The financial news that actually matters
A tow truck backs up to a driveway at 3 a.m., hooks a sedan with 54 payments still on the books, and hauls it to an auction lot where it will sell for thousands less than the borrower owes. That scene played out roughly 1.73 million times in 2024, according to Cox Automotive data reported…
For the first time in eight years, Florida homeowners insured through the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation will see their premiums go down instead of up. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced in January 2026 that Citizens policyholders will receive an average rate reduction of 8.7%, with some customers seeing cuts above 10%, effective…
When tariffs on imported goods pushed the price of a midsize sedan up by thousands of dollars, American car buyers absorbed the hit. When the cost of imported clothing, electronics, and groceries climbed, shoppers paid the difference at checkout. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down those emergency tariffs as unconstitutional, the federal government…
Seven years is a long time to pay for a car. It is long enough to watch a child go from kindergarten through sixth grade, or to cycle through two presidential elections. Yet in the first quarter of 2025, nearly one in four new-car buyers who financed their purchase chose exactly that timeline, signing 84-month…
A buyer closing on a $400,000 home this weekend will pay about $150 more each month than someone who locked in a rate late last year. That is not a typo, and it is not a rounding error. It is the cost of borrowing money in a bond market that just crossed a line Wall…
For three years, a firearms retailer in Fort Worth kept getting the same letter from different banks: account closed, no further explanation. He was not behind on payments. He was not under investigation. He sold a legal product, but compliance departments at three separate institutions decided his business posed a risk they did not want…
Picture a borrower in her mid-30s who has not made a student loan payment since 2020. She earns $3,200 a month after taxes. If the federal government garnishes 15% of her disposable pay, roughly $480 disappears from every paycheck before she can spend a dime on rent, groceries, or child care. No court order is…
The two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran expires today, and as of this morning neither Washington nor Tehran has signaled any intention to extend it. American drivers are paying a national average of $4.51 a gallon for regular gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Crude oil has pushed above $109 a…
Roughly 8 million federal student loan borrowers were enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan when courts froze it in mid-2024. Most of them have been in limbo ever since, making no payments and receiving little guidance. That changes on July 1, 2026, when loan servicers will begin sending notices requiring those borrowers to choose a…
The official number looked like a small win for homebuyers. Freddie Mac’s weekly survey, released Thursday, pegged the average 30-year fixed mortgage at 6.36% for the week ending May 14, 2026, a slight dip after two consecutive increases. But by the time that figure hit inboxes, it was already outdated. The 10-year Treasury yield, the…