Get smart with your money
Today’s top story: How to keep your tax refund safe. Also in the news: How to achieve financial fitness, building your gift-buying budget, and how to be smart about holiday spending.
The Simple Way to Keep Your Tax Refund Safe
Protecting what’s yours.
5 Money-Saving Exercises to Achieve Financial Fitness
Getting your wallet in shape.
How to Build Your Gift-Buying Budget
Be strategic.
Why the Holidays Make Us Dumb About Spending
How to stay smart.
Today’s top story: The hidden bonuses of paying off credit card debt. Also in the news: Financial tips for the sandwich generation, how to start preparing your taxes, and the changes coming to your credit card perks.
The Hidden Bonus of Paying Off Credit Card Debt
Your credit score will thank you for it.
The Sandwich Generation: 5 C’s To Deal With Your Financial Challenges
The financial challenges of taking care of your young and old.
11 Tax Moves Every Taxpayer Should Make Before the End of the Year
Time to get organized.
Big Changes Coming for Your Credit Card Perks
What’s in and what’s out.
6 questions to ask before getting a store credit card
Know what you’re signing up for.
Today’s top story: How being behind on your taxes could affect your travel plans. Also in the news: How to determine who you can claim as a dependent, financial steps to take when you’re on your own, and how to avoid costly credit card traps.
Haven’t Paid Your Taxes? You May Need to Cancel Your Travel Plans
Your passport could be in jeopardy.
This IRS Tool Tells You If You Can Claim a Dependent
Finding your tax breaks.
7 Financial Steps to Take Once You’re on Your Own
It’s a whole new world out there.
How to Avoid 5 Costly Credit Card Traps
Don’t fall in.
Today’s top story: Year-end tricks to boost your tax refund. Also in the news: Unstacking the deck for student loan borrowers, the most important mortgage documents you’ll sign, and why you shouldn’t raid your retirement savings to pay for the holidays.
5 Year-End Tricks to Boost Your Tax Refund
Now’s the time to reduce your tax liability.
Unstacking the Deck for Student Loan Borrowers
There’s a lot of money at stake.
The 4 Most Important Mortgage Documents You’ll Sign
What you’ll be signing if you purchase a home in the near future.
5 Safety Features That Can Save You Money on Car Insurance
Every penny counts.
Don’t Raid Your Retirement Account to Pay for the Holidays
The high costs of splurging.
Even people decades away from retirement should pay close attention to how Congress just ended two lucrative ways of taking Social Security benefits, known jointly as the “claim now, claim more later” strategy.
One big lesson: Once claiming methods are seen as benefiting the affluent, they are labeled loopholes, and that puts them on the chopping block.
“They can go away, and they can go away fast,” says Michael Kitces, a partner and director of research for Pinnacle Advisor Group in Columbia, Maryland.
In my latest for Reuters, how claiming methods turn into loopholes, leaving them vulnerable to cuts.
In my latest for Money, a look at when it’s better to put away the laptop and purchase something at a brick and mortar store instead.
Today’s top story: Passing the financial sleep test. Also in the news: How to tell if you have a good 401(k) match, how to tell if a purchase will truly make you happy, and the most tax-friendly states for retirement.
Does Your Financial Plan Pass the Sleep Test?
Are your finances causing you to lose sleep?
How to Tell if You Have a Good 401(k) Match
Is your employer generous enough?
Plot Your Purchases Along the Fulfillment Curve to Know When It’s Worth It
How to know before you buy.
These Are The 10 Most Tax-Friendly States For Retirees
Is yours on the list?