The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage notched its biggest one-day drop in more than a year on Friday. Although mortgage rates are now at their lowest level since October, the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is still just around 6.29%, according to Mortgage News Daily — a big leap from the under…
There are two big winners for the $1.787 billion Powerball jackpot — and one could face a bigger tax bill. Winning tickets sold in Missouri and Texas matched all six numbers from Saturday night’s drawing, and those individuals will split the second-largest lottery jackpot, according to Powerball. Each ticket holder can pick between two pretax…
Roughly $198.3 million goes straight to the IRS The Powerball jackpot winner can expect a large upfront federal tax withholding. The IRS requires a mandatory 24% withholding for prizes that exceed $5,000. If you choose the $826.4 million cash option, the 24% federal tax withholding automatically reduces your winnings by $198.3 million. But the windfall…
Retirement funding looks very different depending on where you live. While the United States leans heavily on voluntary 401(k)-style savings plans, other nations rely on mandatory contributions or more traditional pensions to ensure broad coverage and steady income. Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index takes these structural differences into consideration when ranking some of the…
dowell | Moment | Getty Images With the stock market hovering near record highs, you may have large profits sitting in a taxable brokerage account. Upon selling, you could owe capital gains taxes, levied at 0%, 15% or 20%, based on taxable income, if you own the assets for more than one year. There’s also a…
Lorene Cowan, 44, thought she would own a home by now. However, in New York City, where Cowan lives and works, home prices have soared beyond reach. “I would love to buy a home. That’s the next step,” said Cowan, a business and life coach. But “in New York, the entry in became so much…
Gary Yeowell | Digitalvision | Getty Images President Donald Trump‘s “big beautiful bill” enacted trillions in tax breaks — and some residents of certain states and counties could see bigger benefits. In 2026, individual taxpayers will save an average of $3,752, according to a Tax Foundation analysis released this week. That figure falls to $2,505 in…
Alvaro Gonzalez | Moment | Getty Images If you’re eyeing a Roth conversion, President Donald Trump‘s “big beautiful bill” could make the strategy more complicated, according to financial experts. Roth conversions transfer pretax or nondeductible individual retirement account funds to a Roth IRA, which starts future tax-free growth. The trade-off is paying regular income taxes on the converted…
Sales tax free week at the Connecticut Post Mall, in Milford, Conn. Aug. 19, 2024. Connecticut Post/hearst Newspapers | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images Every year, a handful of states offer shoppers a temporary tax break to encourage spending. This year, some of those “sales tax holidays” are happening as President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to…
10’000 Hours | Digitalvision | Getty Images Criminals are increasingly pilfering the retirement and other financial accounts of older Americans via so-called “imposter” scams, the Federal Trade Commission reported Thursday. The frauds tend to go like this: Scammers conjure a fake crisis and pose as trustworthy sources — perhaps a representative for a bank or…
