The financial news that actually matters
SK Battery America Inc. cut 958 workers from its electric-vehicle battery plant in Commerce, Georgia, eliminating about 37% of the site’s workforce. The layoffs, filed through a state WARN notice by HR chief Chuck Moore, left roughly 1,600 employees at the facility. Pay continuation for affected workers runs through May 6, but the scale of…
Cardholders carrying revolving credit card debt at an average rate of 21.52 percent face a steep cost for sticking with minimum payments. Federal regulations require every monthly statement to spell out exactly how long payoff will take and how much extra interest will pile up, yet the gap between reading that warning and acting on…
Married couples where one spouse earned significantly less over a career stand to collect a larger combined Social Security check than many realize, but the benefit hinges on precise timing. Federal law sets the spousal benefit at one-half of the higher earner’s primary insurance amount, or PIA, provided the lower-earning spouse has reached full retirement…
American drivers filling up this summer are noticing a frustrating pattern: crude oil benchmarks have fallen, yet the price on the pump has barely budged. The gap between wholesale cost declines and retail price drops is not new, but the size of the current disconnect has renewed attention on how long it takes for cheaper…
American drivers heading into the summer travel season are catching a break at the pump after three consecutive weeks of falling gasoline prices reversed most of the sharp run-up triggered by the Iran conflict. The national average for regular conventional gasoline climbed steeply through late May 2026, then turned lower across early and mid-June, according…
Any taxpayer holding a traditional IRA can convert part or all of it into a Roth IRA regardless of how much they earn, a rule that has been in place since 2010 when Congress removed the prior $100,000 adjusted gross income cap. Because Roth IRAs carry no required minimum distributions during the owner’s lifetime, each…
Buyers who had been sitting on the sidelines through much of early 2026 stepped back into the housing market in May, pushing pending home sales up 3.8 percent for the month. The gain, the strongest monthly increase this year, arrived even as mortgage rates stayed elevated and home prices continued to climb. That combination of…
Millions of homeowners who itemize their federal tax returns can now deduct up to $40,000 in state and local taxes, quadrupling the $10,000 ceiling that had been locked in place since the 2017 tax overhaul. The higher cap applies to tax year 2025, meaning filers will first use it on returns due in 2026. Married…
Criminals posing as bank fraud departments have triggered more than 5,100 complaints and losses exceeding $262 million since January 2025, making fake security-alert texts the costliest form of account takeover this year. The scheme works the same way nearly every time: a text or call warns of suspicious activity, directs the target to a spoofed…
When a married couple both collect Social Security and one spouse dies, the survivor does not keep both monthly payments. The agency pays only the larger of the two checks, and the smaller one stops. That single rule can cut a household’s Social Security income by a third or more overnight, and the size of…
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