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
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...
Naming a power of attorney now spares your family a costly court fight if you’re incapacitated
Families who skip basic estate planning before a medical crisis often face a painful choice: petition a court to appoint a guardian over a loved...
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,...
Thermos is recalling 8.2 million food jars and bottles after the stoppers ejected and blinded three people
Three people lost their vision after stoppers shot out of Thermos food containers with enough force to cause permanent eye damage. On April 30, 2026,...
Freezing your credit at all three bureaus is free and blocks crooks from opening loans in your name
Anyone who has had personal data exposed in a breach, or simply wants to prevent identity thieves from taking out credit in their name, can...
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 balance-transfer card can freeze interest on your debt for 12 to 21 months while you pay down the principal
Cardholders paying 20 percent or more in annual interest on revolving balances can move that debt to a new account and pay zero interest for...
Federal regulators recalled 2,500 Arctic Zone coolers sold at Costco after a latch magnet that can choke a child was found loose
About 2,500 Arctic Zone Titan Pro coolers sold at Costco stores nationwide have been pulled from shelves after federal safety officials determined that a magnet...
California homeowners face the steepest home-insurance jump in the country this year at 16%
California homeowners are bracing for the sharpest premium increases in the nation this year, with projected costs climbing roughly 15.8 percent to an average of...
Tyson and Cargill agreed to pay $87.5 million over beef price-fixing, and shoppers who bought steak or roasts between 2014 and 2019 can claim a cut by June 30
Consumers who purchased beef at grocery stores or restaurants between 2015 and 2019 now have a narrow window to collect money from an $87.5 million...
A fifth straight year of insurance hikes is pushing Florida homeowners’ premiums near $8,500 a year
Florida homeowners face a fifth consecutive year of rising property insurance costs, with average annual premiums now approaching $8,500. The increases, tracked through mandatory insurer...
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...
Credit card balances slipped to $1.252 trillion last quarter, yet 61% of borrowers have been in debt over a year
Millions of Americans saw a small reprieve in their revolving debt load last quarter, with total credit card balances edging down to $1.252 trillion. That...
Joyin recalled 254,000 pool dive sticks that can impale children in shallow water
Joyin has recalled approximately 254,000 Sloosh Dive Sticks after the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission determined the hard-plastic pool toys can impale children who retrieve...
You can pull all three credit reports free weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com
Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion now let any consumer pull a free credit report from each bureau once a week, every week, through AnnualCreditReport.com. The three...
A single late payment can sit on your credit report for seven years, though a creditor will sometimes remove it if you ask
Borrowers who miss even one payment deadline face a penalty that can follow them for the better part of a decade. Under the Fair Credit...
Keeping each card under 30% of its limit is one of the fastest ways to raise a credit score
Credit card holders who carry balances above a certain threshold on any single card can watch their credit scores drop within a single billing cycle,...
Federal regulators recalled about 5,770 adult bed rails sold on Amazon, warning users can get trapped and suffocate
About 5,770 adult portable bed rails sold through Amazon have been pulled from the market by federal safety regulators, who warned that the products can...