Personal finance

Many Americans are struggling to meet their credit card mills during the pandemic. zenstock | iStock | Getty Images Amid one of the worst downturns in U.S. history, nearly 80% of credit card holders say they’re worried they won’t be able to continue making even the minimum payments on their debt.  The figure comes from

Tenants and housing activists in Brooklyn, New York, protested in a Bushwick park on July 5. Erik McGregor | Getty Images Negotiations over the next coronavirus stimulus package on Capitol Hill ended the week in a stalemate. But there’s one form of help lawmakers reportedly agree on: a second set of stimulus checks. This week’s

Alistair Berg | Getty Images College students can now receive unemployment benefits, provided they can prove they had paid work last year. The reason is the CARES Act, which became law in March and made assistance for unemployment more widely available through Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. This is a separate program from a state’s traditional unemployment

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are coming closer to an agreement about a second set of stimulus checks, although who will get them, and when, is still being debated. Democrats and Republicans have both called for $1,200 payments in their legislative proposals but, for millions of Americans, that may not be enough.   “There are over 3 million

Fancy/Veer/Corbis | Getty Images Bianca Thomas was always working. Except on Sunday — that was church day. But in March, everything changed. Thomas lost her job as a prep cook in an eatery catering to Boston Bruins and Celtics season ticket holders. Singing in the church choir, a joy of hers for 13 years, wasn’t possible

Tetra Images | Getty Images Maybe you know one: the person who saves boatloads for retirement, manages to follow a budget and even has a fat emergency fund. In other words, a “super saver.” While perhaps an enviable position, it’s one that typically involves making some sacrifices, according to a report from Principal Financial Group

“I’m on Indeed every single day, looking for jobs,” Lafauci, 36, said. “There’s nothing.” Source: Sarah Lafauci It’s now been over a week since tens of millions of Americans have stopped receiving the $600 federal unemployment boost.  Negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over what to replace those payments with have turned into an increasingly protracted and bitter

A Jos. A. Bank store location in San Francisco announces its permanent closure on Aug. 6. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images The unemployment rate fell for the third straight month, to 10.2% in July. That exceeded expectations, as employers added about 1.8 million jobs to their payrolls. That adds up to good news for

This fall will be anything but normal for parents and children across the country. Many Americans are grappling with decisions about school, money and fears about the coronavirus. For Jordana Horn Gordon, a 47-year-old mother of six, the situation has her feeling like she’s “walking on the razor edge of a cliff.” “It’s really tough

Cabania | iStock | Getty Images Plus When the U.S. government sent out urgent stimulus checks this spring, some people who had already died received money. Now it seems another ineligible group may be getting checks: foreign workers. Reports surfaced this week that a number of those recipients are now living in their home countries.

For college students heading back to campus this month, life will be decidedly different. For example, at Middlebury College in Vermont, the school’s 2,500 undergraduates are required to quarantine for two weeks before returning to school and get tested immediately upon arrival. After their Covid-19 test, they can move into their dorm room but must

OLIVIER DOULIERY | AFP | Getty Images Millions of Americans went back to work in May and June as states started reopening and a federal loan program helped ailing small businesses rehire workers.   But the economic recovery is sputtering, some states have re-imposed shutdown measures and many businesses have run out of loan funding — conditions

Getty Images Some Americans who qualified for stimulus checks received an unwelcome surprise when the $500 payments for their children under 17 were not included. Starting today, the U.S. government plans to send out the missing cash. That applies to those individuals and couples who are not required to file a tax return and used

Carlos Ponce joins other demonstrators participating in a protest asking Senators to support the continuation of unemployment benefits on July 16, 2020 in Miami Springs, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images Losing a $600 boost to weekly unemployment benefits puts 6 million people at risk of not being able to pay their bills this month,

The top source of financial stress is saving enough for a comfortable retirement, a worry that is trending upward as a result of the pandemic, according to a newly released nationwide survey by Charles Schwab of 1,000 currently employed 401(k) plan participants between the ages of 25 and 70.  The survey, conducted between May 28 and

Jovita Carranza, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, speaks as Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury secretary, listens at a House Small Business Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. Erin Scott | Getty Images The federal government is about to turn off the tap on its supply of forgivable loans for small businesses. Saturday, Aug. 8 is

Residents of Imperial County, California, line up in front of a bookkeeping shop in Calexico to fill out unemployment claim forms on July 24. Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images Millions of Americans are getting a big cut in their unemployment checks after the expiration of a policy that offered an extra $600

New Yorkers pick up free groceries at a Food Bank For New York City distribution event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on July 30. Scott Heins | Getty Images News | Getty Images Most of the relief measures delivered to Americans in the first stimulus package have dried up.  The weekly $600 federal unemployment checks

Joshua Roberts | Reuters Capitol Hill lawmakers seem to agree on one thing: Sending a second round of stimulus checks to help Americans weather the economic storm brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic is is  worthwhile. But the conditions around who gets those checks could still be subject to change, particularly when it comes to

Getty Images If you’re like many Americans, the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a financial reality check: You haven’t saved enough. A recent Bankrate survey found that 55% of Americans have regrets over their emergency savings, or lack thereof. Experts agree that having an emergency fund can help you whether you face a job loss or