For decades now, the country’s outstanding student loan debt balance has only trended in one direction: Up. Today, around 44 million Americans owe a combined $1.7 trillion for their education. But it didn’t have to be this way. Legislation like the GI Bill, the National Defense Education Act, and Higher Education Act of 1965 paved the way for
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Bymuratdeniz | E+ | Getty Images Workers continue to see pay increases at a fast clip, but there are signs of a slowdown ahead. Average earnings for all workers grew by 0.3% in April, to $31.85 an hour, the Labor Department said Friday. That’s a modest reduction from the 0.4% pace in March. It also
Guido Mieth | DigitalVision | Getty Images Banks are starting to pay a higher return on your cash — good news for savers who’ve seen their stockpiles languishing from a gruesome combination of low interest rates and high inflation. However, some banks are moving faster than others. Some, particularly traditional brick-and-mortar shops, may not budge
The Federal Reserve is among Western central banks fighting stubbornly high inflation. Xinhua News Agency | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images For the first time in years, Americans are in a period of rising interest rates. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark rate a half-point, to cool down inflation that’s the highest
Tom Werner | DigitalVision | Getty Images The IRS may have the ability to automate nearly half of tax returns, according to a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The agency could correctly auto-fill an estimated 62 million to 73 million returns with information it already has, covering 41% to 48% of
Prasit photo | Moment | Getty Images U.S. stocks have a case of whiplash. Stocks slumped Thursday in one of the worst sessions seen so far this year. During intraday trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 1,000 points or 3%, while the S&P 500 lost 4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slipped
A customer purchases lemons at a supermarket on April 12, 2022 in San Mateo County, California. Liu Guanguan | China News Service | Getty Images Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may have said it best when he addressed the public at a Wednesday press event following the Federal Open Market Committee’s half-point rate hike. “Inflation
Parents and children participate in a demonstration organized by the ParentsTogether Foundation in support of the child tax credit portion of the Build Back Better bill outside of the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 13, 2021. Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took to the Senate floor Wednesday to decry the
After a career in corporate America, IyaSokoya Karade turned her love of gymnastics and her retirement savings into a new enterprise: opening a youth fitness center in her local community. She soon learned that having a passion wasn’t enough to create a sustainable business. One of her earliest mistakes, she said, was not paying herself
Tim Kitchen | The Image Bank | Getty Images It’s becoming harder to afford a home. Prices are up almost 20% year over year, and mortgage rates are soaring. The rate for a 30-year fixed loan is now 5.57%, according to Mortgage News Daily, up from 3.29% at the start of the year. At the