The IRS issued more than 125 million individual income tax refunds in 2020; the average amount was nearly $2,600. Source: Internal Revenue Service, 2021 Most U.S. taxpayers “completely agree” (68%) or “mostly agree” (26%) that paying their fair share of taxes is a civic duty.1 However, no one wants to pay more than his or
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), credit report errors more than doubled during the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the CFPB found that many pandemic protections which were designed to help consumers, such as loan forbearance periods on federal student loans and federally backed mortgages, ended up negatively impacting their credit reports as a
Contributing to an employer-sponsored retirement plan or an IRA is a big step on the road to retirement, but contributing to both can significantly boost your retirement assets. A recent study found that, on average, individuals who owned both a 401(k) and an IRA at some point during the six-year period of the study had
Unless you complete your holiday shopping before Halloween, you might be enticed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. These tips may help you save time and money. Create a budget. Before you start shopping, establish an overall budget. Make a list of gifts you will need to buy and decide exactly how much you
About 77% of retirees between the ages of 62 and 75 plan to spend down at least some of their retirement assets. The top reasons cited include lifestyle, medical expenses and health insurance, housing expenses, and discretionary spending. The remaining 23% intend to maintain or grow their assets. Why would retirees not want to spend
You may have purchased life insurance years ago and never gave it a second thought. Or perhaps you don’t have life insurance at all and now you need it. When your life circumstances change, you have a fresh opportunity to make sure the people you love are protected. Marriage When you were single, life insurance
The U.S. travel industry’s total economic output plummeted 42% in 2020. A full 65% of all jobs lost in the United States were those supported by the travel industry. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the hardest-hit areas were business travel, particularly spending related to conferences, conventions, and trade shows, as well as international travel. Federal, state, and local
An explosion in the number and variety of streaming services, coupled with more time spent at home in the last year, might have you wondering whether it’s time to cut the cord on cable. After all, cable isn’t getting any cheaper. At the beginning of 2021, many large cable and satellite television companies announced higher
One of the most fundamental truths of investing is that you can’t time the market. As legendary investor and economist Bernard Baruch put it, “Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. It can’t be done except by liars.”1 Even so, it’s natural to wince a little when you buy an
Qualified retirement plans, such as IRAs and 401(k)s, have many rules, and some of them can be quite complicated. Take the following quiz to see how well you understand some of the finer points. 1.You can make an unlimited number of retirement plan rollovers per year. a. True b. False c. It depends 2.If you
