Tyler Foster
Latest Articles by Tyler Foster
HUD-approved housing counselors review your full mortgage situation for free — homeowners who use one avoid foreclosure at roughly twice the rate of those who go it alone
The letter from the servicer usually arrives about 45 days after a missed mortgage payment. It’s polite, bureaucratic, and easy to set aside. Then a...
A reverse mortgage lets a 62-year-old homeowner tap home equity tax-free — but new HUD rules require both spouses on the loan, or the survivor can be evicted
After 34 years in the same house, a 74-year-old widow in a complaint filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau described learning, only after her...
Most travel credit cards waive the 3% foreign-transaction fee — but your debit card almost certainly doesn’t, costing about $30 extra on every $1,000 spent abroad
A $47 dinner in Lisbon turns into $48.41 on your bank statement. A $200 hotel night in Tokyo posts as $206. None of these overages...
First-time buyers can claim up to $2,000 a year in federal tax credits for life through a Mortgage Credit Certificate — yet fewer than 30,000 borrowers used one in 2025
Consider a hypothetical first-time buyer who closes on a $280,000 mortgage in Texas. At the closing table, her loan officer hands her a document that...
The IRS quietly killed the dreaded $600 Venmo and PayPal tax-form rule — the threshold is back to $20,000 and 200 transactions, freeing most casual sellers
For four years, millions of Americans who sell the occasional item on eBay, take freelance payments through PayPal, or offload used furniture on Facebook Marketplace...
Ashley Furniture is paying $9 million over mattresses that leaked fiberglass into homes — owners can claim a store voucher per mattress through July 17
If you own an Ashley Furniture memory foam mattress and have ever found tiny, irritating glass-like fibers on your sheets, walls, or clothing, you may...
If your 401(k) holds your own company’s stock, the usual rollover can overtax it — a special “NUA” move taxes the gains at lower capital-gains rates
Imagine spending 25 years at a company whose stock price tripled during your career. Your 401(k) now holds $300,000 in employer shares, but the plan...
Some 401(k)s let you stash up to about $70,000 a year and convert it to a Roth — a “mega backdoor” move most plans allow but few employees use
A 45-year-old software engineer in Seattle maxes out her 401(k) every year, funds a backdoor Roth IRA, and still has money left over to invest....
Most taxpayers can file federal returns for free through IRS Free File or Direct File — yet millions still pay $150 or more for software that’s free for them
A married couple in Ohio earning $85,000 a year could file their federal tax return for free this season. So could a single freelance graphic...
A losing stock can still cut your tax bill — sell it, deduct up to $3,000 against your income, and carry the rest forward for years
You bought a stock that is now worth half what you paid. Every time you open your brokerage app, it sits there in red, a...
A federal program covers part of your heating and cooling bills — LIHEAP pays the average household a few hundred dollars, yet most who qualify never apply
Somewhere in Ohio right now, a retired couple is deciding whether to turn the thermostat down to 58 degrees or skip a prescription refill. Somewhere...
A surviving spouse can switch to the higher earner’s Social Security check — and timing the switch right can mean hundreds more a month for life
A 63-year-old widow collecting $1,100 a month on her own Social Security record could, at full retirement age, switch to a survivor benefit worth $2,800...
A new $6,000 tax deduction for everyone over 65 can wipe out the tax on your Social Security — but it shrinks once income tops $75,000
A retired teacher collecting $22,000 a year in Social Security and drawing another $55,000 from a pension might have owed federal income tax on a...
Three Medicare programs will pay your $202.90 Part B premium in full and save you $2,400 a year — yet millions who qualify never sign up
Picture this: you’re 72, living on $1,200 a month in Social Security, and every four weeks Medicare takes $202.90 off the top before you’ve bought...
Fake debt collectors are pressuring people to pay debts they don’t owe — demand written validation, which real collectors must send within five days
The call comes out of nowhere. Someone on the line says you owe $1,200 on an old account, rattles off a case number, and warns...
Hospitals quietly offer “prompt-pay” discounts of 10% to 30% — but only if you ask before the bill goes to collections
Somewhere in the billing office of nearly every nonprofit hospital in the country, there is a written policy that could knock 10% to 30% off...