Personal Finance
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She was told her mortgage was paid off. 10 years later, she received a foreclosure notice in the mail
Rose Prophete bought her home in Canarsie, Brooklyn, N.Y. in May 2005. She thought she had paid off her loans until recently, when a company approached her about a debt she thought she had settled a long time ago. The company expected Prophete to pay up over $130,000, or face foreclosure. When refinancing her mortgage…
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I’m 46 and a single mother. Should I empty my 401(k) to pay off my house? There’s $128,000 on the mortgage.
Dear Quentin, I’m a 46-year-old woman, and single mother to a 14-year-old boy. I bought a centrally located house in Miami after the housing market crash in 2010 for $167,000. The house is small but has a big lot in front of it, and I currently owe $128,000. The house is now worth about $400,000.…
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More ‘buy now pay later’ users are seeing their credit scores drop after they miss payments. But are these two things really connected?
“Buy now, pay later” is a popular payment method for younger consumers, but a growing share of BNPL users appear to be suffering negative consequences, including lower credit scores. Some 24% of buy now, pay later users said their credit scores declined in February “as a result of a missed or late BNPL payment,” according…
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‘I’m in a no-man’s-land’: I’m 75, selling my house and moving overseas. How do I invest the $350,000 from the sale? Where do I move?
Dear Quentin, I’m a 76-year-old retired United States Air Force Officer. I have no dependents. I am considering selling my house and, if I do so, I will net approximately $350,000. I have no no bills, and a credit score of around 830. Between my retirement, disability and Social Security Insurance, I have an annual……
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Americans’ personal savings just hit $1 trillion. What’s the best place to store your cash — CDs, I-bonds or online savings accounts?
People are cutting back on their spending and putting money aside for a rainy day. That’s according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce released Friday. The personal savings rate — personal savings as a percentage of disposable personal income — rose to 5.1% in March, up from 4.8% in February. And the personal…
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‘Our medical system is a mess,’ says Elizabeth Warren at hearing with three major credit bureaus
That’s Senator Elizabeth Warren in a U.S. Senate hearing Thursday with the three biggest credit reporting bureaus this week. Senators urged credit reporting bureaus to take the medical debt off consumer credit reports completely Thursday in a hearing by the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Thursday. It’s the first time the… Source
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Are inherited Roth retirement accounts subject to RMDs?
A: There is some uncertainty around inherited IRAs due to proposed rules that came out in 2022. Fortunately, with inherited Roth IRAs, there is less controversy. But we are talking about the IRS so when they chime in on whether they will make the current proposal permanent or propose additional changes is anyone’s guess. We…
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SoFi earnings: What to expect from the personal finance lender
SoFi Technologies Inc.’s diversified business has helped the company weather changes in lending trends, and those ebbs and flows will be on display again when the neobanking company reports earnings Monday morning. As the student-loan moratorium has weighed on the company’s student lending business and as rising mortgage rates have dampened interest in home loans,…
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4 steps to reduce economic anxiety
The last three years have been extremely difficult for Americans on a personal and financial level. As the pandemic finally gave way in 2022, Americans were squeezed by the worst inflation in more than 40 years as turbulent financial markets experienced one of their worst performances in history. They contended with the rising costs of…
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First Republic asset sales would pose ‘contained damage’ to residential mortgage bond market, says Goldman
Any rescue plan of First Republic Bank that includes sales of its government backed residential mortgage bonds would likely result in “contained damage,” according to Goldman Sachs. First Republic FRC has returned to the spotlight in recent days as reports of a potential rescue effort of the bank emerged, including a Bloomberg report of a…