The financial news that actually matters
A general consumer finance category covering everyday money decisions, budgeting, saving, debt management, credit behavior, and personal financial improvement strategies.
Two Americans walk into a bank and apply for the same credit card. One has a FICO score of 760. She gets approved instantly: a $15,000 limit, 16% APR, and a 15-month 0% introductory offer. The other has a score of 560. He also gets approved, but for a different product entirely: a $500 limit,…
Published in May 2026. Two pounds of steak for a weekend cookout now costs more than $25 before you even grab the charcoal. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average price of all uncooked beef steaks reached $12.74 per pound in February 2026, the highest reading in a data series that goes back…
In late May 2026, Spirit Airlines flight 402 from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan flipped from “On Time” to “Canceled” on the departure board. The following account is drawn from passenger descriptions posted on social media and has not been independently verified: roughly 180 travelers at the gate reportedly received no rebooking, no vouchers, and…
Spirit Airlines is done flying. The ultra-low-cost carrier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in late 2024, attempted a restructuring, and then pulled the plug entirely in spring 2025, announcing an orderly wind-down of all operations. Every remaining flight was canceled. Passengers were told not to show up at the airport. As of June 2026,…
A daily pill just became the cheapest branded GLP-1 weight loss drug on the U.S. market, and it does not require a single injection. Eli Lilly’s Foundayo, containing the active ingredient orforglipron, received FDA approval in early April 2026 for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight who have at least one weight-related…
American households now owe a record $1.28 trillion on their credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve’s G.19 revolving credit report. That number alone is striking, but a second statistic may be more revealing: roughly 61% of cardholders say they have carried a balance for more than a year, per a Bankrate survey published in…
Millions of Americans who paid premiums to a Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan between February 2008 and October 2020 are about to see something rare: actual money from a class action lawsuit. The first checks from a $2.67 billion antitrust settlement, the largest in U.S. health insurance history, are scheduled to go out in…
The last time this many Americans said their personal finances were heading in the wrong direction, the country was sliding into a recession and still absorbing the shock of the September 11 attacks. A Gallup poll conducted April 1 through 15, 2026, found that 55% of respondents said their financial situation was getting worse. That…
When indie developer Marco Arment tweeted in early May 2026 that a mysterious new subscription tier had appeared in his App Store Connect dashboard, he was not the only one refreshing the page. Within days, developers across forums and social channels confirmed the same thing: Apple had quietly added a third subscription option that lets…
Fifty-five percent of American adults now say their personal finances are “getting worse” rather than “getting better,” the bleakest reading Gallup has recorded since 2001. In that earlier period, when the dot-com crash and the September 11 attacks shattered household confidence, Gallup logged a comparable share of respondents choosing “getting worse” on the same question….