When you're trying to buy a home, it's best to make a 20% down payment. Doing so allows you to avoid having to buy private mortgage insurance (PMI). PMI ensures lenders don't end up with out-of-pocket losses if they have...
The housing market saw a brief reprieve last month — thanks to lower mortgage rates and an uptick in sales listings More Americans signed on the dotted line to buy a home last month, but the factors that have tested...
Decisions, decisions. Many of the key questions you will face over your lifetime deal with money issues. Good choices can pay off handsomely over time, lifting you up the wealth ladder. Bad judgment calls can condemn you to years of...
When Daniel Penzing’s real estate agent suggested a $345,000 price tag for his Chicago condo, he balked at the number. “We told our realtor that we wanted to list our condo 5% above his suggested listing price,” Penzing says. “I...
Mortgage forbearance offered much-needed relief to millions of homeowners during the coronavirus pandemic, but now many borrowers are leaving the programs. The CARES Act established forbearance programs last year for federally backed mortgages, but private lenders and servicers often provided...
When the American Rescue Plan was signed into law in mid-March, it did a lot more than just send stimulus checks to people's bank accounts. It also boosted an essential tax credit, setting the stage for millions of families to...
For millions of Americans, there’s an unwelcome side of the return to business-as-usual after the pandemic: They’ll have to start repaying their student loans again. More than 40 million holders of federal loans are due to start making monthly instalments...
The tax levied on estates of wealthier Americans upon death brings in a relatively small amount of money — about $13.2 billion in 2019, less than one one-hundredth of what was raised through individual income taxes ($1.7 trillion). But the...
Student debt relief has helped millions of Americans during the pandemic. Since March 27, 2020, federal student loan interest rates have been set to 0% and payments have been paused. But the policy is currently set to expire on Oct....
Unclear IRS guidance regarding how long beneficiaries are required to take payouts from inherited IRAs continues to bedevil estate and retirement planning. At the heart of the matter is the IRS’s new guidance, Publication 590-B, which seems to indicate that...
Thanks to the pandemic, it's been another oddball tax season. The original deadline for filing 2020 federal income tax returns would have been April 15 but the ongoing disruptions, including a backlog at the Internal Revenue Service from last year,...
Investing nearly $20,000 per year can equal a lot of money when it comes time for you to retire decades in the future. Most people are allowed to contribute up to $19,500 to their 401(k) in 2021, but the limit...
Whether you're gearing up to apply for a mortgage or you simply want to give yourself a financial checkup, it's a good idea to check your credit report. You actually have three different reports, one for each of the three...
About 39 million families will start receiving payments from the new, refundable child tax credit on July 15, the Treasury Department announced Monday. Authorized by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Joe Biden in March,...
Did you trade or sell Bitcoin, Ether, or other digital currencies in 2020? If so, you’ll have information you need to report on your tax return. With the tax deadline rapidly approaching, TaxBit’s CPAs and tax attorneys are breaking down...
