The U.S. Supreme Court is always busy making decisions that affect many people. Rulings made in recent days will impact a lot more with regard to their personal finances. Three of these decisions could affect many more people, particularly those with bank accounts, past-due mortgage payments, and student loans. Permission Is Not Needed to Look…

The U.S. Supreme Court is always busy making decisions that affect many people. Rulings made in recent days will impact a lot more with regard to their personal finances. Three of these decisions could affect many more people, particularly those with bank accounts, past-due mortgage payments, and student loans. Permission Is Not Needed to Look…

Passing an inheritance to your children often raises the question of how the beneficiaries would use it after they receive it. Most often, you already know the answer—it probably would not last very long. You strongly suspect they would not value it like they should and would spend it as if money grew on trees….

Most people work their entire adult lives saving for retirement. Between stocks, annuities, and savings, they think they’re covered. Then a catastrophic illness or accident happens, and they’re forced to enter long-term care. And the average cost of a semi-private room is $9,167 per month. This can wipe out a savings quickly. Although this scenario…

Until now, many have enjoyed knowing their beneficiaries could inherit their assets tax-free through an irrevocable trust. It has been used successfully to pass assets safely to children without tax. For many people, it will no longer accomplish that goal. The New Rule on Irrevocable Trusts In March 2023, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) changed…

By Sandra Block and Anne Kates Smith From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created in 1933, no bank customer has lost a penny in insured deposits, even during the darkest days of the 2008-09 financial crisis. But that didn’t prevent some savers from breaking into a cold sweat in…

By Ella Vincent From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance The run on Silicon Valley Bank and the cascade of bank troubles in March spooked depositors, who withdrew billions of dollars from bank accounts. Much of their money ended up in money market mutual funds. Investments in money funds skyrocketed by about $67 billion during the first three…

Professional organizers might define household clutter as a pile of unmade decisions. Money clutter is much the same. Those credit cards you no longer use but haven’t closed? That’s money clutter. So is the retirement account you left behind three jobs ago and the financial paperwork you keep but no longer need. Money clutter also…

Even though most Americans regularly use credit cards, many still operate on a cash-only basis. After recent bank collapses, more Americans have taken their money out of the banking system and are looking to go bankless. According to the Federal Reserve, in 2020, about 81 percent of Americans were “fully-banked.” It means that they did…

Ideally, you’d spend months or even years carefully purging excess belongings—but life may have other plans. Maybe you or someone you love has a health crisis and needs to move into assisted living. Or someone has died and their home has to be cleared before next month’s rent is due. Maybe you’re just moving soon…