Budgeting & Saving
How to manage income, build savings, create budgets, and develop systems for financial stability. Covers emergency funds, savings accounts, high-yield options, and money management tools.
Latest in Budgeting & Saving
Series EE savings bonds will double in value in 20 years, backed by the U.S. Treasury
Anyone who buys a Series EE savings bond from the U.S. Treasury today receives a federal guarantee: the bond will be worth at least twice...
1 in 7 Americans is owed unclaimed money, with the average claim worth about $2,080
Millions of Americans have money sitting in state treasuries and federal accounts that they have never collected. The chance that any given person, or someone...
States are holding billions in forgotten cash, from old paychecks to deposits to refunds, and the official MissingMoney.com search is free
Millions of Americans have money sitting in state treasuries right now, turned over by banks, employers, and insurance companies after accounts went dormant. At the...
Top one-year CDs still pay around 4%, locking in today’s rate
Savers hunting for guaranteed returns can still find one-year certificates of deposit paying around 4 percent at leading banks and online institutions, but the window...
Automatic transfers on payday build savings before the money ever reaches your checking account
Workers who want to build savings face a simple timing problem: once a full paycheck lands in a checking account, spending decisions compete with saving...
The “rule of 72” shows how fast money doubles: divide 72 by your interest rate
A saver with $10,000 earning 6 percent annual interest can estimate when that balance will reach $20,000 in roughly two seconds: divide 72 by 6,...
A CD ladder locks in today’s roughly 4% yields with cash coming due each year
Savers who split cash across one- through five-year certificates of deposit right now can lock in annual yields near 4 percent and guarantee that a...
An emergency fund of three to six months of expenses keeps a job loss from becoming credit-card debt
Workers who lose a job without a cash reserve measured in months, not weeks, face a fast slide toward revolving debt. Federal regulators, industry researchers,...
Money-market funds are paying around 4% right now, beating the near-zero rates big banks still pay on savings
Savers holding cash in traditional bank accounts are losing hundreds of dollars a year in potential interest while money-market funds pay roughly 400 times more...
A new workplace emergency-savings account lets workers set aside up to $2,600 a year with four penalty-free withdrawals
Workers enrolled in employer-sponsored retirement plans can now direct up to $2,600 a year into a side account built for unexpected expenses, and pull money...
States are holding about $70 billion in unclaimed cash, and a free search at MissingMoney.com finds yours
Millions of Americans have money sitting in state treasuries that they have never claimed, often because they moved, changed names, or simply forgot about an...
Series EE savings bonds are guaranteed to double in value if you hold them 20 years
Buyers of Series EE savings bonds who hold them for two full decades are guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury to receive at least double their...
Old U.S. savings bonds stop earning interest after 30 years, and a free Treasury tool finds yours
Americans holding paper savings bonds from the 1990s or earlier could be sitting on certificates that stopped growing years ago. Series EE and I savings...
Money in a health flexible spending account is often use-it-or-lose-it by year’s end
Workers who set aside pretax dollars in a health flexible spending account face a hard deadline: spend the money on eligible medical expenses before the...
Americans with disabilities can save up to $19,000 a year in an ABLE account without losing benefits
People with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income can now set aside up to $19,000 per year in a tax-advantaged ABLE account without jeopardizing their...
State treasuries are sitting on more than $73 billion in unclaimed money, and about 1 in 10 Americans is owed some of it
Roughly one in ten Americans has money waiting for them in a state treasury, and most have no idea it exists. State governments across the...
State treasuries are sitting on $70 billion in unclaimed property — 1 in 7 Americans is owed money, the average claim is $2,000, and the search at MissingMoney.com is free
Somewhere in a state vault, there may be a check with your name on it. Forgotten bank accounts, uncashed paychecks, old insurance payouts, abandoned safe-deposit...
The security deposit your old utility or landlord never returned is likely sitting with your state — a free search reunites owners with billions each year
You moved out, forwarded your mail, and never saw that security deposit again. Your old landlord may have mailed a check to an address you...
Americans are sitting on $29 billion in U.S. savings bonds that quietly stopped earning interest — and a free Treasury site finds yours by Social Security number
A savings bond your grandmother slipped into a birthday card in 1987 hit its 30-year maturity in 2017, stopped earning interest that same month, and...
One in seven Americans is owed money they don’t even know about — states are sitting on billions in forgotten paychecks, deposits, and refunds, free to claim in minutes
Government agencies across the country are currently holding more than $80 billion in unclaimed property, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA)....