Category: Personal Finance and Money

In these tough economic times with rising inflation and high interest rates, many of us may feel quite poor. But feeling poor, versus being poor according to the government are two different things. In fact, the Census Bureau and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provide actual numbers to…

The federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour in 2026 — unchanged since July 2009, the longest stretch without an increase since the federal minimum wage was created in 1938. Where you actually stand depends entirely on your state. Washington, D.C. now has the highest minimum wage in the…

When you are unable to pay debts or have debt that has gone to a collection agency it can be very stressful. The burden of a difficult financial situation is already anxiety-inducing without having to also worry about other issues. This can include questions about the legitimacy of the debt…

Student loans has been a hot topic of late, which is not surprise given there are around 43 mil­lion Amer­i­cans dealing with some form of active or delinquent stu­dent debt. Based on reports from the WSJ and data company MeasureOne, Amer­i­cans owe around $1.6 tril­lion in fed­eral stu­dent loans and…

Despite earning more than $100,000 in household income, many people still feel like they're living month-to-month — that a job loss or sudden medical emergency could easily move them from upper-middle-class down to low income. A 2026 Goldman Sachs survey put a number on this: 41% of households earning $300,000…

Here's a question I've used to start more than a few personal finance conversations: would you rather have $1 million right now, or take a single penny — doubled every day for 30 days? Most people pick the million. Almost every time. They're wrong. By day 30, the penny-doubling path…

The average American carries $6,715 in credit card debt, and average credit card APRs are running in the 20-25% range in 2026. At those rates, a $6,700 balance paying only the minimum can take years to clear and cost more in interest than the original purchases. Getting out of debt…

As adults, we've seen what a lack of financial knowledge does to managing our finances. That's why we need to teach our kids early on how to care for money, so they are less likely to make the financial mistakes that we did. If you don't talk about money, lessons…

There's no dollar amount tied to claiming a dependent anymore. That surprises a lot of filers who remember the old personal exemption, so it's worth saying clearly up front: the OBBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act), signed in 2025, made permanent what used to be a temporary suspension — personal…

Before we file our tax returns there are a number of forms we need to receive from our employers, financial institutions and other third-party entities we make money from, conducted financial transactions or did business with. Below are estimated time frames for when we can expect to receive some of these common income tax forms for…

This is summarized from a real life scenario. What would you do in this scenario? Vote on the poll and/or add your comment below. Alan ordered a $600 jacket online from a well known retailer's website where he had shopped a number of times before. This was a jacket he…

The average federal tax refund as of March 6, 2026 was $3,676 — up 10.6% from $3,324 at the same point in 2025. By early April the average settled to $3,462, still up 11.1% year-over-year. The IRS has paid out $241.7 billion in refunds through early April, compared to $211.1…

One of the biggest financial decisions many people face isn't about a specific purchase — it's about where to live. The gap between big-city and small-town costs of living can be enormous, and it's worth breaking down where that gap actually comes from — with real numbers — before assuming…