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.
The repayment plan that once promised the lowest monthly bills for federal student-loan borrowers is being unwound, and the people enrolled in it are on a clock. Courts struck the plan down, the government is now notifying borrowers in waves, and each notice starts a roughly 90-day window to choose a new plan. Anyone who…
Nursing-home care is among the largest expenses a retiree can face, often running past six figures a year, and Medicaid is the program that ultimately pays for most long-term care in the United States. Families sometimes try to qualify by giving money and property to their children before applying, on the theory that an applicant…
For many retirees, the family home is the largest store of wealth they have, and after decades of appreciation, selling it can surface a gain worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tax law contains one of its most generous breaks for exactly that moment. Handled right, a home sale in retirement can move a very…
A person can spend real money on a carefully drafted will and still hand a fortune to exactly the wrong heir. The reason is a piece of paper most people signed once, years ago, and never looked at again: the beneficiary designation. On a large share of the assets a retiree leaves behind, that form,…
Most workplace health accounts operate on a use-it-or-lose-it clock, forcing a scramble to spend down a balance before year’s end. The health savings account works nothing like that. Its dollars roll forward indefinitely, and in retirement they can quietly become one of the most flexible tools for covering health costs, including Medicare premiums, without owing…
A data-breach settlement now open for claims could put as much as roughly $4,480 in the hands of people whose personal information was exposed, and the window to file is closing in September. The case involves HCF Management, an operator of nursing and health-care facilities, and stems from a breach that hit its systems in…
A data-breach settlement rarely asks for much and, in one open case, pays a flat sum to people who never itemize a dollar of loss. Eligible victims of a breach tied to Doxim, Inc. can claim a $100 cash payment with no documentation at all, part of a $5.5 million settlement. The catch is the…
Billions of dollars in forgotten money sit in state and federal custody, waiting for owners who do not know it exists. Old bank accounts, uncashed paychecks, insurance payouts, security deposits, and pension benefits routinely get separated from the people they belong to after a move, a job change, or a death in the family. A…
The house a family assumes it will inherit can carry a claim no one saw coming. When a person receives Medicaid to pay for a nursing home or other long-term care, federal law requires the state to try to recover what it spent after that person dies, and the recipient’s home is one of the…
Probate is where a family home can get stuck for the better part of a year, running up legal and court costs while heirs wait to take title. A revocable living trust is the tool most often used to avoid that. By retitling the house into a trust during the owner’s lifetime, the property can…