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.
Electricity bills haven’t just gone up since the pandemic-era price swings of 2021 and 2022 settled down; they’ve kept climbing faster than most other household costs, and residential customers in particular have absorbed the brunt of it. A multi-year analysis from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and The Brattle Group puts a hard number on a…
A credit-reporting mistake that stuck a bankruptcy label on people’s files without a matching bankruptcy record is now being resolved with cash. Roughly 21,000 people will receive an automatic $100 payment with nothing to file, and thousands more can submit a claim for up to $1,000 before the October 30, 2026, deadline. For older Americans…
Electric and natural gas bills have been climbing in nearly every part of the country, and for retirees paying those bills out of a fixed Social Security check, the increases are no longer a rounding error. A tracker maintained by two nonpartisan research groups shows how widespread the pressure has become, tallying rate increases and…
Millions of people who filled a prescription with insurance at a Kroger pharmacy over the last several years may be owed money, but unlike some recent settlements, this one requires actually filing a claim. A federal class-action settlement resolving Kirkbride v. The Kroger Co. covers anyone who paid for a prescription using insurance at a…
Roughly 102 million people who bought apps or in-app content on the Google Play Store are about to see a small deposit show up in PayPal or Venmo, and most of them will not have to do anything to get it. A federal court gave final approval on April 30, 2026, to a $700 million…
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is best known as a benefit for working-age families with children, but its rules are actually more generous for older applicants than for almost anyone else in the program. Despite that, research consistently finds that a large share of eligible seniors never apply, leaving a benefit that could meaningfully ease…
Utility bills are one of the least flexible costs in a retirement budget, rising and falling with the weather rather than a household’s ability to pay. A federal program built to soften that swing, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, remains funded and running through state agencies, but a large share of the older…
Adding a son or daughter as a joint owner on a bank account is a common shortcut for aging parents who want help paying bills, or an easy way to pass money along without probate. The convenience carries a legal tradeoff that is easy to miss: a joint owner generally has the same legal claim…
A financial power of attorney is one of the simplest documents to put in place while someone can still make their own decisions, yet it is often skipped until a health crisis forces the issue. Without one on file, a family that needs to pay a parent’s bills, manage investments, or access accounts after a…
A Series I savings bond pays a rate backed directly by the U.S. Treasury and adjusted twice a year for inflation, which makes it one of the safer places to park money outside a bank account. That safety comes with a timing rule that catches savers off guard: money placed in an I bond cannot…