Customer shopping for school supplies with employee restocking shelves, Target store, Queens, New York. Lindsey Nicholson | UCG | Universal Images Group | Getty Images Now, as the central bank sets the stage to lower interest rates for the first time in years when it meets again in September, consumers may see their borrowing costs … Read more
Two federal judges in Kansas and Missouri on Monday at the urging of several Republican-led states blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from further implementing a new student debt relief plan that lowers payments. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Biden administration is gearing up to try to forgive the student debt of tens of … Read more
Damircudic | E+ | Getty Images The number of federal student loan borrowers with six-figure debts is on the rise. In the second quarter of 2024, 2.4 million borrowers carried a federal student loan balance between $100,000 and $200,000, up from 1.8 million people who owed that much during the same period in 2017, according … Read more
Valentinrussanov | E+ | Getty Images The Federal Reserve is poised to make the first interest rate cut in years this fall, which can influence mortgage rates to go down. Even small cuts in rates could make a meaningful difference in what a homebuyer will pay. To that point, people in the market to buy … Read more
We Are | Digitalvision | Getty Images Who doesn’t have to make payments? The U.S. Department of Education is placing federal student loan borrowers enrolled in the Biden administration’s new income-driven repayment plan, known as SAVE, into an administrative forbearance. They will remain in forbearance while the legal battle involving SAVE plays out. What that … Read more
By most measures, the U.S. economy is doing well. And yet, many people would argue otherwise. Roughly 3 in 5 Americans believe that the U.S. is currently in a recession, according to a new survey of 2,000 adults by Affirm. Of those respondents, most said a recession started roughly 15 months ago, in March of … Read more
Nadya Lukic | E+ | Getty Images Most Americans may not even remember the last time they wrote a check. Only 15% of adults said they wrote a few checks a month in 2023, according to a recent report by GoBankingRates. At the time of the late November survey, 46% of the more than 1,000 … Read more
Ramon Montiel-García, 18, a graduate of KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy in Colorado. Credit: Ramon Montiel-García Ramon Montiel-García, a newly minted high school graduate from KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy in Colorado, was accepted to his first-choice school, Wheaton College in Massachusetts. However, with a sticker price of nearly $80,000 per year, including tuition, fees, and … Read more
The share of people with medical debt in collections that shows up in their credit reports has fallen in the past decade. Yet unpaid balances due to health-care costs continue to burden individuals and families. In 2013, 19.5% of Americans had medical debt in collections, while 10 years later, in 2023, that share fell to … Read more
Inflation is slowing down, but prices are still high — and likely to stay that way. That’s generally considered good news. The economy is expanding amid a lower rate of price growth and a strong job market. However, even a broad pullback in price increases underscores another bitter reality: We’re still paying more for many goods and … Read more
