Personal finance

Tipping 20% at a sit-down restaurant is still the standard in the U.S., according to most etiquette experts. Diners disagree. After holding steady for years, tipping at full-service restaurants fell to 19.4% in the second quarter of 2023, according to online restaurant platform Toast‘s most recent restaurant trends report, notching the lowest average since the start of the pandemic.

Lauren Rosenberg, right, of Portland, Maine, and her nanny, left, play set out toys for Rosenberg’s children. Portland Press Herald | Portland Press Herald | Getty Images Child care is already scarce and expensive — and the stakes are about to get higher. The federal government provided states with nearly $24 billion in stabilization funds

Jeffrey Coolidge | Photodisc | Getty Images The IRS is launching plans with boosted technology and artificial intelligence to collect unpaid taxes from higher earners, partnerships and large corporations, which could transform tax compliance or spark challenges for the agency, experts say.  After past criticisms of low audit rates among the wealthy, the IRS on

Squaredpixels | Getty Images When it comes to saving and investing, many investors tend to think of two key goals — funding emergencies that could crop up in the short term or retirement that may be years away. But as many individuals continue to reconsider their goals following the Covid-19 pandemic, experts say that that

Used car sales are soaring all over the U.S., and companies from Autonation to CarMax, Carvana and Buffalo, New York-based used car start-up ACV Auctions are benefitting. Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images During the pandemic, shoppers splurged on higher-end new cars. Now, given the current high car costs and interest rates, drivers

Xavier Lorenzo | Moment | Getty Images Not long ago, it was common to earn low returns on cash — less than 1%. But after the Federal Reserve embarked on a series of interest rate increases to tamp down inflation, that has changed. Now, investors may get as much as 5% or more interest on

Odilon Dimier | PhotoAlto | Getty Images Even though more students feel priced out of college entirely, there are efforts to improve access to higher education that seem to be working. In 2011, San Francisco made headlines when it became the first city in the nation to kick off a college savings account with $50

Getty Images There are two kinds of risk that investors should understand when building a portfolio: risk tolerance and risk capacity. They describe different aspects of a person’s risk profile — and ignoring them can put investors “in a really bad situation,” said Charlie Fitzgerald III, a certified financial planner based in Orlando, Florida. Asset

In this article AVD Follow your favorite stocksCREATE FREE ACCOUNT Bluecinema Picture this: You come home after a long day. As you approach your front door, you reach for your keys — but don’t feel them in your pocket. You quickly realize you’re locked out of your home. Luckily, on-call locksmiths are available to help.

A sign posted outside a restaurant looking to hire workers in Miami, May 5, 2023. Joe Raedle | Getty Images News | Getty Images The gap between wage growth and inflation is closing. But it may take time for workers to fully recover from the fastest jump in prices in 40 years. “Hopefully, before too

Luke Chan | E+ | Getty Images Almost half — 46% — of 401(k) investors don’t know what investments are in their workplace retirement plan, according to a new CNBC Your Money Survey. But that’s not necessarily bad news, financial advisors said. That’s because most employers that offer a 401(k) plan automatically enroll workers into

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis laughs during a press conference in Auburndale, Florida, Jan. 30, 2023. Paul Hennessy | Lightrocket | Getty Images During a campaign event in Iowa in early August, Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis made it clear that he was against student loan forgiveness. Given broad criticism on the issue from Republicans, the