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
$15 a month buys renters insurance covering your belongings and a liability lawsuit
Renters who skip insurance leave their furniture, electronics, and savings exposed to a single fire, break-in, or liability claim that could cost tens of thousands...
$5,000 on a card at 22% takes over a decade to clear at the minimum payment
Cardholders carrying a $5,000 revolving balance at 22 percent annual interest face a repayment timeline stretching well beyond a decade when they send only the...
Leaving a job? COBRA lets you keep your health plan 60 days, at full price
Workers who lose employer-sponsored health coverage face a tight deadline and a steep price increase if they want to keep the same plan. Federal law...
An ABLE account lets people with disabilities save tens of thousands without losing federal benefits
Millions of Americans with disabilities face a harsh financial trap: save more than $2,000 in countable resources and lose access to Supplemental Security Income and,...
Checking all three of your credit reports is now free every week at AnnualCreditReport.com
Americans can now pull free copies of their credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion every single week, not just once a year. The shift,...
Disability insurance replaces part of your paycheck if an illness or injury keeps you from working
Workers who lose income to a sudden illness or off-the-job injury face an immediate financial gap that employer-provided or state-mandated disability insurance is designed to...
Keeping your credit-card balances under 30% of your limit helps lift your credit score
Consumers carrying credit-card balances above 30 percent of their available limits face a direct drag on their credit scores, and that penalty now carries higher...
Term life insurance costs a fraction of whole life for the same coverage
Households shopping for life insurance face a stark price gap between term and whole life policies, even when the death benefit is identical. A healthy...
A health savings account is the only account taxed three ways in your favor, with a $4,400 individual limit this year
Workers enrolled in high-deductible health plans now have a higher ceiling for tax-advantaged medical savings. The IRS set the 2026 self-only contribution limit for health...
An emergency-room visit can’t be billed above your in-network share, even if the hospital is out of network
Patients who end up in an emergency room at an out-of-network hospital cannot be charged more than their plan’s in-network cost-sharing amount for that visit....
A federal flood policy caps payouts at $250,000 for the home and $100,000 for belongings
Homeowners who suffer flood damage through a federally backed insurance policy can collect no more than $250,000 toward rebuilding their home and $100,000 for destroyed...
Homeowners can buy federal flood coverage even when they live outside a mapped flood zone
Homeowners who live outside a federally mapped high-risk flood zone can still buy coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program, and a substantial share of...
Standard home insurance doesn’t cover flood damage, and a new flood policy takes 30 days to kick in
Homeowners and renters who assume their standard insurance policy will cover flood damage face a costly surprise: it will not. FEMA states plainly that neither...
Teva will pay $35 million over its asthma inhalers, and people who bought QVAR since 2015 can claim by July 31
People who purchased QVAR asthma inhalers since 2015 have until July 31 to file a claim in a $35 million settlement involving Teva Pharmaceuticals. The...
Flood policies leave out your car, pool, and the cost of temporary housing during repairs
Homeowners who assume their flood insurance will cover a ruined car in the driveway, a damaged backyard pool, or a hotel stay while their house...
The average flood insurance policy now runs about $976 a year
Homeowners covered by the National Flood Insurance Program are now paying an average of about $976 a year for a policy, a figure that carries...
Kia is recalling 141,032 Carnival minivans because a loose fuel line can leak and start a fire
Owners of Kia Carnival minivans from the 2022 through 2024 model years face a direct safety risk after the automaker filed a recall covering 141,032...
States are holding more than $40 billion in unclaimed cash, and finding yours is free at MissingMoney.com
Millions of Americans have money sitting in state treasuries that they have never claimed, with the national total running well above $40 billion by state-level...
Texas alone is sitting on $10.5 billion in unclaimed cash waiting for residents to claim it
Billions of dollars in dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, and forgotten securities sit in Texas state custody right now, waiting for their rightful owners to...
Beware any service that charges a fee to track down your unclaimed money — the official search is free
Millions of Americans have unclaimed money sitting in state treasuries, and a growing number of companies want to charge them a fee to get it...