There’s a reason that Wal-Mart, Wynn Resorts and hundreds of other companies are accelerating dividend payments into this year: Tax rates are going up. Individuals should be looking at similar steps. Here are five that make sense now.
Financial Education
Why So Many Americans Don’t Have Bank Accounts
At a time when you can pay bills online and deposit checks remotely using a cell phone, it’s amazing how many Americans don’t have bank accounts. One in nine households is without a checking account.
How Fining Bad Banks Can Fix Our Biggest Money Problems
When the government came down hard on Big Tobacco a decade ago regulators required that a portion of any penalties go toward educating youth on the dangers of smoking. Amid the big bank Libor scandal and a stream of continuing bank fines, regulators now should require that a portion of future bank penalties fund financial education. It’s …
Is Dollar-Cost Averaging Dumb?
Investing all at once beats trickling money into the market two-thirds of the time, says a report from Vanguard. But let’s not throw dollar-cost averaging under the bus just yet. What’s piece of mind worth?
With Obama Win, Wall Street Cop Stays On the Beat
This week’s election was a cliffhanger for many people, but the stakes were higher than most for the director and staff of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency, which opened its doors in July 2011, was a …
Why Retirees Can’t Absorb a Tax Hike
With the election upon us and the fiscal cliff looming, tax rates are on a lot of minds–especially retirees and those saving for retirement. A new survey shows how higher rates would curb retirement saving.
Retirees Embrace Junk Bonds at Just the Wrong Moment
Yield-starved retirees are taking a flyer on junk bonds, just as credit quality in that market takes a turn for the worse. Look out below.
By One Measure, At Least, We’re All Better Off Than We Were 4 Years Ago
Retirement account balances are up in every state since the last presidential election, a new study shows. If only those balances were up as much as the market.
Highly Educated Have Biggest Debt Problems
The federal government is suing Bank of America for a $1 billion over the bank’s pre-crisis mortgage practice known as “the hustle.” But it wasn’t just naive home buyers who fed the financial crisis. Renters and the well educated had too much debt too, and a new study concludes that college graduates are most prone to debt mismanagement.
How Saving for Retirement Might Backfire
Saving for retirement is now the top financial goal of the vast majority of people who hold a job, according to a recent T. Rowe Price survey. That’s great news. We have a savings crisis in America and we’re finally taking it …
4 Ways You Pay Too Much–and What to Do About It
By seizing on promotions and not paying attention to new products and changing markets, consumers end up in the wrong loans all the time. They spend an estimated $541 a month more than necessary on their debt repayment. Here’s …
Why College May Be Totally Free Within 10 Years
Higher education is in transition and with a coming proliferation in online courses could be totally free for many within a decade. The status quo won’t yield easily. But this is looking like a real answer to runaway student debt.
