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The Money Overview

Personal Finance

Day-to-day money decisions for individuals and households. Practical guidance on budgeting, saving, spending, credit, debt management, and financial planning.

Latest in Personal Finance

Smart Spending

Walmart and Sam’s Club cut prices on thousands of summer grocery and household items to win back shoppers

In early July, Walmart and its membership warehouse arm Sam’s Club announced price reductions on thousands of summer products, a coordinated push aimed at drawing...

Insurance & Protection

Seniors can deduct long-term-care insurance premiums, and the limit rises with age

Long-term-care insurance is one of the few retirement expenses that can pay off twice: once if the policy is ever used for care, and again...

Budgeting & Saving

Idle cash in a money-market fund earns far more than big-bank checking

Cash left sitting in a checking or savings account at a large national bank often earns almost nothing, while short-term interest rates elsewhere sit far...

Insurance & Protection

Anthem drug-plan members can file a class-action claim before November 10

A settlement involving Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company has opened a window for certain policyholders to recover money they paid out of...

Smart Spending

Owners of 1.8 million recalled attic ladders can claim a free repair kit

Millions of American homeowners keep a folding attic ladder tucked into the ceiling, and federal safety regulators now warn that one widely sold line of...

Credit & Debt

Buy-now-pay-later loans are starting to appear on credit reports, and they can move a retiree’s score

Buy-now-pay-later borrowing is moving from the checkout screen into the credit system. Some providers now furnish account data to national credit bureaus, and FICO has...

Smart Spending

A free national database can turn up a deceased relative’s forgotten life-insurance payout

A family can settle an estate without knowing that an old life-insurance policy exists. Coverage may have been purchased decades earlier, the insurer may have...

Insurance & Protection

A long-term-care partnership policy shields extra assets from Medicaid spend-down

A qualified long-term-care partnership policy does more than reimburse care bills. It can preserve an additional amount of savings when the policyholder later applies for...

Credit & Debt

Student-loan balances in the old SAVE plan have grown since Aug. 1, 2025, as the interest pause ended

Borrowers left in the blocked SAVE repayment plan have faced a quiet but expensive reality for more than a year: interest resumed on Aug. 1,...

Budgeting & Saving

A top CD still pays about 4.1% after the Fed held rates steady

One current certificate of deposit offer shows that a yield above 4% remains available even after the Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady in...

Smart Spending

Airlines must send an automatic cash refund for a canceled or badly delayed flight when you decline alternatives

A canceled or significantly changed flight can trigger an automatic refund to the original form of payment, but only when the traveler does not accept...

Smart Spending

Sam’s Club raised its membership fee to $60, its first increase in almost four years

Sam’s Club has reset the price of entry to its warehouses. The standard Club membership now costs $60 a year, up from $50, after the...

Smart Spending

Certain Delta Dental members can claim up to $16.50 from a $12.67 million tracking settlement before Aug. 20

A proposed $12.67 million privacy settlement offers a $16.50 cash payment to a specific group of people who held accounts on a Delta Dental-related online...

Smart Spending

Buyers of a qualifying U.S.-assembled new car can deduct up to $10,000 of loan interest on 2025 through 2028 returns

A temporary deduction can reduce federal taxable income by as much as $10,000 of qualifying vehicle-loan interest each year from 2025 through 2028. The car...

Smart Spending

Billions in forgotten money sit with state treasurers, and one free search covers most states

State unclaimed-property programs hold billions of dollars that businesses could not return to the rightful owners. A free national tool can search most participating states...

Smart Spending

$39 billion in matured U.S. savings bonds sits unclaimed, and a free federal search finds any in your name

Roughly $39 billion in United States savings bonds has quietly stopped earning a penny of interest and is sitting unredeemed, much of it forgotten in...

Smart Spending

Walmart and Target no longer match competitors’ prices, ending a way shoppers trimmed their bills

Two of the country’s largest retailers have quietly removed a tool that budget-conscious shoppers leaned on for years: matching a rival store’s advertised price at...

Smart Spending

Parents whose children used Google Play apps under age 13 can file a settlement claim before September 14

Families whose children downloaded or used apps from the Google Play Store while under the age of 13 have until September 14, 2026 to claim...

Smart Spending

Fanatics shoppers who paid a handling fee can claim two $5 vouchers before the August 27 deadline

Shoppers who bought sports merchandise from Fanatics and were charged a separate handling fee can now collect a small piece of that money back, but...

Insurance & Protection

Seven ACA insurers plan 2027 exits after enrollment drops over 1 million

Seven insurance carriers have announced full or partial exits from Affordable Care Act Marketplaces for 2027, after plan selections fell by more than one million...

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