Personal finance

Moses Storm Comedian Moses Storm was 16 when he first learned to read and write. “I have the equivalent of maybe a second-grade education,” he said. For much of his childhood, he lived on a bus with his single mother and five siblings, not knowing where he’d wake up the next day. During those tumultuous

miodrag ignjatovic | E+ | Getty Images Up to 254,000 Medicare beneficiaries’ personal information may have been compromised in an online ransomware attack at a government subcontractor, officials warned this week. Letters are being sent to the beneficiaries who were impacted by the potential data breach, said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Those

AsiaVision | E+ | Getty Images As the tax season approaches, many Americans are bracing for a new reporting change for third-party payment networks like Venmo or PayPal.   Starting in 2022, you’ll receive Form 1099-K, which reports income to the IRS, for business payments over $600. But experts say it’s possible you’ll receive 1099-Ks for

Maskot | Maskot | Getty Images The ranks of employers offering a Roth savings option to 401(k) investors continue to grow, giving more workers access to its unique financial benefits. About 88% of 401(k) plans allowed employees to save in a Roth account in 2021, up from 86% in 2020 and from 49% in 2011,

As rising prices continue to weigh on households, more families are feeling stretched too thin. As of November, 63% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a monthly LendingClub report — up from 60% the previous month and near the 64% historic high hit in March. Even high-income earners are under pressure, LendingClub found. Of

Joos Mind | Photodisc | Getty Images Long Covid results in $9,500 of total average medical costs for workers and their employers in the six months following a diagnosis, according to a study by Nomi Health. Long Covid is a chronic illness that can carry potentially debilitating symptoms, which may last for months or years.

Tommaso79 | Istock | Getty Images If you’ve opted into your company’s group disability insurance plan, you may assume there’s sufficient income protection if you can’t work due to illness or injury. But experts say your workplace coverage may not be enough.   John Ryan, founder and CEO of Ryan Insurance Strategy Consultants, urges employees to

FamVeld If you don’t have health insurance lined up for next year, there’s still time to get private coverage through the public marketplace. The deadline is Dec. 15 — Thursday — to sign up on Healthcare.gov for a health plan to take effect Jan. 1. Otherwise, you have until Jan. 15 to enroll with coverage

The Federal Reserve raised its target federal funds rate by 0.5 percentage points at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday in a continued effort to cool inflation. Although this marks a more typical hike compared to the super-size 0.75 percentage point moves at each of the last four meetings, the central bank is far from

Kevin Dodge | The Image Bank | Getty Images SEATTLE — For many families, paying for college is a financial burden, and experts say education funding myths may be adding to the student loan debt crisis. “There’s often this perception that somehow people are being penalized for saving for college,” said Cozy Wittman, national education

Petri Oeschge | Getty Images  SEATTLE — If you’re living together before marriage or committed long-term without plans to tie the knot, you’ll need to prepare for the future — or you may face challenges later, experts say. There are “rising rates of cohabitation,” with many couples skipping marriage because “they don’t see the benefit,”

Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty Images In the latest inflation reading, used cars are one of the few categories with prices that are lower than they were a year ago. While the consumer price index — which measures price changes for a variety of consumer goods and services — was up 7.1% in November from