Daniel Harper
Daniel is a finance writer covering personal finance topics including budgeting, credit, and beginner investing. He began his career contributing to his Substack, where he covered consumer finance trends and practical money topics for everyday readers. Since then, he has written for a range of personal finance blogs and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, straightforward content that helps readers make more informed financial decisions.
Latest Articles by Daniel Harper
Credit card annual fees top $800 as Amex Platinum hits $895 — should you cancel before renewal?
When American Express raised the Platinum Card’s annual fee to $695 in 2021, longtime cardholders grumbled but mostly stayed. Now Amex is testing that loyalty...
Top high-yield savings rate now 4.1% APY (CIT Bank)
Most Americans with money in a traditional savings account are earning about 0.39% APY right now. That figure comes from the FDIC’s February 2026 national...
Visa’s Level 2 interchange program dies April 18 — small business fees spike and you’ll see it at checkout
On April 18, 2026, a gas station owner in suburban Ohio who processes $60,000 a month in fleet card transactions will watch her effective credit...
New “Six Figure Limit” proposal would cap Social Security benefits at $50,000 per person
A retired couple in which both spouses earned top salaries for 35-plus years and waited until age 70 to file could collect roughly $122,000 a...
Existing home sales hit a 9-month low in March at 3.98M annualized pace
The spring housing market stumbled before it could find its footing. Existing-home sales dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million units in...
New USPS postmark rules could make your mailed tax return “late” even if you sent it on the 15th
New USPS postmark rules could make your mailed tax return “late” even if you sent it on the 15th You walk into the post office...
Beef prices forecast to jump 10.1% in 2026; canned goods up as much as 15% on tariffs
The USDA’s Economic Research Service is projecting beef and veal prices will rise 10.1% in 2026, the steepest single-year increase the agency has forecast for...
Wage garnishment for defaulted student loans just got delayed — here’s what the Education Department’s pause means for 5.5M borrowers
About 5.3 million Americans with defaulted federal student loans were bracing for the government to start docking their paychecks and seizing their tax refunds. Then,...
Bitcoin rips to $76,000 as Iran peace rumors trigger $1.1B in ETF inflows
Bitcoin blew past $76,000 on a single afternoon in late April 2026 after rumors of a U.S.-Iran diplomatic opening ripped through global markets, pulling what...
Gas prices up 33% year-over-year — why your $4.12/gallon is now the #1 financial worry for 86% of Americans
The last time Sarah Mendez filled up her Honda CR-V in suburban Dallas, she watched the pump tick past $55 and kept climbing. A year...
How much $100K earns in a 4.1% HYSA vs. a CD vs. T-bills in 2026
A saver sitting on $100,000 in cash right now has a genuinely good problem: three low-risk places to park it, all paying around 4%, each...
S&P 500 closes at 6,967 — within 1% of an all-time high as Iran peace optimism pulls oil 7% lower
Wall Street came within striking distance of a record on Tuesday, May 13, 2026, after a burst of optimism about U.S.-Iran diplomacy sent oil prices...
Wells Fargo stock tanks 6.6% as “earnings beat” turned out to be smoke and mirrors
Wells Fargo looked like it had cleared the bar. When the bank released first-quarter 2026 results in mid-April, the headline figure showed adjusted earnings per...
Goldman Sachs shifts from annual big-bang layoffs to rolling performance-based cuts — phased through summer, begins this month
Goldman Sachs has begun rolling out a new approach to workforce reductions this month, replacing the annual mass layoff that Wall Street employees have braced...
HSBC cutting 20,000 positions (10% of global workforce) — the largest banking layoff of 2026
Roughly 20,000 people who work for HSBC may soon learn their jobs are being replaced by artificial intelligence. That is the scale of workforce reductions...
March PPI comes in at +0.5% — less than half the forecast; energy shock didn’t fully leak into wholesale prices
The energy shock was supposed to rip through the entire wholesale price chain. It didn’t. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on April 14 that...