal regulations do not permit. The lawsuit targets charges added after FHA endorsement of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans, arguing those costs quietly eroded the…
Every Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture location in the United States is shutting down. A bankruptcy court approved going-out-of-business sales at all 89 remaining stores, covering 79 Value City Furniture locations across 13 states and 10 American Signature Furniture stores in Delaware and Florida. Three liquidation firms are now running the wind-down, and…
Families enrolled in high-deductible health plans can set aside up to $8,750 in a health savings account for the 2026 tax year, shielding that money from federal income tax when it goes in, while it grows, and when it comes out for qualified medical expenses. The IRS published that ceiling in Rev. Proc. 2025-19, alongside…