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.
A short claim form and a firm deadline stand between eligible consumers and a payment of up to $160 from a Farmers Insurance telemarketing settlement. The money resolves allegations that agents marketing Farmers coverage placed calls and texts that ran afoul of federal telemarketing law, and the window to file closes in mid-September. For anyone…
The size of a monthly food-stamp benefit is not a flat figure; it is the end of a calculation that subtracts certain costs from a household’s income. Buried in that formula is a provision written specifically for older and disabled Americans, and it is one of the most overlooked. Households that include a member who…
A backyard grilling staple has landed at the center of one of the summer’s largest consumer recalls. Conair has expanded its recall of Cuisinart wire-bristle grill brushes to roughly 3.6 million units after more reports that small metal bristles can break off, cling to a grill grate or food, and be swallowed. Owners are entitled…
For most people, a Social Security check feels untouchable — earned income, protected by law, safe from creditors. But there is a major exception, and it catches older borrowers off guard: a defaulted federal student loan can let the government reach into that monthly benefit and take a slice before it ever lands in a…
A divorce decree can split a house, divide a pension, and end a marriage, yet leave one thing untouched: the beneficiary form naming a former spouse on a retirement account or life insurance policy. Those forms do not update themselves when a marriage begins or ends. Until someone changes them, a stale designation can hand…
A “free trial” is rarely as free as it looks. The offer hands over a card number for a week or a month of no-cost access, and unless the customer cancels in time, the trial quietly rolls into a paid subscription that renews on its own — month after month, often at a price the…
A carefully written will can lay out exactly who inherits what — and still be powerless over the largest accounts many retirees own. IRAs, 401(k)s, pensions, life insurance, and annuities do not pass through a will at all. They go to whoever is listed on the beneficiary form on file with the plan or company,…
Naming a trust as the beneficiary of an IRA sounds like the careful, responsible choice — a way to control money for a spendthrift heir, a minor, or a loved one with special needs. Done well, it does exactly that. Done carelessly, it can accelerate taxes, strip away years of tax-deferred growth, and push an…
How a house is titled can matter as much as what a will says. When a home is held as joint tenants with right of survivorship, the property passes to the surviving co-owner the instant one owner dies — no probate court, no waiting on a judge, and no reading of the will required. For…
A retiree can spend years drafting a will, only to watch the largest asset she owns ignore it entirely. Retirement accounts — the IRA, the 401(k), the annuity — do not pass through a will at all. They pass by a single line on a beneficiary form filed with the custodian. When that line is…