Tag: personal finance

3 Steps to Downsize in a Hurry

Ideally, you’d spend months or even years carefully purging excess belongings—but life may have other plans. Maybe you or someone you love has a health crisis and needs to move into assisted living. Or someone has died and their home has to be cleared before next month’s rent is due. Maybe you’re just moving soon…


Food Prices Won’t Go Down ‘Any Time Soon,’ UK Farming Union Warns

Inflated food prices won’t be going down any time soon, the president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has warned. It comes after the UK’s food price in March had the second biggest yearly hike among the G-20 countries after Turkey. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the UK’s consumer…


Fed Report Shows Record-High Annual Increase in Credit-Card Balances

Americans find themselves increasingly burdened by credit-card debt as the relentless grip of chronic inflation tightens its hold on the cost of essential goods. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit was just released, showing a record high 17 percent year-over-year increase in credit-card balances during the first quarter…


US Credit Card Debt Hits a Record High of Nearly $1 Trillion

Americans find themselves increasingly burdened by credit-card debt as the relentless grip of chronic inflation tightens its hold on the cost of essential goods. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit was just released, showing a record-high 17 percent year-over-year increase in credit-card balances during the first quarter of…


US Credit Card Debt Holds at Record High of Nearly $1 Trillion

U.S. credit card balances failed to decline in the first three months of 2023 as Americans find themselves increasingly burdened by the relentless grip of chronic inflation. Total credit card debt stood at $986 billion in the first quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit…


What You Need to Know About Indexes

By Kim Clark From Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Today, there are an estimated 3 million indexes that provide benchmarks against which to measure investment performance and serve as recipes for the portfolios of a vast number of indexed mutual and exchange-traded funds. Here’s a quick summary of some of the most common indexes. Most weight their…


IRS Takes Steps to Protect Identity of Workers to Deter Personal Threats

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on May 11 said it will start limiting workers’ personal identification information on communications with taxpayers in June to reduce threats aimed at IRS employees. The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration said in a May 8 report (pdf) that it was “concerned that taxpayers and anti-government or anti-tax groups…


IRS to Hide Workers’ Identities From Taxpayers

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on May 11 said it will start limiting workers’ personal identification information on communications with taxpayers in June to reduce threats aimed at IRS employees. The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration said in a May 8 report (pdf) that it was “concerned that taxpayers and anti-government or anti-tax groups…


The US Has Approved $42 Billion in Loan Forgiveness for Public Service Workers. Here’s What to Know

The United States has approved more than $42 billion in federal student loan debt forgiveness for more than 615,000 borrowers in the past 18 months as part of a program aimed at getting more people to work in public service jobs, the U.S. Department of Education said this week. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness program…


Closing Prices for Crude Oil, Gold, and Other Commodities (May 12)

Benchmark U.S. crude oil for June delivery fell 83 cents to $70.04 a barrel Friday. Brent crude for July delivery fell 81 cents to $74.17 a barrel. Wholesale gasoline for June delivery fell 3 cents $2.43 a gallon. June heating oil fell 4 cents to $2.31 a gallon. June natural gas rose 8 cents to…